Choosing the right writer for your marketing needs is crucial to the success of your business. As someone who’s looking for cost-effective alternatives, you probably think that the lowest priced freelance writer would naturally be the one for you.

I’m not saying that you CAN’T get powerful copywriting from a writer who charges low fees. But it’s highly likely that if you don’t do your homework, you could end up with a large volume of cheaply-written Web site content that isn’t doing diddly for your sales.

When you’re out shopping for an expert to begin communicating on behalf of your business, pay attention to the titles that writers choose for themselves, and select the right one for your purpose. You have copywriters, Web copywriters, and you have freelance writers.

What is a Copywriter?

A copywriter creates on behalf of the advertising industry. Thus, the sole purpose in everything they write is to SELL something. Copywriters advertise products and services, sure. But they also market ideas, and ideals. Thus, persuasion factors in strongly with the copywriting world — and not every freelance writer is trained in this technique.

Facts about persuasive copywriting:

It’s psychological.

It’s subjective.

It’s strategic.

It’s energizing.

Your goal is to get people to buy a product, sign up for a newsletter, and brand your business in the best possible light. So if you need help with the writing required to accomplish this, you’ll get your money’s worth from hiring an experienced ad copywriter.

But if you’re doing all of the above on the World Wide Web, then your best bet is an experienced Web copywriter who knows how to drive results.

What do Web Copywriters Know that Other Freelance Copywriters Don’t?

People who go online are generally very impatient. They won’t spend any more time at a site than they have to. While someone might take a few minutes to read a printed ad or brochure, Web surfers have a habit of clicking on a page, and then literally flitting away in seconds if whatever they just saw doesn’t please them.

(Can you imagine that? You have mere SECONDS to capture the attention of your future customers and then keep them interested).

The sole purpose of a Web copywriter is write something utterly magnetic that will draw in readers for you and then keep them captivated. To do this, your copywriter needs to have mastered the technique of packing a meaty message into a tight space, using as few words as possible.

In other words: lots of freelance writers can rattle off a bunch of fluff, and then pass that off as copy for your Web site. But if they’re missing the boat on how to be bold and succinct, then it doesn’t matter how many words you’re publishing.

A weak and flimsy message is not going to do the job it was intended for. Trust me, this is how you waste money on marketing and end up kissing your potential clients goodbye.

Good Web copywriters know that the visual presentation of the copy is just important as the words themselves. Large blocks of unbroken text turn most Web readers away. So do headlines that blend too easily with the rest of the writing.

(I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been BORED TO DEATH by some people’s marketing headlines.)

Finally — good Web copywriters are aware of the importance of SEO — or search engine optimized content. SEO helps your Web site get discovered by people who use search engines to locate what they need. Search engine optimized copy needn’t sound like it was written by a robot. You also don’t have to destroy the grammatical correctness or flow in your prose, to create copy that can be found on the engines.

The more your Web copywriter is familiar with Web page building techniques, and the more they are aware of the strategy that goes into creating a single page of optimized content — the better chance you stand of having them help your Web site become an authority in your niche and ALSO convert sales.

In other words: finding a Web copywriter who understands how to format Web copy AND pack a powerful message is vital to your site being read by Web surfers.

So, what’s a Freelance Writer, then?

Most freelance writers serve as general practitioners. They write articles, feature pieces, press releases, marketing copy and even technical copy. Some are great at the grammar part, but completely miss the “soft sell.”

(Soft sell has to do with subtle persuasion that you manage to slip in as you’re sharing information with your readers. Only the best Web copywriters know how to tuck this into just the right spots so readers “get the effect” without really noticing what you just did to them.)

There are freelance writers who specialize in writing Web copy, while others stick to print marketing. And there are also people who call themselves Web copywriters who actually have no idea what they’re doing!

(In other words: there are a lot of hacks out there. So watch out!)

What’s best for your business?

Obviously, if you’re hoping to do any kind of selling or persuasion online, then you need to find a good Web copywriter. With more and more Web-based businesses entering the fold everyday, competition is fierce. Your company needs to become highly visible and take an authoritative stance — and that’s what a Web copywriter with real talent can help you accomplish.

Remember, not all writers are created equal. The success of your online business hinges on the selling strategies you use. Select the right copywriter for the job, and begin to know real profit.

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First time sending out a postcard campaign? Chances are, you’re feeling overwhelmed and unsure — and that’s okay. Even experienced marketers wonder if their postcards will be effective.

Is the message right? Are we sending it to the correct prospects? Will anyone read it? As questions like these run through your mind, quell the uncertainties by following this advice.

Remember the reasons why direct mail postcard campaigns work: Postcards help generate sales leads, promote special offers, introduce a new product or service, maintain connections with existing customers, and generate new traffic to your Web site.

Stick with just one idea and keep the message simple. Are you attempting to lure new customers? Then use a coupon or special offer. Don’t confuse prospects by also introducing a new product. You can save this idea for the next postcard in your ongoing direct mail campaign.

Target the best prospects. A new vet in town would want to send postcards to customers of the local pet-grooming salon — not to people who called the dog catcher in the past month. Know your target audience and direct the message to them. And this doesn’t always have to involve expensive focus group research. Sometimes using common sense helps narrow the target audience.

Keep it clean. There’s always a problem with excessive clutter on a postcard — too much going on, and the message is lost. Pictures grab attention, but use them sparingly — to enhance your point, not detract from it. Worse yet, if the images don’t match the message, the audience will feel confused.

Avoid sounding pedantic or condescending. Your postcard copy should be warm and appealing so when potential customers see it, they feel like you might be someone they want on their team.

Let’s use the example idea of drawing new customers to the local vet’s office.

2 Paws Up for Dr. Beam… and 10% off Your First Vet Visit!

Give your dog or cat the love and care he deserves at Dr. Beam’s Veterinary Clinic. Save 10% on a first-time visit!

Dr. Beam is committed to the health and well being of animals. From routine checkups to teeth cleaning, you can count on our dedicated staff to help your pet live a long, healthy life.

New patients enjoy 10% off! Call today. 555-555-5555.

Notice that in the above copy, we’ve repeated Dr. Beam’s name several times. This is a common advertising technique to help your brand stick in the mind of consumers. The copy is straightforward, informative, yet also sends a positive message which is extremely important.

After you’ve settled on the message and images, make sure to proofread your postcard copy. It’s always good to have a fresh set of eyes on your work — so let a colleague review it if you fear you’re missing errors. Typos and misspellings cause potential customers to doubt the company.

Finally, your postcard is useless without the proper contact information. Include address, phone number, Web site, e-mail address, and business hours so the audience knows how and when it can contact your business.

If you follow this simple advice, your first postcard campaign is sure to be a raging success! And as you continue with your postcard marketing, you can be sure that you’ll grow more confident in your ability to create a message that hits home and drives business.

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If you’re in the business world — any industry, any place — you’ve probably heard the term “elevator speech.” An elevator speech is a short, 30-second-or-less pitch that you’d present to someone who you’re meeting professionally for the first time. It’s kind of like your own commercial — you want to sum up what you do and why they need it, in as few words as possible.

Coin your own catch phrase.

The key to an elevator pitch is grabbing the listener’s attention. In one or two lines, you want to intrigue them enough to ask you questions and to learn more about your business. Many business owners have a tag line for their business ads. You need a tag line for your elevator speech, too.

For example, evaluate the differences between these two elevator speeches:

“Hi, my name is Zoe Smith and I’m an executive recruiter.”

Yawn.

“Hi, my name is Zoe Smith. I help companies become more profitable by matching them up with amazing talent.”

This is much better because it creatively defines exactly what Zoe does without putting a boring title to it that really doesn’t mean anything to the listener. Remember, this is your 15 seconds of fame so make it count. Describe what you do in a way that shows how it benefits the person who is listening to your speech. If you don’t grab them in the first 15-30 seconds, then they may be lost to your forever. And even if the person you are speaking to doesn’t need your product or service, she may know someone who does.

Now you’re probably wondering how in the world you’re supposed to accomplish this for yourself in 15-30 seconds. It’s not as difficult as it may seem if you follow these steps.

How to craft an effective elevator speech:

1. Make a list. Take a piece of paper or sit in front of your computer and create a two-column list. In one column, write down what your company provides or offers. Maybe you sell cosmetics or maybe you recruit employees. Whatever you, do write in the first column. Use the second column to describe how what you do benefits the buyers of your product or service. A cosmetics company benefits its users by making them beautiful. A recruiter finds talent that helps companies grow and turn a profit.

2. Write your opener. Just like a comedian opens his act with a gut-buster of a joke, you want to start your elevator speech with an attention grabber. A cosmetics representative who says, Hi, I’m Sue and I make people beautiful,” is probably going to elicit the response, “How do you do that?” Sue has just opened up the door to a more detailed conversation. She has intrigued her listener enough to want to hear more.
3. Practice makes perfect. Finally, your elevator speech should be something you memorize. It should be said like it is the first time you’ve said it, even if it is the thousandth time it has rolled off your tongue. This means you have to practice and perfect your elevator speech. Stand in front of a mirror and practice saying it to yourself. Record it and listen to how you sound. Practice it in front of colleagues, family members, or a friend who will give you honest feedback. Make changes and adjustments to your speech as needed.

   If you run through these three steps, the next time you’re out networking, your elevator speech will come out smoothly and naturally… and, hopefully, persuade the client to say, “That’s interesting. I want to talk with you some more about this. Do you have your calendar so we can schedule an appointment?” The words you’ve been waiting to hear!

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When we last left Yahoo!, Jerry Yang (CEO) and the rest of the board had just spurned Microsoft’s $44.6 billion takeover bid for the supposedly greener pastures of potential deals with AOL, News Corporation, and/or Google. The rejection of Microsoft’s bid also put the current board on a collision course with Carl Icahn in what looked to be a battle for control of Yahoo!’s board of directors.

Trials and Tribulations

After spending millions to buy 68.7 million shares of Yahoo!, Icahn was set to nominate his own slate of directors for Yahoo’s board at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Icahn would use Yahoo! shareholders’ fury over the botched Microsoft deal to win votes for his board nominees and take over Yahoo!’s board. Yahoo! made a preemptive strike however and managed to appease Icahn by granting him three seats on Yahoo!’s board of directors in July. But what of the purported deals with AOL, News Corp, and Google?

Well, to date, the AOL and News Corp deals never materialized, at least publicly. However, Google and Yahoo! agreed to a partnership whereby Google would deliver ads on Yahoo!’s network. The kicker in the deal was that Google would pay Yahoo! more than Yahoo! could make with its own ads, meaning Google was essentially buying market share from Yahoo!.

This deal would be investigated by the U.S. Justice Department and opposed by Microsoft and online advertisers, who were arguing that the deal would be anticompetitive and result in higher ad prices. In the end, Google and Yahoo! were unable to appease Justice Department investigators by offering to cap the number of ads that would be displayed on Yahoo!’s network and Google walked away from the deal rather than fight a lengthy legal battle.

Just before Google walked away from the deal, Yahoo! reported 3rd quarter earnings. Operating income decreased 53% and revenues were virtually flat compared to the same quarter in 2007. In addition, Yahoo! announced it was laying off 1,500 employees as part of its efforts to cut costs. All told, the Microsoft bid, Icahn ordeal, and proposed Google partnership cost Yahoo! $73 million in fees for outside advisors according to a filing with the SEC.

In the wake of this double-whammy, Yahoo’s stock tumbled to around $10 per share from its 52-week high of $30.25, which it reached when Microsoft was attempting to acquire the company. Yahoo’s share of the search market also continued to decline, falling to 20% in September compared to 22.9% a year ago, according to comScore. What is Yahoo! to do? In a word, grovel.

“To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo,” Yang said at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco, the Associated Press reports.

Still?!

To which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer replied, “We made an offer, we made another offer, and it was clear that Yahoo didn’t want to sell the business to us and we moved on. We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly. They turned us down at $33 a share.”

Could Ballmer be using his public comments to further drive down the value of Yahoo!’s stock before making another bid? Or is he stating his actual beliefs on the matter and only interested in “some kind of partnership around search?” Only time will tell, but it certainly seems like Microsoft is moving forward with new strategies for challenging Google.

Microsoft Moves On

Several of these strategies include new or extended partnerships. One such extended partnership is with long-standing Microsoft partner Hewlett-Packard, where Microsoft will install its Live Search toolbar on all HP computers in North America starting in January 2009.

Microsoft is also negotiating with Verizon to become the default search provider on the company’s cell phones, according to the Wall Street Journal. Though the terms of the deal are still being discussed, early indications are that the two companies would share ad revenue generated from Web searches made on Verizon cell phones.

Yahoo!’s Future

What does Yahoo! do to secure its future as a viable Internet property going forward? Well, it’s changing leaders for one. In mid-November, Yahoo! announced Yang would be returning to his post as Chief Yahoo! as soon as the company found a new CEO. In addition, over the last few months, Yahoo! has rolled out a number of initiatives, releasing its own analytics package (similar to Google Analytics), updating the design of Yahoo! News, launching the APT (formerly AMP!) digital advertising platform, and announcing the Yahoo! Open Strategy, which aims to make Yahoo! programs open source.

While the change in leadership and these initiatives seem like steps in the right direction, we believe Yahoo! will need to pick a new CEO that brings fresh strategic ideas to the table and the company will need to develop significant proprietary innovations in search technology that convince users to switch back to Yahoo! for Web searches. Yahoo! will probably need partners in this turnaround effort too. Microsoft is open to a partnership and combining search algorithm, mail, and instant messenger research efforts would save both companies substantial amounts of money. Such a partnership could also make Yahoo! the default search provider in Internet Explorer, Office, and other Microsoft software products and Web properties. Whatever course Yahoo! chooses, hopefully it won’t be too little, too late.

(C) Medium Blue 2008

About the Authors

Brian Cooper is the director of online public relations at Medium Blue, where he promotes the company’s clients on the Internet. He has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a MBA in management from Georgia State University where he graduated summa cum laude.

Scott Buresh is the founder and CEO of Medium Blue, which was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld in 2006 and 2007. Scott’s articles have appeared in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. He was also a contributor to The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Atlantic, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine optimization company with local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, DS Waters, and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

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While marketing and advertising are not exact sciences, there are methods to creating good advertising pieces, and more importantly, increasing your sales. One such method is the AIDA Method. AIDA stands for attention, interest, desire, and action. It means approaching your copywriting and ad layout in a way that persuades the reader that they want what you have to offer.

Putting the AIDA Method in place

So, you’re ready to create your newspaper ad or online banner ad. Problem is, instead of creating, you’re just sitting there staring at a blank page. It’s not necessarily writer’s block. It’s more about knowing where to start. The answer is you have to start at the beginning.

ATTENTION:

The first step in the AIDA Method is grabbing the reader’s attention. Since the first line of any good ad is a headline, this is where you want to start. You need to write an eye-catching, attention grabbing, witty, funny, or interesting headline. If you get them with the headline, then you are almost guaranteed they will read the rest of your ad. This can make writing a headline difficult, so many copywriters work on the rest of the copy first and write the headline last. This gives you time to formulate a great headline, and a terrific headline may pop into your head as you are writing.

Adding a benefit to your headline ensures that you hit your readers hard from the get-go. Announce a special discount. Offer solutions to a problem they have. Entice them with an emotional appeal. All great ways to catch the eye of your target market and “hook” people into reading.

Here are some bad headlines turned into good headlines:

Bad headline: Copywriting Tips for Beginners

Good headline: 5 Easy Ways to Write Copy That Sells

Bad Headline: Environmental Tips for Homeowners

Good Headline: 7 Simple Ways to Make Your Home Eco-chic

Bad Headline: Buy Your Holiday Cards Now

Good headline: Sale into September with Holiday Card Savings

Bad headline: Business Management 101

Good headline: Affordable and Effective Ways to Increase Revenue

INTEREST:

Next step: use the body of your copy to talk about a problem or challenge your reader is facing. For example, if your product is baby gates, then you want to bring up to Mom how nervous she always feels with baby toddling around near the stairs or by the hot stove. Spend a few paragraphs warming up your prospects by discussing their issues at length. Always use the second person for this part - meaning, “you” and “you’re — just like you’re talking privately with friend.

DESIRE:

Once you’ve got the reader identifying with the problem, it’s time to churn their desire. Talk about how the product or service can help them, solve their problem, or meet their need. Play on emotions here. “You’ll rest easy with our safety gates, knowing that Baby is free to explore his surroundings while remaining out of harm’s way.”

According to advertising legend David Ogilvy, these are some of the best persuasive words to use in your copy because they work:

suddenly
now
announcing
introducing
improvement
amazing
sensational
remarkable
revolutionary
startling
hurry
miracle
magic
offer
quick
easy
wanted
challenge
compare
startling
bargain

ACTION:

Okay: so your headline grabbed the reader. They want and need your product or service and now they’d like to know how to get it. Tell them and give them a couple of options. It’s ime for “Action” - the call to action, that is. “Buy now!” “Call now!” “Enter to win.”

Provide a phone number, a Web site, a location address–a couple of ways they can get what they want. If you only give one choice then you may lose some of your customers. While some do not mind picking up the phone, others just want to get online and order it without ever having to speak to someone.

How AIDA increases sales:

The AIDA method works because it’s an easy-to-follow formula that can keep you on track as you write your ad copy. Strong copy does a great job of tugging on emotional strings - and that’s how you lead people through the various mental states that get the sale.

The AIDA Method specifically works for writing ad copy, but some of the same principles apply when copywriting for other types of collateral like press releases, articles, brochures, email blasts, and Web site copy.

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Have you ever read an article or advertisement and when you finish it, you say to yourself, “What the heck did I just read?” For the copywriter or advertising agency, this means failure. The last thing you want to do when writing copy is confuse your reader. Mixed messages and jumbled meanings cause readers to tune out and turn off. When that happens, you lose the sale or fail to reach the goal.

There are six very simple ways that you can write copy and keep your reader engaged rather than leaving them in a state of total confusion.

Clarify.

Clear copy is about saying what you mean and meaning what you say. When you write, try to avoid adding extraneous information that may contradict what you said in the last sentence, or lead readers down irrelevant side paths.

Here’s a 3-step routine you can follow to help you with clarity:

1. Make your statement.
2. Add two or three supporting facts.
3. Provide examples to help illustrate your supporting facts.

Clarity is about painting a picture that readers can see in their heads and instantly understand.

Avoid Jargon.

Unless you’re writing a technical journal, stick to everyday language that any 8^th grader can understand. This doesn’t mean condescend to the reader. It just means that complicated words, technical terms, acronyms, or industry jargon can confuse people because this “inside language” does not translate to the average mind.

Get to the Point.

Your main idea should be in the first, or at the latest, second paragraph. Especially if you’re writing for the Web — you need to hurry it up and finish your thought before reader becomes distracted and moves on to something else. Additionally, we talked about painting pictures in the reader’s mind. While this is important, we don’t want to get carried away. Use imagery in your writing, but do it sparingly.

Focus and be Relevant.

“Plump up” your copy with examples that relate to the topic or industry — but try not to go off on side tangents. For example, if you’re writing an article about how a certain cleaning product affects dogs, then don’t launch into how certain dog foods may also harm your pet. The dog food information, while it may indeed be true, would work better in an article about harmful ingredients in dog food. (It would seem like this was obvious… but you wouldn’t believe how, when left to their own devices, amateur writers tend to divert from the subject at hand.)

Position Your Copy.

Positioning your copy shows why whatever is being written is important to the reader. It weaves the benefits or the “what’s in it for me” answer into the copy so that the reader is hooked on what you’re saying. This is true for article copy, press release copy, ad copy, and so forth. If you don’t show why this information is beneficial, then whatever goal you are trying to accomplish — get them to read your article, get them to buy your product, get them to visit your Web site — vanishes.

Make it Memorable.

If your readers read the copy and forget everything you said one second later, then your copy has failed to do the job it was meant to do. The reader needs to be able to remember the key points of the article, the ad, or whatever you’ve written. Think of a product jingle or a company tagline. Again, examples, and “picture painting” help with mental recall.

By following these six key points, you can create copy that engages the reader and helps them to understand the points you’re trying to get across. When readers understand you, everybody wins.

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You just finished writing an email newsletter issue that you’re proud to blast out to all of your subscribers. You’ve included a compelling interview with an industry expert, a how-to article to help readers drive more business, and a calendar of events this month that will blow their minds. Problem is, you can’t seem to get subscribers to click and open!

How can you increase your open rate? This is a problem that perplexes many newsletter publishers. If you really want to increase your open rate, work on your subject lines.

Wake ‘Em Up, Shake Em Up.

Have you ever come across an email subject line so intriguing that you simply can’t tear your eyes away from it? What do you do - you open it immediately, of course!

With the huge amount of emails we get slammed with on a daily basis, people are just itching to hit that delete key - so don’t let your tired old, “seen this before” subject line drive them to the edge.

Writing a subject line is just like writing a headline for an article or an advertisement. You want to grab the attention of the reader right away. Think juicy headline, like those head candy articles you find on MSN.com that you just can’t resist no matter how hard you try.

Spam-Proof It.

Subject lines and email content can easily push a great email newsletter right into the spam folder of the recipient. Make sure this doesn’t happen to your newsletter. By decreasing the chance of your newsletter being flagged as spam, you’re also increasing the likelihood that the recipient will open it. Why? Simple - it will land directly in their inbox - someplace where they’re checking frequently for new information to arrive.

First, make sure that your subject line is 50 characters or less. Spam filters eat hefty subject lines for lunch. They also enjoy munching on subject lines that include colons– for example, It’s almost here: Web site with enhanced features.

Once you write your subject lines and newsletter copy, you can run the email through a spam checker program. The free spam checker programs are just as effective as those fancy, expensive ones. Try the Lyris spam checker or run your subject lines and copy through the Site Build It! spam checker. The system will search for those “red flag” words like “FREE” and then send you your total spam score, along with suggestions for tweaking either the subject line or other items in the email. When you’re through removing the spam bait, do another check and your score should be considerably lower.

Make it Relevant.

Readers open email newsletters whose subject lines are relevant to them and their needs. Here are some examples of good subject lines and how they were improved to help achieve a higher open rate.

Good: Look for our new and improved member Web site coming soon

Better: It’s almost here! Web site with enhanced features

Good: Find out how to increase your business

Better: Increase your business. Work smarter, not harder.

Split Test Your Subject Lines.

Try this: write two subject lines for the same email newsletter. Send half of your list the newsletter using one subject line. Send the other half of your list the newsletter with the other subject line. See if one subject line gets a better open rate than the other one. You’ll need to run this test a couple of times to help you determine which elements of the subject line might be increasing the open rate. Once you pinpoint what works, try to mimic this when you send out your next email newsletter.

Subject lines can have a drastic impact on your email newsletter open rate. By following a few simple rules, and taking a few extra steps, you can greatly expand your marketing reach and attract more business!

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Even with the cookie-type behavioral advertising technology, there was a way for users to prevent these ads from targeting them. They could set their machines not to accept any cookies at all by setting their browser security setting to high. This solved the privacy issue, although many Web sites would (intentionally or not) render improperly with this setting on.

In recent news on the behavioral advertising technology front, Microsoft announced that its newest Internet Explorer, version 8, would have a mode called “InPrivate Blocking” that would prevent cookies from being placed on any machine. At first glance, it would seem that either:

A. Microsoft is genuinely concerned about online privacy, to the point that the company would allow users to block ads that come from the Microsoft network as well, or

B. Microsoft realized that the paltry share of the ad serving market that it currently controls is not as important as inflicting serious damage to Google, which owns a much more significant slice of the online advertising pie (in actuality, at this point, Google’s “slice” looks more like Pac-Man, but I digress).

Whatever happens with this flavor of behavioral advertising, there was recently a new type of advertising technology that raised some serious eyebrows, and this one could have been the most nefarious of all.

This latest behavioral advertising technology, brought to the surface by a company called NebuAd, is aimed at tracking user behavior at the ISP level. In other words, there ain’t really a whole lot you can do about it. You need your ISP to get online, so your ISP has access to the information that you are accessing when you are online. They don’t need no stinkin’ cookies, so you can erase them to your heart’s content and they’ll happily keep tracking along.

For the unscrupulous ISP, this is a no-brainer. You allow NebuAd to install its platform at your service hub and then you split the profits. And this is exactly what some of the smaller firms did in several “trials” of the behavioral advertising technology in the U.S.

Of course, there is a caveat - even a firm with cash flow problems and without an iota of ethics would probably want to create an opt-out system before unleashing this behavioral advertising technology platform on its users (you know, the people that already pay them and probably assume privacy). However, there’s something very interesting about how these behavioral advertising trials were done - in just about every case, the ISP seemed interested in keeping the opt-out information as obscure as possible from its users. According to Anick Jesdanun from the AP (1):

1. CenturyTel Inc. rolled out the platform to 20,000 of its subscribers. To inform them of the new advertising technology, the company sent an email letting these subscribers know only that the privacy policy had been updated and had added a paragraph about NebuAd to the privacy policy. 85 out of 20,000 opted out.

2. Embarq Corp. rolled out the platform to 26,000 of its paid subscribers. Embarq didn’t bother sending any emails to its subscribers; the company merely put a general notice within its privacy notice online. A whopping total of 15 out of the 26,000 people opted out.
3. WideOpenWest (or WOW) rolled out the NebuAd platform on 330,000 customers. The only notification before the fact was a posting on the company’s Web site, along with a reminder in billing statements to review privacy policies online. They did email the 330,000 customers to tell them about the advertising technology trial - after it had concluded. 3,355 people opted out, but that figure may be inflated, because they aren’t sure how many came from a single customer. WOW indeed.
4. Bresnan Communications, LLC, tried the platform on 6,000 of its customers. Unlike the other three providers above, the company did send an email directly to its users about the trial itself (although I have no idea how it was presented and whether the info was buried in a footer somewhere) and posted notices on its Web site. 18 people opted out.

There were two other participants in the trial - Cable One, Inc. and Knology, Inc. For the purposes of my numbers below, I’ve left them out - not because they don’t support the general theory, but because they don’t fit the parameters. Knology won’t reveal how many customers were involved and how many opted out, although the company did post a notice on its Web site. Cable One, Inc. ran the test on 14,000 customers, but did not give them the chance to opt out.

To sum this up, the total number of “participants” of the four providers for which we have sufficient data was 382,000, and the number that opted out was 3,473 (which may be inflated due to the WOW factor, but let’s leave that alone). The total percentage of opt-outs was less than one percent. I don’t know about you, but I’m guessing that the number of opt-outs would have been much higher if each of these providers had sent a piece of direct mail for the sole purpose of informing the subscribers that this type of behavioral advertising technology tracking method was going to take place and that they needed to opt out at such-and-such address. Better yet, they needed to opt-in at such-and-such address (but I’m guessing that would doom the trial from the beginning).

All testing for behavioral advertising technology at this stage has been halted - it would appear because the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee has decided to look into the matter. Which I guess is fortunate, at least in the short term, for Google, Yahoo, and other big players in the search world. If anyone is going to be force-feeding you behavioral advertising and other targeted ads without your explicit consent, it’s going to be them, not some snot-nosed little start-up.

Recently, the CEO of NebuAd announced his departure, and the company has announced plans to move forward with a more “traditional” advertising technology model (probably similar to the cookie-based platforms we’re already used to worrying about). However, another company in Europe named Phorm has been having success with a similar behavioral advertising technology business model (ISP-based), but EU regulators are starting to jump into the fray.

If I had to guess, I would say that in the future any type of behavioral advertising technology on the ISP level will have to be done on a strict opt-in basis, meaning that the person has taken an action that shows that he agrees with the process. Will there be a company that emerges that is willing to provide free or very cheap broadband to people who are willing to be targeted at the ISP level? Time will tell.

Sources

1. Article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_o…

(C) Medium Blue 2008

About the Author

Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing, which was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world in 2006 and 2007 by PromotionWorld. Scott has contributed content to many publications including The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Atlantic, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, WebProNews, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, DS Waters, and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

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Please bear with me as I go through a brief history of basic online advertising. The evolution of targeted online advertising is interesting, because I believe the perceived harmlessness of early advertising technology and targeting tactics lulled many people into a sense of complacency or perhaps even false security.

In the beginning of targeted online advertising, there were banner ads. As many people recall, these were supposed to drive the Internet marketing industry in its infancy. Scads of publishers paid scads of money based on a CPI (cost per impression) model or simply paid huge dollars for banner ads and other targeted online advertising on well-trafficked sites.

Then something crazy happened - nothing. It turns out that the banner advertising technology on the Internet was not the magic bullet it was purported to be. The old way of making money based on providing content (the way magazines and newspapers ran advertising) just didn’t seem to work in this context.

This new advertising technology was part of the reason for the collapse of the dot-bomb era. All the talk was about “eyeballs,” “stickiness,” “bleeding edge,” “cradle to grave,” and several other terms that, in retrospect, would have sounded more at home in a Wes Craven movie than in an emerging industry. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of business models depended on a traditional marketing strategy working more or less the same as it always had when introduced into a non-traditional setting.

All the while, one company, originally called GoTo, then Overture, and finally bought by Yahoo!, actually formulated a targeted online advertising system that worked - keyword advertising. Companies could bid on a per-click basis for certain key terms, which sent valuable traffic to its Web site.

Obviously, the improvement in advertising technology had to do with the model itself, which was perpetuated on relevance. By only bidding on keyphrases that you wanted, you could only pay for visitors who had already shown an interest in your products or services. This targeted online advertising model was soon copied by Google, who tweaked it and made it better.

There were not many raised eyebrows at this time, in terms of privacy. After all, the user was the one entering the query, and nobody suspected at the time that search engines might one day actually create individual profiles on users. We were all just really enjoying “having the information at our fingertips” without the potential hazards of ink stains and paper cuts that traditional research required.

Google then took a similar idea a step further. Instead of just serving up targeted online advertising on its home page, the company created a content distribution network called AdSense. In this program, owners of Web sites could sign up to have the ads placed on their sites. Google would then use a “contextual” logic to determine which ads to place where. In other words, Google would “read” the content on a page and then serve up targeted online advertising in the area provided by the site owner that was relevant to the content.

There were a few missteps with this new advertising technology (one classic example was when the online version of the NY Post ran a story in 2004 about a murder victim whose body parts had been packed into a suitcase. Running alongside the story was an ad that Google served up for Samsonite Luggage). Yet this targeted online advertising service also caught on, with nary a cry from privacy people. After all, you don’t have to visit the sites. And the site owners don’t have to sign you up for the service, right?

Suddenly, Gmail was offered and that raised some eyebrows. Gmail, of course, is Google’s free email-based platform. Gmail gave people an (at that time) unprecedented 1 gigabyte of email space (Yahoo!, if memory serves, offered 4 megs for free email accounts and charged people for more memory). The only caveat - Gmail would use a similar advertising technology platform as AdSense, but it would decide which ads to serve up by reading through your emails.

Well, this new approach to advertising technology creeped some people out, and privacy advocates were a bit more vocal about using targeted online advertising by parsing through people’s emails. A California lawmaker tried to introduce some legislation preventing the practice. International privacy groups chimed in with their own concerns. In the end, however, the fact remained that one had to sign up for a Gmail account and everyone that did was (presumably) aware of how the service worked before they did sign up. So it was an opt-in system - If you didn’t want Google parsing through your email and serving up relevant, targeted online advertising, you didn’t have to use the service.

So there we all were, happily surfing away, not a care in the world. What most of us didn’t realize was that enough free cookies were being distributed to each of us to turn the otherwise docile Keebler elves into tree-dwelling Mafioso erroneously plotting a turf war.

These cookies, of course, are the ones that Web sites place on your computer when you visit - little packets of information that record your visit, and sometimes, your activity there. Certainly, there’s a legitimate reason for this. When you return to a Web site, it can help if it remembers your last visit and you can pick up where you left off. Assume, for example, that you were making multiple purchases from an e-commerce site and had a bunch of stuff in your shopping cart but were forced to abandon the site before completion. It’s nice to go back and pick up where you left off without having to do it all over again.

Digital advertisers, however, saw another opportunity for targeted online advertising. They invented advertising technology that would scour through the cookies on your personal machine, figure out what you liked and disliked by looking at the types of sites you went to, and then feed up highly targeted online advertising based upon your browsing history. These companies included aQuantive, DoubleClick, ValueClick, and others. Of the companies I mentioned, only ValueClick is still independent. Google snapped up DoubleClick, while Microsoft snapped up aQuantive. Clearly, these companies believe in the future of Internet advertising technology and also believe in the long-term legality of this technology.

Now some real red flags were raised. I’ve written about this advertising technology before, so I’m not going to go over it all again here. Suffice to say that some government regulators were pretty skeptical about this new form of advertising technology and there have been numerous suggestions for regulation. The lack of uproar from the public, however, has not really created any backlash for the companies in question. It could be because there is widespread ignorance about Internet advertising technology (and I believe there is, based on conversations with people of average Internet experience). Perhaps a part of it is also that privacy has been eroding on the Internet one incremental step at a time.

To be continued in part two…

(C) Medium Blue 2008

About the Author

Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing, which was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world in 2006 and 2007 by PromotionWorld. Scott has contributed content to many publications including The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Atlantic, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, WebProNews, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, DS Waters, and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

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Many think of a Web site as an electronic brochure, and in many ways it is. A Web site, however, keeps going where a brochure leaves off. This response often leads to the question, “Well, how different should my brochure be from my Web site then?” There are ways that your brochure should be similar to your Web site, but there are many more ways that your Web site should be different from your brochure. It is also important to consider who will receive your brochure and who will be visiting your Web site. Find out what these differences and similarities are-keep reading.

A brochure is typically a lead-in.

First, focus on the purpose of a brochure. A brochure is a brief overview of your company and what it offers–a brief overview that intrigues readers enough to act by picking up the phone, by going to your Web site, or by walking into your store location for more information or to buy what you are selling. You control the action you want them to take by stating it in the brochure-the call to action portion. Since most brochures are an 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper folded two or three times, there is no way possible to fit everything your company has to offer in it. This is where your Web site comes in handy.

A Web site is more than a brochure.

A Web site picks up where your brochure leaves off because a Web site provides you more room to connect with the reader and get them to buy. While a brochure explains certain aspects of your company and how what you are offering benefits the client, your Web site can expand on these details-providing even more information. A Web site can also be a form of purchase since it allows visitors to buy instantly from your online store.

Brochures should mimic your Web site and vice versa.

That being said, your brochure and your Web site should mimic each other. The tone you use when writing your brochure should be the same as that represented on your Web site. The look and feel of the brochure should also be the look and feel readers experience when they visit your Web site. For example, if you use a friendly tone in your brochure, this same friendly tone should be felt when visiting your Web site. If your brochure is very formal and traditional, then the Web site also should have this same look.

Your brochure and Web site should complement each other.
When you are creating your brochure and Web site, the copy should not be exactly the same on both. While you may have a client that only sees one of your brochures or only sees your Web site, you may also have many clients that read both. While the tone, look, and feel of your brochure and Web site should be the same, the copy should not be a carbon copy. And the content of each may be altered by the order in which the piece is read.

The order of exposure:

It is also important to consider at what point in the transaction you give potential customers the brochure. For example, if you attend tradeshows and hand out your brochure to visitors to your table, then you are introducing the brochure at the beginning of a relationship. On the other hand, if you request that visitors to your Web site complete and submit a form to receive more information, and then mail your brochure to them, the brochure is really the second piece of exposure for clients. Which order the brochure takes may affect the way you word the brochure and the Web site.

In many ways your brochure and Web site content should be similar, but there ways that these pieces should differ from each other. How you word the brochure and the Web site also depends on which order the pieces are read. Keep these factors in mind when writing the copy for your brochure and your Web site.

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A Web site selling wholesale breakfast foods that are quick and easy features a picture of a smiling Caucasian woman and her two Caucasian children. To some this may be the perfect representation of what an all-American family stands for, but in a country where this is not the only “all-American” family, is the messaging turning off customers? While some products or services were created for a certain niche of the market, many products have the ability to stretch across several audiences, so how can you rework your existing content to make sure that the right message reaches the right audiences?

Be cognizant of the differences

The first step in accomplishing this goal is to be aware of what the differences in your audiences are. Based on this information, you can easily determine how you can rework your content. For example, Wachovia bank has a marketing campaign about how customers should expect more out of their bank — and of course how it meets these expectations. Their campaigns run in English and in Spanish. The wording is exactly the same for both campaigns (except the Spanish campaigns are written in Spanish). The difference is in the visual representation. The English campaigns show Caucasians, African Americans, or Asians, while the Spanish ads use Hispanic subjects.

It may be as simple as translating the message and using a visual representation that your audience can relate to that allows to you to reach multiple audiences.

Keep it simple, stupid (KISS)

One of the key marketing concepts applies when marketing over a wide range of audiences. The last thing you want to do is alienate a portion of your audience by speaking over their heads. When you are creating content for your brochures, Web sites, or other marketing material keep it as basic and simple as you can. Use common words instead of jargon. Use pictures with ethnic diversity represented. So if you know, or if you suspect, that your audience is diverse, be inclusive of all your audiences when you are creating content. This may require that you consult with people who fall in these audiences because your perspective may be different from those who represent the audience you are targeting.

For example, a financial services company has the same Web site copy for all of its audiences. Its pictures include groups with men and women of various ethnicities. Instead of translating and creating different versions for different audiences, they have covered all of their audiences in one shot.

Create different versions

You may have seen in firsthand. You go to a Web site and you see a little link at the top that says something in a different language. When you click on it out of curiosity, you see that the whole Web site switches over to a foreign language. This is a company responding to the fact that they have many different audiences. A German or Latino family may be just as interested as an English speaking person to buy your product, so do you really want to alienate them and lose their business because they can’t read your Web site? The answer here is no and if it all it takes is some minor tweaking and translating copy, then spend the money or take the time to do it.

It may not be a cultural marketing snafu either. It may be a gender snafu. While there are products that are specifically used by certain genders, there are also products that are gender neutral. But if all of your campaigns and marketing materials feature women, are you alienating your male audiences? Maybe. So when thinking of your audiences, be sure to think of all of the variations including gender, age, ethnicity, income brackets, etc.

So do you have to run out and create a completely different brand, mission, Web site, or brochure for each audience you market or sell to? Not necessarily, but you do need to be aware of the differences between your audiences before making this decision. It may be as simple as changing out a few pictures on your Web site. It may be as simple as rewording your copy to make it easy to understand by native speakers and non-native speakers of English. Knowing your audience is the first step to determining how you can tweak the content you already have to get their attention.

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Your company brand is an extension of your company’s mission and values. Your company exists for a specific purpose — whether it’s to provide environmentally friendly cleaning products or a healthy meal for families. Your brand is the visual concept and reinforcement of your mission and values. Now is the time to evaluate what your company mission and values are.

Company mission

Disney’s is to “make people happy.” Boeing’s is “to push the leading edge of aviation, taking huge challenges doing what others cannot do.” 3M’s is “to solve unsolved problems innovatively.” What is your company’s mission? First, it’s important to understand what a mission is and what it represents for your company. Then you’ll be able to better determine what your company mission is, or what it should be. Since the mission can act as a strong marketing and branding tool for clients, establishing an effective mission is imperative to your company’s success.

A mission statement is a written representation of a company’s goals and purpose. It’s undisputable that Disney succeeds in making people happy or that 3M uses innovative products to solve problems. A mission statement helps to give your company direction because it helps employees, vendors, and customers to remain focused on what your company offers.

4 steps to creating a mission statement

In four easy steps, you can create a meaningful mission statement for your company and solidify your brand position.

1. Pick a focus. The first thing you need to decide when creating a mission is its focus or theme. It has to be easy to understand and simply stated. Disney wants to make people happy and they carry through on this mission with whimsical character names, and an entire kingdom built on fantasy. Your focus may be more down to earth, like saving the environment one cleaning product at a time.

2. Communicate your mission and act on it. Creating a mission is not just about putting it down on paper. It’s about carrying through on your actions — internally and externally. If your mission says you are going to provide environmentally safe cleaning products to help save the environment and then a harmful chemical is found in the mixture of a product, then you are not acting out and fulfilling your mission.

3. Focus on key attributes you can fulfill. Don’t get too lofty with the goals of your mission. You can’t save the entire world, but you can certainly help to save it by offering eco-chic cleaners. Focus on a few unique things your product or service offers your clients and include these in your mission. 3M does introduce innovative products to the market that helps to solve problems. It invented the post-it note and if that didn’t resolve a lot of problems, then I don’t know what did. We no longer have to tape or staple notes to paperwork. We can just stick a post-it note and remove it just as easily — all without damaging the paperwork.

4. Take it slow. You should really concentrate on your mission before jotting just anything down on paper. Don’t rush the process. Take it slow. Create a well thought out and educated mission statement that truly represents your company and what if stands for.

Your company mission and values go hand in hand.

Your mission statement also supports your company values. Values are what drives the company to do what it does. A “green” company that values the environment offers green living cleaners. A cosmetic company that protects animal rights sells products free from animal testing. A food company that values a healthy lifestyle sells organic and healthy alternatives to unhealthy foods. Values and missions are directly related. The values your company has it what drives it to meet its mission — its goals.

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Working with a professional copywriter can boost your marketing efforts… ultimately boosting your business sales. Just like any business relationship, there are things you can do up front to make the process flow smoothly and minimize the amount of time and money spent.

Do your planning homework.

Planning is the key to success for almost any endeavor. Working with a copywriter is no exception to the rule. There is quite a bit of upfront work that can be done on your part, which will save time and money over the course of the project. For example, if you or your marketing manager has already done the research on which keywords you want to focus on for your Web content marketing campaign, or you have a list of headlines or topics that you can hand over to the copywriter, this relieves the copywriter from having to do the research on their own — saving them time and you money.

Meetings cost money.

Does your copywriter really need to sit on a “status update” call between you (the company president) and the account executive? Unless you’re discussing a change in creative direction or brainstorming, the answer is most likely no. Keep your bill down significantly by involving your copywriter ONLY meetings and conference calls where their presence is necessary.

Try the “One Draft Only” policy.

Limit the amount of draft revisions you have the copywriter produce and you will also limit the total of the bill. If you’re veering into 2-revision territory, then you’re either working with the wrong copywriter or perhaps you’re the type who feels more comfortable being in control of their own communication. Find a new copywriter that meets your needs or take a step back and reorganize your priorities.

Provide all of the information up front.

The more information you can provide up front, the less time your copywriter must spend figuring it out. Explain what the project goals are. Describe the target customer. Cover the ad format (email, print ad, online or print article). Give an idea of the expected length. Mention any research that may be required — and list sources if you have them. Nine times out of ten, you or someone in your company has all of this information. You’ll reduce a lot of miscommunication and help your writer return a spot-on first draft if you take the time to prepare in advance.

Nail down the terms, conditions and direction prior to beginning the work.

Minds change and directions change, and that’s okay — but if you’re interested in keeping costs to a minimum, then try to plan ahead instead of backtracking halfway into the marketing project. Once you have established the terms, conditions, and needs with your copywriter, stick to the plan. If you are not behind a project 100% and don’t have all of the information together, then do not include a copywriter until you’re ready.

Work with someone who specializes in your field.

Specialization can save you a lot of time, money, and headaches. A copywriter that already understands your industry, your product, your service, etc., is already two steps ahead of a copywriter that has never written one word about anything to do with your industry. You’ll cut out a lot of the up-front explaining and overcome a great learning curve if you stick with someone who already knows what’s what.

These are just a few of the ways you can work with a copywriter and keep the cost of working with a professional under control. Stick to them and you are well on your way to a happy relationship with your copywriter — and your accountant, too!

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Many think of a Web site as an electronic brochure, and in many ways it is. A Web site, however, keeps going where a brochure leaves off. This response often leads to the question, “Well, how different should my brochure be from my Web site then?” There are ways that your brochure should be similar to your Web site, but there are many more ways that your Web site should be different from your brochure. It is also important to consider who will receive your brochure and who will be visiting your Web site. Find out what these differences and similarities are — keep reading.

A brochure is typically a lead-in.

First, focus on the purpose of a brochure. A brochure is a brief overview of your company and what it offers — a brief overview that intrigues readers enough to act by picking up the phone, by going to your Web site, or by walking into your store location for more information or to buy what you are selling. You control the action you want them to take by stating it in the brochure — the call to action portion. Since most brochures are an 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper folded two or three times, there is no way possible to fit everything your company has to offer in it. This is where your Web site comes in handy.

A Web site is more than a brochure.

A Web site picks up where your brochure leaves off because a Web site provides you more room to connect with the reader and get them to buy. While a brochure explains certain aspects of your company and how what you are offering benefits the client, your Web site can expand on these details — providing even more information. A Web site can also be a form of purchase since it allows visitors to buy instantly from your online store.

Brochures should mimic your Web site and vice versa.

That being said, your brochure and your Web site should mimic each other. The tone you use when writing your brochure should be the same as that represented on your Web site. The look and feel of the brochure should also be the look and feel readers experience when they visit your Web site. For example, if you use a friendly tone in your brochure, this same friendly tone should be felt when visiting your Web site. If your brochure is very formal and traditional, then the Web site also should have this same look.

Web sites and brochures: The same, but different.

When you are creating your brochure and Web site, the copy should not be exactly the same on both. While you may have a client that only sees one of your brochures or only sees your Web site, you may also have many clients that read both. While the tone, look, and feel of your brochure and Web site should be the same, the copy should not be a carbon copy. And the content of each may be altered by the order in which the piece is read.

The order of exposure.

It is also important to consider at what point in the transaction you give potential customers the brochure. For example, if you attend tradeshows and hand out your brochure to visitors to your table, then you are introducing the brochure at the beginning of a relationship. On the other hand, if you request that visitors to your Web site complete and submit a form to receive more information, and then mail your brochure to them, the brochure is really the second piece of exposure for clients. Which order the brochure takes may affect the way you word the brochure and the Web site.

In many ways your brochure and Web site content should be similar, but there ways that these pieces should differ from each other. How you word the brochure and the Web site also depends on which order the pieces are read. Keep these factors in mind when writing the copy for your brochure and your Web site.

Copyright 2008 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing. All rights reserved.

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We often deal with clients that are planning to “revamp” their sites with Flash, with SEO having already generated tremendous gains in their sales. The thing that we most dread to hear is that they’ve hired an experienced “Flash designer” that will be taking their Web sites to the “next level.” Unfortunately, that “next level” is often the basement - at least in terms of SEO results.

The bottom line here is that a site built entirely in Flash still faces huge obstacles. While there have been recent moves from Google and Yahoo! to try to index the content from combined Flash/SEO sites, those moves have not yet, from my experience, translated into SEO results or success (at least when compared to html sites).

We should make a distinction here between embedded Flash and sites built entirely from Flash. For example, a site that contains Flash elements but still contains basic html elements will not overly suffer, as the Flash element (usually a movie in a box on the homepage or elsewhere) is externalized. A search engine spider will generally not try to parse through any files that have been externalized in the code - they will only index the code that is readily apparent on the source page.

However, from an SEO results perspective, there are still major issues with sites that are built entirely in Flash, and SEO is normally the first thing that suffers. First of all, the URL generally never changes no matter where people navigate on the site. As any decent SEO practitioner will tell you, every page of your site is a potential entry page for a search engine. With a site built in Flash, SEO suffers even more as you only have one potential entry page, which is the main URL. This cuts off dozens, hundreds, or thousands of potential pages that could otherwise be indexed in Google and Yahoo! (and all other engines). When your only potential entry page in the search engine listings is your home page, it is very difficult to target a wide assortment of keyphrases, potentially eliminating SEO results or rankings.

Content is another very large issue. Search engines rank pages based upon a number of criteria, but one of the most important to SEO results is the text that they can “understand” on individual pages. At present, search engines read primarily html text (although some also read text in the PDF format) - which means that if you decide that you want to use a rare and fancy font that must be displayed in graphic form (since the visitor may not have that particular font available on his or her computer while browsing), the engine will not read the text and therefore will not know what the page is about, which could harm SEO results. Naturally, this also includes any of the text included in Flash. While Yahoo! and Google have recently announced enhanced capabilities in reading content within Flash, I have not personally seen that translate into great SEO results for competitive keyphrases.

One other emerging aspect is that as search evolves, more and more people are looking for information while they are away from their computers. Many mobile devices are currently incapable of displaying Flash content, although recent moves by Adobe to make “Flash Lite” available may change this. However, it remains to be seen whether people that are seeking information on a mobile device will even want to navigate through Flash, especially if they can get the information that they seek from a fast-loading html page. In my opinion, lean html content will be at a premium when a company is trying to target a mobile audience.

Despite the difficulties, it is not the intent of this article to assert that Flash and SEO will always be incompatible - merely that it is the state of the current situation. You can find many differing opinions on mixing Flash and SEO on the Internet, but the true test is to try to find a Flash site (that is to say, a site built entirely in Flash) that you admire and see if it ranks well in SEO results for 50+ competitive terms that are related to the specific business (in Google or Yahoo!). In my experience, such sites that combine Flash and SEO are nearly impossible to find. If anyone out there knows of one, please let me know.

Flash can be, and often is, used for great effect on the Internet, in interactive kiosks, and in many other applications. I’m not from the “any Flash is bad” school, although I do think that many Flash practitioners tend to get a little carried away and often ignore basic usability issues. However, sites built entirely in Flash with SEO elements are still, again in my opinion, like oil and water - Flash and SEO are obviously individually useful, but they don’t mix well. Until they do, I will continue to advise my clients not to build sites entirely out of Flash - or, at the very least, to have an alternate html option for search engine and user preference purposes. At the end of the day, many clients are surprised to find out how many visitors actually prefer “old school” html.

(C) Medium Blue 2008

Scott Buresh is the founder and CEO of Medium Blue, which was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld in 2006 and 2007. Scott’s articles have appeared in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. He was also a contributor to The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Atlantic, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine optimization company with local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, DS Waters, and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

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