This information has been moved to http://www.fastf.com/knowledge/flash-mobile-web.htm

One type of "social media" is actually about the oldest public use for the Internet: Forums (or as they were and still sometimes known, Bulletin Boards).

Of course like everything else they've grown up and can now support almost any functionality you would want. Probably the two most widely used platforms (programs) are phpBB and vBulletin.

The basic idea of a forum is a way for a group to interact in a selective manner amongst themselves.

The content is in "threads" much like email, except instead of getting bombarded with an email every time someone in the group adds a posting, you can go to the forum whenever you want, or not, search or browse what you are interested in. You can also set it up to notify you by email on a selective basis.

A forum can be open (anyone can see content, join, and add to the forum), partially open (anyone can see content), or closed (you can only see content if you are a member and only join on approval).

Forums are extremely useful in specific situations. One is if you sell software, or anything for which you have a users group, a closed forum for the users to interact and build a treasure chest of questions and answers about the product or service. This can build up a knowledge base far more complete than staff could ever create, and with far less work on their part. And users can really get into this (much like some people live to post on Wikipedia).

Staff can also answer questions and use the forum to inform users. It can be a way for users to request features, and it can be a way for management to see what the clientele think of the company, its services, new offerings, and so on.

There are many other ways forums can be used. People into Greek cooking trading recipes. People who are into online vampire games. And so on.

If you can conceive of a situation involving online interaction within a group, probably a forum is the answer.

What emotions does this image evoke in you?

I don't know - in fact I'm sure it won't be the same for everyone - and who knows what the Creator intended.

But as all great art, whether fine art or commercial art, it resonates and speaks to the heart and to the soul....

(View the full-size image for maximum effect.)

This information has moved to http://www.fastf.com/knowledge/long-copy-vs-short.htm

This actual 1933 ad from Saturday Evening Post hangs above my 1933 Underwood portable typewriter. Perhaps the copy for this ad was actually typed on my typewriter.

A reminder of the tradition of marketing.

This information has been moved to http://www.fastf.com/knowledge/making-it-personal.htm

The first job of an ad agency is to look at your product in every imaginable way: frontwards, backwards, sideways, upside down, inside out. Because somewhere, right there in the product itself, lies the drama that will sell it to people who want it.

There may be 10,000 ways to bring that inherent drama to the stage. And given a world in which "me-too" products multiply like mayflies, the drama may seem that much harder to find.

It is.

But every good product has it.

And every good agency finds it.

- an ad for the Leo Burnett ad agency, quoted by Joseph Sugarman in "The Adweek Copywriting Handbook" (2007)

Looking back at Earth from distant space. Tthis is an actual photo image (read the complete description), taken by Voyager 1 from a distance of more than 4 billion miles. Earth is the little dot in the band of light right of center and a bit more than half way down:

Always read the fine print.

7,500 Online Shoppers Sell Their Souls.

Following up on yesterday's post.

There is a VERY crucial point that applies equally to sales and to marketing.

This is incredibly vital to effective marketing AND to effective salesmanship. Yet many people in both professions just don't know it.

You have to say things people will agree with.

You don't say things that are untrue, or which you don't believe.

But say anything else you can, that the people you are trying to reach will agree with.

Preferably it should be relevant to what you are selling.

Why? Sales gurus claim you are just getting people used to agreeing with you. The truth is even more basic than that. The more they agree with you, the friendlier they will feel towards you and the more inclined they will be to buy (or in the case of marketing, to take action).

THIS is a major reason why you see headlines that say "Tired of being tired?" for a company selling medical sleep solutions. Of course it selects out someone who has a need. But from another angle, someone who agrees with that is a likely prospect. Now keep saying things they will agree with as you inform your reader and build confidence. You'll get the sale.

THIS is why you don't want to throw something into your ad, website or other marketing item that is not going to get wide agreement. It is just likely to turn people off.

Think about it.

I wrote about selling your ad.

One of the great copy writers of modern times, takes the thought one step further.

According to Joseph Sugarman, ALL the elements of an ad - layout, headling, sub-head, pictures, etc. - have one purpose and one purpose only:

To get the first sentence read.

Purpose of the first sentence? To get the second sentence read.

The point he is making is that you have to work the reader (or viewer or visitor) into your ad. They don't just see it and start reading. It's a series of small steps with the desirable end result of getting your entire message read - and sales occurring.

There is a VERY crucial point about how you do this. See tomorrow's post on "Being Agreeable."

Somehow I've managed to never write a full post about one of the most useful Internet Marketing tricks.

If you run click ads (pay-per-click such as Google AdWords), and you get the campaign more-or-less running well, you can test different ad wordings to see what works best.

This is not just a test to get the maximum click-through-rate, but you also need to track conversions (phone calls, emails, purchases, newsletter sign-ups - whatever action you are trying to accomplish) - as that shows not just the quantity but also the quality of the traffic you generate to your website.

When you've worked this over and have a good response rate, with good quality, you now know the highest percentage appeal - what should be the basis of all other marketing efforts, such as appearing in ad headlines, your website home page, in sales materials, and so on.

You don't have to do a huge spend on the click ads to work this out - you just need enough clicks to be sure it isn't random variation that is causing the difference.

You're welcome.

"SSL" stands for "Secure Socket Layer" - this is the technology for securing connections when you transmit confidential information to a website. As when a purchase is made online. Any time the website address you are looking at starts with "https" rather than "http", you are looking at a secure, encrypted connection. The "s" stands for secure.

Typically your browser indicates this by a lock symbol in the lower right corner of the screen.

Part of the process is the website having an "SSL certificate" - which is an electronic certification that the company is who it says it is.

There are usually two ways you can get an SSL cert for your website. Most website hosting services will provide a "shared" certificate as part of your hosting fee (or may charge a small yearly fee for this).

The difference is on secured screens (https) during the checkout process, with a shared cert, the URL would not be your own domain, but is based on the hosting company's domain, for example, frogsales.hostingcompany.com. instead of www.frogsales.com.

This has nothing to do with the look of the site, it is just the page address.

Most hosting companies will sell you your own cert, but there are other certificate authorities you can buy a cert from. The most well known (and expensive) is Verisign.

SSL certs vary in features and vary widely in cost. If you do get your own cert, part of the process is varying degrees of proof of who you are. More expensive certs also usually involve more definite proof of your company's legal existence and physical location.

In most cases there is little value in purchasing a high end cert.

There are a few solid rules about logo design which are often violated and are pretty much guaranteed to create problems.

1. The difference in sizes between the largest and smallest text shouldn't be much more than 2 to 1. Logos are used at many sizes, so any text needs to be readable when used small; on the other hand not look overly "horsey" at largest size usage.

2. Most logos should be wider than tall (emblems an exception). This fits with the way they are mostly used.

3. Logos should be designed in such a way that they will work in black and white or possibly in two colors (possibly with some adjustment from a full-color version).

4. Logos should be designed in such a way that they work at a great distance or at a glance, as well as close up.

5. Don't try to make a logo do too much work!

It's the 40th anniversary of Apollo 13's having a little problem.

This image was taken by the astronauts as the damaged module drifted away - you can see where a panel was blown off by the explosion.

A dramatic reminder no matter how well planned your activities, chances are from time to time you will face a crisis, have to think fast and improvise.

We like to say that between ourselves and our client, we make one marketing genius.

We can never know as much about someone's business as they do. They aren't going to know as much about marketing as we do - it's our profession.

The best results occur when marketing vendor and client listen to each other and work together.

Great results probably won't occur without input from the client, and are unlikely when the client insists on over-riding the best marketing judgment of the marketing professional.

That isn't just when dealing with us, Fast Forward. If you are dealing with a competent marketing vendor, pay attention to their advice. It is more than a matter of taste or opinion. And, my fellow marketing professionals, listen to your clients. Just possibly they know things about their prospective customers that you do not.

Those annoying required password changes?

Useless.

Our recommendations for password security.

1939, Harlingen Texas, photo from Shorpy:

Did you know someone tried to trademark "SEO" (Search Engine Optimization"?

Their rationale was to try and get some ethics in on a field in which probably 97% of the operators are either incompetent or downright frauds.

Of course, who decides whether someone is ethical or not? Competent or not? Who can be trusted?

The truth is, there is only one good answer and that is, do they deliver?

Only an educated buyer will be able to tell.

There may be no other business decision in which the typical buyer knows so little about what he is buying.

THAT is why sharks and idiots run rampant in the Internet Marketing industry.

At the same time millions are jumping on the social media bandwagon (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) for marketing purposes, their value is dropping like a stone. From Search Engine Land blog:

"In Edelman's annual Trust Barometer survey, it was revealed that consumers are losing trust in each other when it comes to providing credible information about products or companies. Confidence has dropped by nearly half since 2008 leading to only about 25% of people trusting their peers and friends online for information.

"While the dip in trust was across the board, there was a large emphasis on social media."

So the net result of the huge rise of social media, especially over the last year, has been to invalidate these media.

Well, they are still great for connecting and having fun.

Who do people trust the most now? Experts, especially if they hear the same thing from multiple sources.

This shift ups the importance of endorsements as distinct from testimonials in building credibility.

In case you've forgotten how much technology has changed. This is 1919, but as recently as 1975 those same kind of cord and plug switchboards were common in businesses for routing calls.

From Shorpy of course (click on image for full-size).

After denying the rumors that Google was taking site speed into account in rankings, it has now (April 9th) been officially announced that they ARE in fact considering site speed.

They also clarify that less than 1% of search queries are affected by this. So you can safely assume unless your site is REALLY slow, you don't have to worry about it.

Here's the full announcement including some ways to test your site speed.

This is just too good.

That's irony of course.

There is no such thing as good cheap SEO -- except in the sense that any marketing that produces a good Return on Investment, is cheap marketing.

If competent SEO were cheap or easy, everyone would have top-drawer SEO and everyone would be ranked at the top on Google and....

You see the obvious impossibility.

Like a majority of people being of above average height.

Sorry if I burst your balloon....

Be careful your message doesn't contradict your branding.

In almost every form of marketing, the start of the piece is an advertisement for the rest of it. It has the primary job of selling the reader, viewer or visitor on continuing to read or view the piece or item.

Just as the headline of a newspaper article is there to sell the reader on reading that article.

In an ad this function is usually performed by the headline, any main imagery and possibly the opening line or lines of the copy.

In a TV or radio commercial it is the first few words spoken or printed on screen (as well as any other initial visuals on the TV screen).

In a website, the home page has this job. It is the ONLY job of a website home page - to get the visitor to click through to another page in the website.

The main graphic, main menu bar and heading on the home page as well as possibly the initial sentence of the copy, are there to sell the home page - to get the visitor to stick on the site long enough to see / read enough of the home page content to then be sold on clicking through to another page.

Effective marketing consists of a large number of discrete small steps.

Most marketing failures stem from unknowingly skipping steps. You then leave behind a large percentage of potential buyers.

Art doesn't have to be representational to be great art. Balance, color, mind-wrenching shapes....

Click through, the small image doesn't do it justice...NGC602

Thank You, Hubble Space Telescope!

"Qualifying" is a well-known term in Sales. It is making sure you have a real prospect before you spend a lot of time on them.

It doesn't just mean they have the money. It means that they are within your service area (someone in Indonesia is NOT coming to your restaurant in Boston), and the time or other ability to take your product or service (they only speak Spanish.... your book is only available in English. Your self-study course is only available online, they don't have a computer, don't know how to use one and don't think they can learn.)

It also means not only do they have a need or a want your service or product can satisfy, but that they are capable or recognizing or acknowledging that need. It doesn't matter how badly someone needs your consulting services if they just don't believe in consulting... and they are completely closed to the idea.

All of these other factors are in fact more important than having the money, as if the need is strong enough, chances are they will find the money.

But that is not actually what this post is about.

What about qualifying with your marketing?

If your prospects are all local, don't run your click ads outside your local area.

If you sell only high-end products, make sure your website looks that way... so you don't spend your time taking calls for people looking for the lowest price version of what you sell.

If your ideal prospect is upside down on their mortgage and approaching retirement age, offer a free booklet "50-65 years old and upside down on your mortgage? 12 solutions traditional lenders won't tell you about!"

Variations on this are endless. Once you know who you are - and who you aren't - trying to reach, a little creativity will offer up things you can do to better select out those ideal prospects.

Think about it.

Successful marketing involves not only focusing what you sell. It also means focusing who you sell to and how you sell to them.

A couple of "qual" words nail this: Quality and Qualify.

You want Quality leads, you need to consider what is an ideal prospect? As Jay Abraham puts it, fish where the big fish are. Those who are most likely to close, with the least amount of effort, and spend the most money with you on your most profitable services or products or at your highest rates.

Maybe there aren't enough of those. So add to that "with enough of a prospect pool to sustain or expand my business per my business goals."

Then you aim your marketing at them, and one more thing - design your marketing so it at least partially pre-qualifies a prospect. But that's a whole subject in itself. Tomorrow.

Google search is currently going through the largest change we've seen in probably two years.

Some people ascribe this to the rollout of "Caffeine" which is a software change promoted as being done to improve efficiency of Google's computers. Supposedly this wasn't going to much affect search results, and, as is common, Google isn't talking. But in the last few weeks we've seen unusually large swings in rankings (up and down) not connected to any apparent change.

Some of the other things we've seen include clear evidence that Google has gotten smarter. For example, we are seeing more variation in from where Google is picking the content for its listing of a page.

We've also now seen a one page site with no copy, ranked #1 on organic search for a city in which the company had no presence. It made sense; the page was a portal to three sites for individual stores in locations that ringed the city in question. But Google would never have figured that out before.

We've seen Google greatly devalue blog pages on a site over the last few months. Now it seems to be going back in the other direction, at least some.

This is just another example of how you have to stay alert to stay on top of Search Engine Optimization.

It doesn't matter how accurate a claim is, how much proof or evidence is offered to support it.

If your claim is unbelievable, it won't be believed.

This is a point that can be surveyed. We've seen two claims both considered equally valuable in prospects' eyes, but one surveyed out as believable. The other wasn't. You could have promoted that one till you were blue in the face and the cows came home.