Archive for the ‘Web Writing’ Category

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IBM BigSheets to Help Businesses Comb Through Web Data More Effectively

Monday, March 1st, 2010

IBM’s newest product for the Web makes it easier than ever for businesses to analyze just about anything. BigSheets provides “broader data management - not just database management,” according to IBM.

Here are a few of the benefits of using BigSheets, according to IBM:

  • Better understand your customers, research competitors, diversify supply chains, or be the first to discover relevant industry trends. Extend and take control of your web analytics with this customizable rich web tool.

  • Go beyond structured database management into unstructured data management with BigSheets. Seeing the whole picture will help all levels of your business make better decisions.
  • Provides business users with a new approach to keep pace with data escalation. By taking the structure to the data, you can mine petabytes of data without additional storage requirements.

Check out this BigSheets video for more info.

Posted in Small Business Stuff, Web Writing | No Comments »

Now You Can Get Published Without Actually Writing Anything!

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

A new tool by self-publishing site FastPencil allows thought leaders to write books - without actually writing them. The company’s Thought Leadership program helps thought leaders, such as CEOs and business leaders, turn their ideas into books by ghostwriting the books for the thought leaders.

Here’s what FastPencil offers:

  • A personal book authoring team to manage the entire book writing process. You run your business, they co-write your book.
  • Full print and eBook distribution services to Amazon and elsewhere.
  • Social media promotion services. Sorry, you’ve got a business to run. Let FastPencil have all the fun on Twitter for you.

The self-publishing services are free up front, but the company takes a fee from the sales of the books.

Posted in Web Writing | No Comments »

iPhone App Shows Real-Time Search Trends for Top Search Engines

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

Ever have a burning desire to know what people are searching for online when you’re out and about away from your home computer? If so, then there’s good news for you: a new iPhone app is available to help you stay on top of real-time Web search stats while you’re on the go.

SearchTrends is a free iPhone app from Little Red Bike Media that shows real-time search trends for the top search engines: Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and yes, even Twitter.

Check out this mini review of SearchTrends by Tech Crunch’s Daniel Brusilovsky, which I came across while browsing one of my favorite futurist Web sites, Kirzweilai.net (highly recommended for folks like me who like to stay on top of scientific and technological developments and trends.

Web writer can use this tool (and others like it) to uncover some of the most popular and trendy search terms for, say, news articles that we publish online. Also, it’s helpful to keep an eye on what keywords and keyword phrases people are searching for to get insight into the specific words people use to communicate what they’re looking for with search engines.

And in case you were wondering how Google stays on top of search terms, check out this display at their Mountain View headquarters. I’d like one of these for my office, please!

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Posted in SEO, SEO Content, Web Writing | No Comments »

Writers and Online Marketers: TEST Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

One of the most important things for Web writers and online marketers to do is (shocker) TEST their email marketing campaigns. With the free tools that come along with today’s email marketing tools, there’s no excuse for not testing email marketing campaigns.

Folks running email marketing campaigns should know:

  • How many people are opening their emails.
  • What links people click on when they open emails.
  • What links people DON’T click on when they open emails.
  • Who is opening emails (it’s great if you have demographic information about your email newsletter subscribers, too). (more…)

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Posted in SEO, Small Business Stuff, Web Writing | No Comments »

Ape Image of Michelle Obama Gives Insight into How Google Works

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

CNN.com published an article today that addressed the now-infamous Michelle Obama photo in which she has been Photoshopped to resemble an ape. According to the article, some experts believe that Google may have tweaked its algorithm after discovering that the offensive image climbed in search engine results.

“When [analgorithm] doesn’t do what they want it to do, they go back and start tweaking things,” said Danny Sullivan, a search-engine guru who runs Search Engine Land. “Long term, you look at how they got there. When you search for Michelle Obama, do you really think that kind of image is one of the most popular things about her on the Internet? I don’t think so.”

Google already has an automated tool that prevents Internet users from “Google Bombing” - or pulling together to force a specific result (ie: the epic “miserable failure” = George Bush episode of 2003 and the 2007 effort by Stephen Colbert fan to return Stephen Colbert’s bio when searchers Google “greatest living American.”). (more…)

Posted in Blogging, SEO, SEO Content, Small Business Stuff, Web Writing | No Comments »

Tracking and Analyzing Emotions Online

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

As more and more people turn to the Internet to share their opinions, ideas, and simply connect with one another, there’s a rising trend in marketing analysis to analyze Internet communications based on qualitative and emotional data rather than qualitative and hard facts.

I’ve mentioned this New York Times story before. It would be wise for anyone working in Internet marketing and writing to take some time to see how marketing analysis companies are analyzing online data these days. Jodange is a company that “Automatically filters and aggregates thoughts, feelings and statements from traditional and social media.” (more…)

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Posted in SEO, Small Business Stuff, Social Networking, Web Writing | No Comments »

Wasabi - A Newsfeed Technology to Watch

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

wasabiNetvibes - a French technology company - has released Wasabi BETA. Wasabi is a data feed aggregation that looks pretty darn cool. It collects all of a user’s newsfeeds from various social networking and news sites into a customized dashboard that is easy to read.

According to the Wasabi Web site, the tool offers 3 main features:

1. The best of both worlds - a personalized dashboard and the world’s fastest reader.

2. Instant, near real-time, updates.

3. A mosaic view. This is not your standard newsfeed ticker tape.

Check it out! For us Web and social networking people, Wasabi may very well change the way we’ll be communicating in not too long…Wasabi already has 20,000 BETA users. Netvibes - a similar tool - has 3.5 million users.

Posted in SEO, Social Networking, Web Design from a Writer's Perspective, Web Writing | No Comments »

Pay to Quote the Associated Press

Monday, November 30th, 2009

While stumbling around on the Net this evening, I came across this blog post from a year ago, which states that third parties need to pay the Associated Press in order to quote the AP. According to the post, “The Associated Press is now selling “quotation licenses” that allow bloggers, journallers, and people who forward quotations from articles to co-workers to quote their articles. The licenses start at $12.50 for quotations of 5-25 words.”

Moreover, according to the blog, the AP encourages folks to “snitch” on writers who quote the AP without a license to do so by offering up to $1 million in reward money for tattlers. (more…)

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Posted in Blogging, Web Writing | No Comments »

Web Writers: Be Sure You’re Up-to-date with FCC Changes Regarding Testimonials and Endorsements

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

All Web writers need to be sure that they review the Federal Trade Commission’s updated regulations regarding testimonials and endorsements. For the first time in nearly 3 decades, the FTC has updated its regulations to account for blogging and online advertising. The purpose of the updated regulations is to help ensure that consumers are not getting misleading or false information from social media sources that they may be more inclined to trust than traditional advertising sources.

These changes will take effect on December 1, 2009. Read about them here.

In short, the FTC regulations require that:

  • Bloggers who receive free products to review in their blogs disclose that the products were provided to them for free.
  • If a blogger makes a claim about a product that cannot be substantiated - or that is incorrect - the blogger and the company who provided the blogger with the product can be held liable.

To be sure that they are being mindful of the new regulations, bloggers and Web writers should provide as many facts as possible to support their claims. (more…)

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Posted in Blogging, Small Business Stuff, Web Writing | No Comments »

Should You be Able to Google Social Media Conversations and Posts?

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Google has been changing the way people search for information online since the search engine was first released. Now, however, Google has added Google Social Search - a controversial new experimental search feature that allows users to use the search engine to search social media posts. Google Social Search allows users to find information using friends’ blogs, their Gmail accounts, Google Reader accounts, and more.

Here’s what Google has to say about the new tool:

“Google Social Search is an experimental feature that helps you find relevant public web content from people in your social circle, when you’re signed in to your Google Account. For example, search for [ restaurants ], and restaurant reviews by your friends and other contacts may appear more prominently in your results.”

Check out Google’s blog about Google Social Search.

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Posted in Blogging, SEO, SEO Content, Social Networking, Web Writing | No Comments »

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