Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Essential Tools for Online Marketing - Google Webmaster
This article has moved to www.chrisanders.co.uk - check the resources section of my site
Ensure your site gets properly indexed by Google - Google Sitemaps (smaller sites)
Google Sitemaps are "XML" files that contain a list of all the web pages on your site, provide an indication of how often they are updated and the importance of each. Once created you upload them to your website - in what's called the "root directory". By root directory it means that the sitemap is available from e.g. www.yoursite.org/sitemap.xml and NOT from www.yoursite.org/foldername/sitemap.xml
If you don't already use Google Webmaster sign up for it, add and verify your site and register the sitemap with Google. This will ensure that as many pages as possible get indexed.
For smaller sites under 500 pages you can ignore all of the techie stuff and go to a site such as xml-sitemaps.com - ( http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ ) and enter your web address and they automatically scan your site and generate a sitemap for you.
For larger sites sites such as xml-sitemaps will generate a sitemap for you for a fee. Remember you need to update your sitemap from time to time as your site changes - for example as you add or remove pages (it doesn't matter if you just update content within pages). To update your sitemap simply generate another and upload it to your site to replace the old one. You don't need to tell Google Webmaster about this.
For larger or more dynamic sites and particularly larger sites that are run by content management systems you should ideally either choose software or look at developing an add-on that will update your sitemap automatically. Otherwise Google will continue to use the old sitemap until you replace it. Technical details on the format of Google sitemaps will be covered in another post.
Got any questions?
If you are an NGO or small business and have any questions on this or any other topic feel free to comment on this blog and I'll get back to you by way of a further posting.
If you don't already use Google Webmaster sign up for it, add and verify your site and register the sitemap with Google. This will ensure that as many pages as possible get indexed.
For smaller sites under 500 pages you can ignore all of the techie stuff and go to a site such as xml-sitemaps.com - ( http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ ) and enter your web address and they automatically scan your site and generate a sitemap for you.
For larger sites sites such as xml-sitemaps will generate a sitemap for you for a fee. Remember you need to update your sitemap from time to time as your site changes - for example as you add or remove pages (it doesn't matter if you just update content within pages). To update your sitemap simply generate another and upload it to your site to replace the old one. You don't need to tell Google Webmaster about this.
For larger or more dynamic sites and particularly larger sites that are run by content management systems you should ideally either choose software or look at developing an add-on that will update your sitemap automatically. Otherwise Google will continue to use the old sitemap until you replace it. Technical details on the format of Google sitemaps will be covered in another post.
Got any questions?
If you are an NGO or small business and have any questions on this or any other topic feel free to comment on this blog and I'll get back to you by way of a further posting.
Monday, 12 January 2009
Simple Online Videos with amimoto.com
http://animoto.com
Animoto is a great tool to put together simple video presentations - essentially a series of animated stills set to music. The system is very easy to use and it only takes a few minutes to put together a simple video presentation. On the downside advanced editing controls are limited so you may have to play around with the end result to get a video that suits.
How it works
To get started you create a user account and select whether to make a short 30 second video or a full length one.
You then simply upload images from your hard drive and order them in the sequence you want to display them. You can also add additional slides with Text to provide an introduction to the video and commentary on the animated slides content.
The next step is to choose a music track. You can choose from a number of preloaded tracks in the animoto.com library or alternatively upload your own music.
Finally if you are making a full length video you can choose whether your images should be displayed at twice , normal or twice the standard speed.
You then add a title and brief description and hit "create video". The system then automatically checks the images, analyses the music and creates a video slide presentation for you.
Posting the Video to your website
Having created your video it's easy to download it, export it to YouTube or send it by email. To add it to your website the easiest thing to do is to click onto the "Pin" icon, select "Embed" and then "Other Sites". Copy the code that appears onto your web page and the video will be embedded onto your site.
Tips
Choose music that reflects the "tone" of your video. For example for a fundraising event a faster beat will result in a more rapidly adimated video sequence. For charity videos that are e.g. more serious in nature a slower beat results in less frenetic animation.
Use the spotlight facility to select images you want to highlight - this also slows the pace of the animation down somewhat.
If you don't like the end result - re-edit it and render it again - the results are different each time.
If you are producing a full length video use the image pacing tool and try changing it to 1/2 speed if you want greater emphasis on each slide.
Costs
You can create a personal account free of charge but are limited to creating a certain number of full length videos. You can buy additional full length video credits on a "pay per video" basis which currently cost US$3 each. For businesses the cost is currently $99 per quarter for an unlimited number of videos - check out http://business.animoto.com/
At present there are no discounts for non-profits.
Animoto is a great tool to put together simple video presentations - essentially a series of animated stills set to music. The system is very easy to use and it only takes a few minutes to put together a simple video presentation. On the downside advanced editing controls are limited so you may have to play around with the end result to get a video that suits.
How it works
To get started you create a user account and select whether to make a short 30 second video or a full length one.
You then simply upload images from your hard drive and order them in the sequence you want to display them. You can also add additional slides with Text to provide an introduction to the video and commentary on the animated slides content.
The next step is to choose a music track. You can choose from a number of preloaded tracks in the animoto.com library or alternatively upload your own music.
Finally if you are making a full length video you can choose whether your images should be displayed at twice , normal or twice the standard speed.
You then add a title and brief description and hit "create video". The system then automatically checks the images, analyses the music and creates a video slide presentation for you.
Posting the Video to your website
Having created your video it's easy to download it, export it to YouTube or send it by email. To add it to your website the easiest thing to do is to click onto the "Pin" icon, select "Embed" and then "Other Sites". Copy the code that appears onto your web page and the video will be embedded onto your site.
Tips
Choose music that reflects the "tone" of your video. For example for a fundraising event a faster beat will result in a more rapidly adimated video sequence. For charity videos that are e.g. more serious in nature a slower beat results in less frenetic animation.
Use the spotlight facility to select images you want to highlight - this also slows the pace of the animation down somewhat.
If you don't like the end result - re-edit it and render it again - the results are different each time.
If you are producing a full length video use the image pacing tool and try changing it to 1/2 speed if you want greater emphasis on each slide.
Costs
You can create a personal account free of charge but are limited to creating a certain number of full length videos. You can buy additional full length video credits on a "pay per video" basis which currently cost US$3 each. For businesses the cost is currently $99 per quarter for an unlimited number of videos - check out http://business.animoto.com/
At present there are no discounts for non-profits.
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Online Marketing - SEO and the DMOZ directory
Building Links to your site and the Open Directory Project (DMOZ)
Previous posts have outlined why it's important to develop links to your site. One of the most important places to register your site is with the Open Directory Project at http://www.dmoz.org.
The Open Directory is currently used by some of the major search engines (including Google - see http://www.google.co.uk/dirhp?hl=en) to populate their directories contents. In addition literally hundreds of other sites use data from the DMOZ directory to use themselves. As such you'll notice that if you register with the directory over time you'll build more and more links to your site without having to do anything!
Be aware that it can take time to get into the directory so register as soon as you possibly can. It's important to do your keyword research first - if you enter a short phrase into the "Title of Site" field that includes your keywords then over time literally hundreds of other sites will link to you using the keywords you specified.
Previous posts have outlined why it's important to develop links to your site. One of the most important places to register your site is with the Open Directory Project at http://www.dmoz.org.
The Open Directory is currently used by some of the major search engines (including Google - see http://www.google.co.uk/dirhp?hl=en) to populate their directories contents. In addition literally hundreds of other sites use data from the DMOZ directory to use themselves. As such you'll notice that if you register with the directory over time you'll build more and more links to your site without having to do anything!
Be aware that it can take time to get into the directory so register as soon as you possibly can. It's important to do your keyword research first - if you enter a short phrase into the "Title of Site" field that includes your keywords then over time literally hundreds of other sites will link to you using the keywords you specified.
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