by Steve Wolf | Aug 23, 2017 | Business
Your domain name and URL play a big role when it comes to search. Not only is this the destination where your visitors will find you and your content, but the domain you choose also can and does impact your search visibility. While there are more domain options than ever before, there are still some best practices you should adhere to if you want to see optimal results.
As of our publishing date in August 2017, ICANN recognizes 1,547 top-level domains (TLDs). While this means you have more choices than ever before, it doesn’t make choosing a domain any easier. To ensure you get the right domain for your business, consider these 10 tips.
1. Start with keywords
Before logging into to your favorite domain registrar, take some time to brainstorm a few ideas. It can be helpful to have three to five keywords in mind when doing this exercise. These words and phrases should clearly define what you do (or want to do). Mix and mash them together and see what looks right and makes sense. Don’t force the process — just let it flow.
For example, let’s say you are starting a local bakery. Some terms you want to include would be your city, fresh bread, baked goods, bakery and so on.
Here’s a pro tip: Use prefixes and suffixes to help you create a good domain that grabs attention. For this example, you may end up with a domain like superfreshbread.com.
2. Make it unique
Your domain is part of your brand. Making sure it stands out is extremely important for you and your users. Having a domain that closely resembles another popular brand is never a good idea, as it can lead to confusion.
Be careful that you’re not trying to be too unique, however. Forcing an alternative spelling of a common word can lead to big trouble. An example cited in the book, “The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization,” is that of the popular image site Flickr.
When the site founders established their domain, they did not use the standard spelling, flicker.com, and they may have lost traffic as a result. They ended up having to purchase the correctly spelled domain and have the additional domain redirect to Flickr.com.
3. Go for a .COM
If you are serious about building a long-term brand online, there is nothing better than a .com. Using a 301-redirect to drive traffic to a .net or .org is totally fine, but owning the .com or the equivalent TLD for your target market country is critical.
There are a number of reasons why this matters, but the most crucial one is for your users. While there are thousands of TLDs to choose from, .com still carries the most trust with it.
Many internet users are still unaware that the other TLDs exist and may hesitate to click when they see one. Make it easy for your users and choose a .com. You’ll thank me in the long run.
(Note for transparency: I am currently working on getting ownership of the .com for my site’s domain. When I rebranded a few years ago, I was unable to claim it and now have to bid to own it.)
4. Make it easy to type
If your URL is hard to type, people won’t. Difficult words to spell and long URL strings can be extremely frustrating to your end users.
Sure, you may be able to add a nice keyword with a long URL, but if the user experience is negatively impacted, you’ll ultimately suffer.
[Read the full article on Search Engine Land.]
by Steve Wolf | Apr 21, 2017 | Business
There were simply few radio stations, TELEVISION channels as well as some newspapers and also publications where marketing professionals made use of to promote their products or sell them. Reaching target consumers using these channels was quite simple; though the reach was limited. With straightforward yet engaging messages, offering or advertising items was simple.
Infiltration has increased
Nevertheless, times have actually transformed and also all the mediums stated above have actually expanded in numbers. In addition, new networks such as websites as well as mobile applications have actually been included and also there is a variety of these tools for companies to get to target market. You can say that though advertising or sales was challenging as it is said, it has actually been made a tough nut to fracture with development in technology and also the electronic tool.
The good idea in this emphasized approach towards marketing is that organisations are now able to much better permeate the marketplace. The only aspect necessary is to grasp the tricks and also methods of digital marketing and make use of these together with typical methods of sales and marketing.
Educate on your own as well as rule
So for professionals operating in advertising and marketing and also sales domain names, getting a grasp over electronic advertising is the method forward. Age is never a difficulty for obtaining education and learning and also this is comparable for learning about digital marketing. You will find various institutes that give internet marketing training; nonetheless, you have to select an electronic marketing institution that gives a comprehensive and holistic technique and understanding regarding the trade along with useful exposure.
The patterns recommend that digital advertising is a have to have for advertising and marketing as well as sales experts as well as makes certain to remain a back bone for companies for a very long time. So if you plan to remain in the race, then selecting an excellent digital advertising institution instantly and finding out about this avenue is exceptionally crucial.
Bear in mind that with rise in this tool, there will certainly be an equivalent rise in demands for business with concerns to training specialists in electronic advertising and marketing. So why shed the race when education is offered conveniently? Begin you look for a good college soon.
online electronic marketing training – DMSchool
by Steve Wolf | Apr 20, 2017 | Business
Skylab Apps on Gamification & Social Learning
Gamification places emphasis on human motivation.
Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling.
The Skylab Apps platform has been built operating under the Social Learning theory that has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.
Gamification has gained traction in recent years as an effective way of engaging users to perform actions in contexts that would otherwise be considered tedious and undesirable. Education is an area in which user engagement could have the greatest impact on success, with some advantages for users to improve or get better comprehension. Our goal in doing so is to foster greater user engagement using the system and thereby promote an environment better suited for active social learning.
Skylab has built a Proprietary algorithm that places emphasis on commonly understood human habits and then leveraged technology to gamify the experience of Learning for example.
“It’s Play That Helps Us Do Serious Things Better.”
“When you have a Game Like Platform where knowledge is applied, knowledge becomes a resource. The more you know the better you are at the Game.”
–Dean Grey: SkyLab Apps CEO
In essence, it’s “Human-Focused Design” as opposed to “Function-Focused Design” Skylab has thought and developed The Gamification Engine The perfect blend of Science, Psychology and Technology.
Imagine having a way to communicate (Smart Chat), engage, teach (Multimedia Channels, Gamified Trainings, Recognition Wall), reward (Contests, Habit Tracking), and monetize (In-App Purchases) your affinity group or community within one platform that you own.
That’s what we do!
Unconsciously, the key points below are enhanced in the user’s behavior through Gamification:
Epic Meaning & Calling
Core Drive is a player’s belief that he is doing something greater than himself or that he was “chosen” to do something. This creates a player who devotes a lot of his time to maintaining a forum or helping to create things for the entire community.
Development & Accomplishment
The internal motivation of making progress, developing skills, and eventually overcoming challenges drives community.
Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback
Users are engaged in a creative process of repeatedly figuring things out and trying different combinations. People need ways to express their creativity, and to be able to see the results of their creativity, receive feedback, and respond in turn.
Ownership & Possession
When a player feels ownership, he/she is motivated to make what he/she owns better and own even more. If a person spends a lot of time to customize his/her profile or his/her avatar, he/she automatically feels more ownership towards it too.
Social Influence & Relatedness
All the social elements that drive people, including: mentorship, acceptance, social responses, companionship, as well as competition and envy.
Scarcity & Impatience
The fact that people can’t get something right now motivates them to think about it all day long. Many games have Appointment Dynamics within them (come back 2 hours later to get your reward).
Unpredictability & Curiosity
Drive is wanting to find out what will happen next. If you don’t know what’s going to happen, your brain is engaged and you think about it often. This core drive is activated whenever a company runs a sweepstake or lottery program to engage users.
Challenges
Users complete a series of steps to fulfill the challenge. Each step completed gives you a small reward, discount, or badge (e.g. 50% Discount at Starbucks). By completing all the steps you will earn the big reward. The goal here is to be the Pokemon Scavenger Hunt for businesses, thus getting people out of the house/office to capture their experiences in the real world.
App Sharing
App Sharing creates a virality effect that drives community growth for the client, sponsor awareness, and behavioural data for the brand.This is critical for our advertisers and Skylab’s business model; as our success is tied to the growth of the client’s audience and behavioural data. For the user, it provides a fun way to engage in the growth of the cause/movement, creating a deeper desire to belong.
Voting
Voting invites the user to share selfies or photos for a reward as they engage within a popularity contest. People get excited about the recognition and rewards inside a private community where they feel the odds are higher than social media. As they increase engagement within their community, they feed a desire to belong.
The overall goal of the App Sharing & Voting contest is to maximize the MAU/DAU (Monthly or Daily Active User) of their user base with gamification tactics, thus instantly increasing the value of the company.
At Skylab, Social Learning & Gamification are the Core Drive. They permit to empower the followings:
SOCIAL NETWORKS
It puts the learner at the center of the people, information, and learning content they need. Comments on content increase community knowledge and understanding as well as drive engagement.
STRENGTHENING TEAMWORK
Community content enhances collaboration. Notes, comments, and ratings specific to your organization improve communication among teams and the organization as a whole.
NIELSEN’S 1-9-90 RULE
According to expert Jakob Nielsen, 90% of participants don’t contribute, though they find value in what they read and observe. The next 9% add to existing discussions, with 1% creating most commentary and giving the community food for thought.
AMPLIFY THE LEARNING PROCESS
Social learning connects people with relevant content, learning assets, and expert information specific to an organization’s unique culture. This combination of content, commentary, and community amplifies learning and helps you maximize your return on learning investments.
CREATING NEW CONNECTIONS
Social learning offers access to colleagues outside an employee’s traditional sphere, which can spark innovation and leverage connections to employees they may not otherwise engage with.
SECURITY & PROTECTION
A good social learning platform protects your information, while allowing employees to find, create, and share knowledge, learning assets, and expertise with their colleagues – without compromising security.
Game elements that can facilitate learning
Social learning is often coupled with game mechanics when you want to take audience engagement to the next level. We define social learning as an online learning experience where learners are able to see what other learners are doing and control other learners’ gameplay or content. With social learning, you can send messages to other learners, challenge a colleague to a challenge, leave a souvenir, and even create content to change the learning experience. The most common form of social learning that you can implement is a leaderboard. Simply seeing how well other learners are doing can get your audience excited and motivated to take training over and over again.
Doing our jobs is serious business, but learning about it doesn’t have to be. We’ve helped innovative organizations around the world make learning that’s as addictive as Candy Crush.
Some of the potential benefits of successful gamification initiatives include:
- giving users ownership of their learning
- opportunities for identity work through taking on alternate selves
- freedom to fail and try again without negative repercussions
- chances to increase fun and joy
- opportunities for differentiated instruction
- making learning visible
- providing a manageable set of subtasks and tasks
- inspiring students to discover intrinsic motivators for learning
- motivating users with low levels of motivation
by Steve Wolf | Apr 15, 2017 | Business
I definitely dislike to see people get duped by adwords monitoring solutions that do not live up to the principles of adwords monitoring. Not only do these certain business injure their customers but they likewise hurt the entire adwords administration industry by offering the rest of us a negative track record. I am composing this short article to show you specifically just what to look for so you won’t get burned by sorry, so called “adwords monitoring”. I will show you exactly what to look for so you can be certain to locate a top-of the-line adwords administration service.
There are 5 details, really important things you should seek when picking a high quality adwords monitoring service. While it can be quite complicated to recognize these 5 essential points or processes rather, I will certainly inform you specifically just what inquiries to ask so that you will discover an adwords administration solution that is absolutely expert as well as in addition to the adwords video game. Real Adwords professionals can respond to the adhering to concerns. Be sure to ask and also get the answer to every one of these questions prior to you dare outsource your adwords monitoring. If the adwords management solution agent can answer these 5 concerns with responses comparable or similar to the ones below, I ‘d claim you are in excellent hands.
Do You Deal Split Testing? What is the significance of it? To start with, the representative needs to obviously response. “Yes” to the hand component of this concern. Split screening is an essential part of effective adwords administration. Split testing is exceptionally crucial due to the fact that it assists find which ads are most reliable as well as which ads attract one of the most clicks. It also assists decrease click costs because Google incentives much better doing ads with lower click expenses and also greater advertisement placement.
Exactly how do you arrange my adwords campaigns? Adwords projects must be arranged as well as totally repositioned to ensure that the keywords are divided right into very carefully knit, appropriate adgroups. It is essential that the leading performing key words are taken into adgroups of their own in order to achieve best relevancy.
What steps do you take to Maximize my Advertisements? Don’t be tricked if an associate claims, “We understand precisely which headings transform the ideal and we understand the best ways to create expert advertisement copy. Blah blah blah.” That is crap. Maximizing ads suggest insuring the key phrase browsed on programs up 3 times in the advertisement; as soon as in the headline, when in the advertisement message and when in the screen LINK. Google rewards these kinds of advertisements with higher ad positioning and also reduced click prices. Google likes significance. Likewise Insure that the adwords monitoring service composes a details advertisement for each keyword phrase you have. Anything less is merely lazy.
Exactly how Do You Change My Bidding? What’s one of the most reliable kind of bidding process in Google adwords now? Its certainly bidding using Google’s Conversion Optimizer. If they don’t mention anything concerning that after that think just what? That adwords administration solution is formally out-dated! Any type of professional adwords monitoring service understands bid administration with Google’s Conversion optimizer is the method to go. Absolutely nothing else defeats it.
Just what Proceeding education does your personnel experience? You ‘d much better think continuing education and learning is a massive component of successful adwords monitoring. The Google Adwords globe is always transforming. If you’re not continually studying as well as investing money on research after that you will swiftly fall behind. The most innovative adwords management solutions invest tens of countless dollars on proceeding education and learning. Do not be terrified to request evidence of proceeding education and learning. Besides it is you money at risk.
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