• About: include information on location, facilities, philosophies, non-profit status, how it is run/supported. The mission statement can be incorporated here.
• History: biography of Louise Solberg, the founder, as well as information on how it has grown and changed over the years.
• Staff: bios of Carolyn, the manager, as well as key staff and instructors so that visitors can learn who is caring for the horses and instructing and what their experience is.
• Lessons: explain disciplines, levels, class size, when they are offered, a yearly schedule, and cost, while emphasizing that there is a waiting list. Part of the purpose is to educate potential donors of the program, so this information is necessary without advertising for more riders. Be sure to include how people can get on the waiting list.
• Camps: need more details on the types of camps, the schedule for the upcoming summer, what is covered in the camps, an example of what each day looks like (even just a bullet list), costs, times, required attire, etc. Let people know how they can sign up.
• Therapeutic Riding: what it is, why it's beneficial, how it works, how you can get involved as a student or volunteer.
• Testimonies: from therapeutic riding students, regular lesson students, camp students, horse show participants, volunteers, and donors. Sprinkle these throughout the website on the appropriate pages. They are one of the easiest ways to add a compelling message.
• Volunteering: need a page just for volunteers. Provide lists of ways they can help with descriptions of those activities including leaders and sidewalkers, horse care, facility maintenance, fundraising, etc.
• Financial support: explain why you are worth supporting financially and how people can do so.
• Adopt a Horse: create a separate page with pictures of the horses and cute bios of each. Give potential donors something concrete to latch on to. It doesn't even matter if more than one adopt the same horse, it's still providing the support you need.
• Riding Facilities: the Riding Center has great facilities between the large outdoor ring, the cross-country course, and the availability of trails in the Glen Helen. Use pictures and descriptions of each, and include information for people who may want to trailer in for the day.
• Horse Shows: dates for the year, schedules, classes, entry fees, and info for competitors on trailering in, parking, etc.
• Contact: you need more than just a phone number! Be sure to include address, phone number, and an email where you can be reached. It's also a good idea to incorporate a contact form right on the site that visitors can fill it out and automatically generate an email to you.
• Special Events: Always be sure to add pages for special events that answer the who/what/when/where/why questions potential participants will be looking for.

• About
• History
• Staff
• Facilities
• Community Bulletin Board

• Lessons
• Camps
• Therapeutic Riding
• Horse Shows
• Event Calendar

• Donate
• Adopt a Horse
• Volunteer

• Color scheme: While the mixture of bright colors and pastels are the right shades to work well together, they appeal more to a younger audience instead of a more mature one that is most likely to be your donors and volunteers. The Riding Centre blue would be better complemented with earthier, more neutral colors to reach that older audience. There are also too many colors in general. 3-4 different colors used in consistent ways will be much more effective.
• Search box: because the website isn't all that big, the search function is not really necessary. In addition, it doesn't work very well. Visitors much delete the words "search this blog..." to type in their own query. Then, the search terms aren't always included in the list of results, so it's difficult to determine if you found what you are looking for.
• Website name/logo: one of the most important elements of a website design is the name or logo. Visitors may not always enter at the homepage, so it's important that it be very clear whose website this is. While having the horse jumping the logo is clever, the logo itself is much too small to be noticed. It really needs to be one of the most prominent elements on the page. The logo should always link back to the home page.
• Events and bulletin board: first, check spelling! You lose credibility very fast when "bulletin" is spelled "bulliten" on every page of the website. Secondly, these are great features to include, but they have very little information. How can I post to the community bulletin board? The horse show is listed as an event, but if I click on it, there is no additional information. Make sure that your extra functionality adds to the website and is easy to understand and use.
• Footer: add basic contact information, including your address, to the footer along with links to several key pages such as "about" "donate" and "volunteer" (there I go with the calls to action again!).
• Missing calls to action: if getting visitors to contact you about donating or volunteering is your main goal for the website, make that very obvious and easy to do.

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What this is about: This checklist covers multiple elements concerning the visual aspects of the website development. Some of the information here can be dismissed, depending on the type of site, but overall these are good points to consider during the design process.

Why this is important: The site design is essentially the first impression that someone gets when they land on your site. You may have all your usability and SEO elements in place, but if the design is lacking then your visitor's impression of you will be lacking as well. A visually appealing site can not only bolster trust and credibility, but it can make you stand out among other less-appealing sites in your industry.

What to look for:

• Instant site identification: As soon as landing on any page the visitor must be able to tell what website they are on.
• Crisp, clean image quality: Don't use old or blurry images. Keep them neat, clean and sharp.
• Clean, clutter-less design: Avoid trying to do too much at once. Keep navigation and content areas clear of unnecessary clutter.
• Consistent colors and type: Use the same colors and font styles from page to page.
• Whitespace usage: Don't pack too much in, allow some breathing room so important areas stick out.
• Minimal distractions: Be careful of images, animation and even links that pull the visitor into unwanted directions.
• Targets intended audience: Make certain that your design targets your audience with appropriate colors, layout and wording.
• Meets industry best practices: Design to be the best site in your industry. If there are industry-specific guidelines to be followed, be sure to do that.
• Easy to navigate: Make it is easy for your visitor to find the links they need to take them to their desired pages.
• Descriptive links: All links should accurately describe the destination page.
• Good on-page organization: Put page information together in a logical way and keep information where it is expected to be found.
• Easy to find phone number: Phone number should be easy to find regardless of page the visitor is on. The header is a great place for the phone number.
• Don't link screen captures: It's not a good idea to link screen captures to other pages. Use text links or buttons.
• Skip option for flash: If you use flash animations, have an option to skip it or turn it off all together.
• Consistent page formatting: Use a consistent layout from page to page so the site feels like one cohesive unit.
• No/minimal on-page styling: Use external CSS for all on-page styling. Only keep on the page what is specific for that page only.
• Avoid text in images: Don't place quality keyword rich text in images.
• Font size is adequate: Don't use excessively small fonts. Larger fonts increase readability of content.
• Font type is friendly: Use fonts meant for the web, rather than fonts designed for print.
• Paragraphs not too wide: Don't allow paragraphs to get too wide. Use absolute widths if necessary.
• Visual cues to important elements: Be sure important links and action items stand out visually from the rest of the content.
• Good overall contrast: Make sure text can be read (black on white) and colors don't bleed into each other.
• Low usage of animated graphics: Avoid animated graphics unless absolutely essential to the user experience.
• Uses obvious action objects: Calls to actions, links and subscribe buttons should be obvious at a glance.
• Avoid requiring plugins: Don't use plugins that visitors have to download before getting the full site experience.
• Minimize the use of graphics: Don't make your site graphic heavy to the point where the visitor is overwhelmed with visual eye-candy.
• Understandable graphic file names: Name your images and other files in a way that makes sense if read.
  No: /images/BDJ2330.jpg
  Yes: /images/boys-denali-jacket.jpg
• No horizontal scrolling: Make sure the design is not so wide that horizontal scrolling is required.
• Non-busy background: Keep site background unobtrusive to the main content areas of the site.
• Recognizable look and feel: Your site design should be distinctive to you alone. Avoid templates that are mass reproduced.
• Proper image / text padding: Give enough room between images and text so they don't bump up against each other.
• Uses trust symbols: Better Business Bureau, site security and other trust symbols should be in obvious (and applicable) locations.
• Works on variety of resolutions: Test site to be sure it works on a variety of different screen resolutions.
• Works on variety of screen widths: Test site to be sure it functions correctly on different width screens and browser windows.

Did I miss anything? Add to this list with your comments below. Check out all Web Marketing Checklists in this series.

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The ALT attribute is one of those bits of code that's been abused since day one. People can't remember it's name, they stuff it full of keywords or they ignore it entirely. So with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, I thought it might be fun to create a graphic that tells you what you need to know about using the ALT attribute.

With that in mind, here's my visual representation of the four primary reasons to use the ALT attribute.

Let's break these down a bit further by quadrant.

Text Only Browsers

Back when the ALT Attribute was originally created, its primary purpose was to serve users of text only browsers like Lynx. Surfers would browse a site and would be served up text-only content. Where an image might have appeared, the text browser displayed the alternative text.

While it's true that very few people surf the web with text-only browsers these days, there are people who still pay for their Internet usage by bandwidth who choose to turn images off. Since it's always a good idea to design for the masses but consider the minorities, it's simply good practice to make proper use of this attribute.

Accessible Browsers

Perhaps the most important reason to make use of the ALT attribute these days is to assist visitors who rely on accessible browsers to help them navigate the web. Visually impaired readers rely on software that reads the content of a site to them. When this software comes to an image, it checks the content of the ALT attribute and reads the content as part of the page.

(Note: This is why it's essential to make proper use of the ALT attribute instead of trying to shove it full of keywords to help your rankings. Imagine the frustration of a visually impaired user being forced to listen to an endless string of keywords every time their screen reader runs across an image on your site.)

Matt Bailey of Site Logic Marketing does a great job of showing what happens when you try to stuff keywords into your ALT attribute during his talks on accessibility by playing an audio file of a screen reader on a keyword stuffed site.

Mobile Browsers

While it's true that smart phones are quickly equipping the Internet addicted public with true browsers and quick access to the web, a good deal of web-enabled phones still rely heavily on the ALT attribute. There are several reasons for this.

First, many web-enabled phones operate with an extremely limited browser. Second, some of these browsers time out early on images and some simply don't display them at all. Third, a decent portion of people who own these phones still pay for Internet access based on bandwidth so many choose to surf with images off to keep their phone bills down.

Search Engines

Of course web enabled phones and accessible browsers and text only browsers still aren't going to be enough to convince everyone to use the ALT attribute. That's where search engines come into play. Yes, the search engines read and consider the words in your ALT attribute. No, they don't play a major role in impacting your rankings.

That said, they certainly aren't going to hurt your rankings and a well crafted ALT attribute will serve the three groups I mentioned above AND will be considered by search engines, so why on earth would you ignore them? Even beyond the standard search engine listings, you need to consider image search. More and more people are taking advantage of image search these days and the engines look to things like the ALT attribute, image tags, surrounding text and the like to decide which images to display.

There's a long tail of image search as well and making proper use of your ALT attribute can go a long way toward helping you pick up the traffic.

A Few Final Notes About the Alt Attribute

1.) While it's a good idea to include a descriptive alt attribute for the graphics on your web site, it's perfectly fine to leave the alt attribute blank for an image that is purely decorative. (When I say blank, I don't mean leave it out...I simply mean leave it empty. You need an ALT attribute if you want your code to validate.) There's no reason for those decorative images to find their way into image search engines and users with accessible browsers likely don't want to hear "pretty image" repeated over and over as they surf your web site.

2.) No, the alt attribute is not called "the alt tag," despite what you'll hear coming out of the mouths of otherwise code savvy individuals. (Even I slip up and call it that now and then.)

3.) ALT is short for "alternative." The alt attribute is for offering up a word-based alternative to the image you're presenting. Imagine you're reading the page to a friend out loud. What would you say to describe the image when you get to it? There's nothing wrong with having some keywords in there, but remember the primary function of the alt attribute is to describe the image.

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What this is about: This list contains a few items that pertain to site logo, how it's placed and its functional implementation.

Why this is important: The logo lends directly to brand identity and site identification. It also creates a certain element of appeal and professionalism in the mind of the visitor. It holds an important role in visitor assurance and navigation.

What to look for:

• Displays company name clearly: Your company name should not be lost in the logo. Eliminate unnecessary eye-candy so company name is proudly displayed.
• Isn't hidden among clutter: Don't clutter up your top navigation to the point that the logo is lost in the mess. Make sure it stands out from the rest of the header info.
• Links to home page: Logo should always link to the home page. Even if you have a "home" navigational link many users attempt to click the logo first.
• Unique and original: Make sure your logo isn't copied or near-duplicated from others. Create one that is original and unique to you alone.
• Use tag line consistently across site: If you don't have a tag line, make one and use it wherever your logo is displayed.

Did I miss anything? Add to this list with your comments below. Check out all Web Marketing Checklists in this series.

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According to Sage, the best things about Google's new web browser Chrome are how speedy it is and the ultimate usability of the address bar. Now, we're just waiting for the add ons and plug ins. Search Engine Roundtable talks about Google's increased ability to search Flash sites, and Microsoft updates their adCenter Keyword Research tool.

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One word says it all this week, Chrome! Will September 2, 2008 go down in history as the day Google launched not just a mere web browser but a new operating system? Sage thinks so. He foresees Google's Chrome as a complete departure from we have used and something that will one day come pre-installed on small computers, EPCs, etc.

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What this is about: This list covers a handful of browser functionality and compatibility issues, as well as user interface with the site via the browser.

Why this is important: The browser is (obviously) what we use to view websites. The goal is to give the visitor the best browsing experience possible, but we have to keep in mind that not all browsers are the same. We must make sure to accommodate different users, ensuring that they get the most value out of the site possible.

What to look for:

• Visible address bar: Make sure the browser's address bar is always visible to allow the visitor to know what site and page they are on.
• Fully functional navigation tools: Don't take away the users ability to maneuver the site using the browser's navigational buttons (back, forward, view source, etc.)
• Visible status bar: Don't take away the status bar at the bottom of the browser. Information here can be valuable to the user.
• Site works in multiple browsers: Make sure the site functions properly across multiple browsers and various platforms.
• No browser hi-jacking: When visitors click a link, don't hijack their browser by opening new windows that automatically resize. Let the visitor control how they want links to open.

Did I miss anything? Add to this list with your comments below. Check out all Web Marketing Checklists in this series.

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What this is about: This checklist covers various aspects of the domain and site URL structure, how they should be used and how to ensure proper site and browser functionality.

Why this is important: The domain name is part of the identity of your business. The URL chosen can have a significant impact on brand identity and in a lesser extent, keyword ranking performance. However, how your site domain name and page URLs function can have significant impact on the crawlability of the site as well as overall visitor and traffic performance.

What to look for:

• Short and memorable: Keep primary domain name short and, if possible, something easy to remember.
  No: creative-widget-solution-factory.com
  Yes: widgetfactory.com
• Uses Keywords: Use targeted keywords in your business name, and therefore domain name.
  No: degeyter-enterprises.com
  Yes: batterystuff.com
• Used in email addresses: Don't use free email accounts for business, rather use your business domain name for all business communications.
  No: pimpmcfly@aol.com
  Yes: stoney@polepositionmarketing.com
• Uses Favicon: Make sure your favicon shows in the address bar (create one if you must.)
• Site.com redirect to www. version: Set a canonical URL and be sure the other version 301 redirects.
  site.com redirects to www.site.com or vice versa
• Alternate Domain redirects: Make sure all alternate domain names 301 redirect to the primary domain to prevent potential duplicate site issues.
  batteryfreaks.com redirects to batterystuff.com
• Home page redirects to root: Your Home Page should be accessible from the domain root only, not the page file name.
  www.site.com/index.html redirects to www.site.com
• No underscores in filenames: Don't use underscores in filenames, go with hyphens instead.
  No: /battery_chargers.html
  Yes: /battery-chargers.html
• Keywords in directory names: Use keywords in directory names wherever applicable.
  No: /category2568/product8954.html
  Yes: /battery-chargers/samlex-24v.html
• Multiple pages per directory: Don't create directories for a single page but organize directories so multiple pages fit in a single directory.
  No: honda-chargers/honda-chargers.html, yamaha-chargers/yamaha-chargers.html
  Yes: chargers/honda.html, chargers/yamaha.html
• Registered for 5+ years: Keep your domain name registered for 5-10 years at a time, rather than renewing year to year.
• Multiple versions: Purchase multiple versions of your domain name, including .com, .org, .net, .biz, hyphenations between words, common misspellings. Also purchase alternate domain names such as product names, brand names and any other keywords that might be typed in randomly.

Did I miss anything? Add to this list with your comments below. Check out all Web Marketing Checklists in this series.

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Write posts about people in your company and what they're doing outside the company. Talk about Surya's bike race. Cover Monica's graduation ceremony for her MBA. Don't write like you're a proud company. Write like a person covering interesting moments in a person's life.

What does this bring back to your company? It brings a sense that you're human, that your organization contains humans, and that every message from you isn't a pitch or a sale. Instead, you're someone who not only markets, but cares about the people inside and outside the organization.

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Marketing a website isn't particularly difficult. It's usually just a matter of knowing what to do, how to do it and having the skills and time to get it done. With that said, marketing a website isn't particularly easy either. There are so many factors and variables in play that at any given time that the job can be quite overwhelming. Obviously I can't address the issue of whether or not you have the skills or time, but I can help you out with the "what to do" piece of the puzzle.

I've always been a lover of checklists, especially when it comes to getting things done. Especially when it comes to remembering what things need to be done! So over the last several years I've been putting together checklists for all kinds of things pertaining to website marketing.

Below is my master website marketing checklist covering over 400 specific items over 23 topics. These topics include things such as website development, SEO, usability, accessibility, etc. This list doesn't cover any "how tos," which are essential ingredients to successful online marketing, but sometimes you need to first know what to do so you can then discover how to do it.

For the sake of brevity, I have kept each check point to its briefest form providing very little explanation. I don't cover why any particular item is included, how important it might be, or what it even means. This is just the checklist in its rawest form.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll provide some additional explanation and insights to the lists below. And since this list is always a work in progress, any additional thoughts and insights are welcome. I'm always adding and removing things as I see fit. Which brings me to one more note: many items are included here based purely on my own preferences and by no means constitute an absolute truth or necessity.

Domain name & URLs (click heading for additional details)

Browser issues (click heading for additional details)

Site logo (click heading for additional details)

Design considerations (click heading for additional details)

Architectural issues

Navigation

Content

Content Appearance

Links and buttons

Home page

About Us page

Contact Us page

E-Commerce considerations

Product pages

Basket page

Mini baskets

Checkout process

Login & My Account pages

Help and FAQ pages

Forms and errors

Site search

Privacy and Security pages

Site map

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Last week I was fortunate to enjoy the company and tutelage of some talented web marketers at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. An annual occurrence, the San Jose conference is one of those particularly special events that I aim never to miss. On top of the incredible networking and party events such as the Google Dance and the Search Bash there were a great number of exceptional seminars on all facets of web marketing. In this case I would like to highlight my notes from a seminar in the paid advertising track titled "Ads in a Quality Score World".

What is Quality Score?
"Quality Score is a dynamic variable assigned to each of your keywords. It's calculated using a variety of factors and measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query." ... "Quality Score influences your ads' position on Google and the Google Network. It also partly determines your keywords' minimum bids. In general, the higher your Quality Score, the better your ad position and the lower your minimum bids." source: Google's AdWords Help Center.

Now that you know how important quality score is to the effectiveness and bottom dollar of a pay per click campaign it begs the question... how is quality score measured and how can you enhance your own to improve return on investment? That very question was the topic of the "Ads in a Quality Score World" session. After most of the presenters repeated the quality score factors outlined on this informative Google AdWords help page they provided some very helpful tips for the audience. The following is a list of the top 10 tips I took note of during the session:

The Top 10 Tips for Efficiently Working With and Improving Quality Score

1. Work on improving the quality score of keywords in your campaigns with the highest minimum bids. To identify the best keywords to work on go to AdWords reporting and run reports of the minimum bids and drop them into Excel then sort the list by price. The highest minimum bids are where quality score should be worked on to save money in the shortest order.
   
   
2. Brian Geddes of bg Theory LLC offers a handy quick reference chart that shows which of the major quality score factors affect the different quality score types.
   
   
3. In Google viewing your quality score can be done by un-hiding the quality score column via the "customize columns" menu found in the campaign information pane in Google AdWords. (Campaign Management à Campaign Summary à Campaign #1)
   
   
4. When focusing on improving the quality score to lower minimum bids it is recommended to start focusing on minimum bids that are costing you 25 cents or more. Anything less than 25 cents (unless those are all you have) would not be as worthwhile to improve.
   
   
5. Landing page load time has become a critical consideration within quality score. If you find your landing page's load time is not as fast as you would like it to be try minimizing the number of redirects, consider work arounds for slow servers (i.e. relocation may be worth considering) and balance your design and content on the landing page.
   
   
6. Create ultra-granular ad groups and draft keyword-specific copy for each ad group.
   
   
7. Creating landing pages specific to highly targeted ad groups will increase conversions as well as quality score. By the same token keyword tailored adcopy will improve click through rate as well as quality score.
   
   
8. Create keyword lists using the following keyword types: trademarks, non-brand, brand and long-tail terms. These keyword lists will bring you one step closer to having the type of granular campaign that favours higher quality scores.
   
   Note: Don't forget to include negative keywords while creating your keyword lists.
   
   
9. After creating a comprehensive list of keywords and negative keywords to work with you should create separate campaigns across all available match types (i.e. exact match, broad match, phrase match); but first start with exact match to build history for your campaign and then introduce the others. Over time after introducing additional negatives and after progressive keyword trimming you should be able to drop your phrase match budget substantially.
   
   Ultimately the goal is to capture every possible relevant query as an exact match. This will provide you with the highest click through rates (CTRs) which will improve quality score and lower your costs.
   
   
10. Account organization is the key to efficiently managing quality score as well as producing optimal conversions/click through rates. Take the time to setup your campaigns meticulously and your advertising dollars will be spent far more effectively.

Special kudos and thanks go to the seminar speakers that provided such great information:

• Brad Geddes, Founder, bgTheory.com
• Ron Jones, President/CEO, Symetri Internet Marketing
• Kendall Allen, Former Managing Director, Incognito Digital, Digital Marketing and Convergence Media Consultant
• Misty Locke, President & Co-founder, Range Online Media

Don't Forget! Search Engine Guide is presenting another phenomenal Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference. The Unleashed conference is a different breed of conference all together designed to provide the type of high quality training that is sure to leave you extremely well informed; the Unleashed agenda includes intensive work shops and a high trainer-to-participant ratio for ultimate learning potential.

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Lots of businesses use email as a marketing tool. One of the big issues they have to overcome is how to get the customer to actually open and read the email. There's an art to it, and even the best can't get recipients to read every email they send.

The one commercial email almost everyone reads

But you know, there's one kind of business email that almost always gets read, and almost never gets reported as spam. It's the confirmation email companies send to their customers when the customer makes a purchase.

I've probably received a few hundred of these over the years. (OK, I admit it; I do a lot of online shopping...) Most of them are pretty standard stuff. They thank me for my business and confirm what I ordered. Some give me information about the expected ship date. A few companies send a second email to let me know when my item has shipped and to give me a shipper tracking number.

All well and good, but if that's all your confirmation emails do, you're missing a big opportunity to grow your business. Did you know you can make your confirmation emails do double-duty? You can!

See, it seems to me one of the most overlooked techniques for getting what you want is to ask for it. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? You ask, the person you ask says no. Oh, the horror -- you're no worse off than you were before. And, ya know, there's always a chance they might say yes.

I admit this is something I had to learn the hard way, as have many other people I know. So it's an issue we're working on with my son. So far, I admit my success is mixed. He'll hint all around what he wants, but sometimes getting the kid to just come out and say what he's after is like pulling teeth. But he's getting better, so I have hope.

HOW you ask makes a difference

The thing we're trying to teach our son -- beyond the basic technique of simply standing up and asking straight out instead of wandering around dropping vague hints -- is to ask with respect. When you're polite, I think you up your chances of getting the answer you want. Get the other person's attention -- but not by hounding them or butting in on them when they're busy with something important. Say "please." Understand it's good to make a specific request, but it's not OK to get upset if they decide to do something for you that's a little different from what you asked. After all, they're doing you a favor. Say "thank you" and move on. It's rude to spend too much time examining the gift horse's dental work.

Fortunately, your confirmation email is something the customer is looking forward to. It's an email you can count on most folks at least opening and glancing over. Some will read in detail and even print it out. In other words, you already have their positive attention.

Now all you have to do is make a polite request.

So, what do you want?

Do you want to make more sales? Use your thank-you to suggest additional products that might be of interest to the customer. You can have a programmer write a routine to dynamically insert suggested cross-sales or upsales based on what the customer purchased. The routine can instead rotate through several standard products you'd especially like to promote. You can just include information about a single product -- perhaps a new release or a special purchase -- you want to share with all your customers. Or you can include a coupon code for the customer to use for a discount on a future order on the product(s) of her choice.

Do you want more links pointing to your website? I don't know too many business sites that would turn down more legitimate links... so use your thank-you to ask for them. I mean, it's possible -- nowadays, even likely -- your customers have one or more websites at their disposal. Maybe some of them will be happy enough with your product or service to give you a link or two from their site(s). Bonus! These are the kind of natural "vote for your site" the search engines are looking for.

Do you want more subscribers to your customer newsletter? Include a little marketing copy promoting the benefits of a subscription and a link to the sign-up page. Maybe you could offer an incentive (a free sample product, a members-only premium or a discount or coupon) for existing customers who sign up.

Do you want to recruit affiliates to sell your products? Many affiliate managers say people who use the product or service themselves are usually better at making sales. So you could add a short paragraph inviting your customers to check out your affiliate program, along with a link to a landing page where they can get full information about all the benefits and sign up.

Would you like more testimonials to use on your website and other marketing materials? Or are you seeking feedback about what you do right (and what could stand some improvement) to make your products or services better? Include a link to a survey page and ask your customers to tell you what they think. Again, offering a small incentive to those who complete the survey might help increase your response rate.

Does your company have a blog, or would you like to get more of your customers to "follow" you on your favorite social networking site? Include a link and an invitation to read the corporate blog, follow your company on Twitter, become your company's fan on FaceBook, or whatever.

Do you want to reach out to people who aren't yet your customers? Maybe you could work out a deal with a complimentary (non-competing) business to trade recommendations. You could include a recommendation of their product or service on your confirmation email, and they could do the same for you. It's a win-win situation -- your companies both get promoted to a whole new group of customers.

Whatever else you might want your customers to do for you -- just ask. You may be surprised at the positive response.

Of course, I wouldn't recommend doing all of these things at once! You don't want your thank-you emails to be the size of War and Peace. (Trust me on this one, you don't.) I recommend starting with your "most wanted" and trying it. If it works, great... and if not, try something else. Over time, as you refine your knowledge of what types of requests are most likely to get a positive response, your success rate will rise.

The possibilities are nearly endless; the potential benefits are great. And to start the ball rolling, all you have to do is ask.

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I scan hundreds of feeds and read dozens of articles each day so you don't have to. From hyperlocal blogging to Google AdWords "Automatic Match" to new ways to use Twitter and LinkedIn, find out the six articles I dubbed as must-read for the small business crowd today.

• If you enjoyed Matt McGee's post on Hyperlocal Blogging earlier this week, you'll be pleased to hear he's back with more. Part Two focuses on choosing a domain and setting up your blog. Part Three talks about developing a content focus and Part Four offers tips on marketing the blogs. Matt wraps up the series today with Part Five, an overview of what's worked and what hasn't. Overall, it's an excellent series for anyone looking to use blogs as part of a local search strategy.



• Frank Reid offers up a good reminder on the need to be committed to search marketing if you want to reap the benefits. Frank offers up his advice over at Biznology and points out how difficult it can be for small and medium businesses to either learn enough or trust a partner enough to get their search engine optimization and search engine marketing up and running.



• SEO Copywriting guru Karon Thackston reminds site owners of the need to get their selling points front and center in their web site copy. According to Karon, it's not just about creating a mood and using your keywords, it's about differentiating yourself.



• If you're a fan of Twitter and are looking for ways to maximize it's use, you'll want to check out a helpful list of Twitter tools over at Home Office Warrior. There were several in there I hadn't tried yet, and quite a few I find essential to good Tweeting. On a similar vein, check out "Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn That You Never Thought Of" over at MBA Explorer.



• Thinking about taking advantage of Google AdWords' Automatic Match feature to expand your paid search campaigns? If so, you may want to read the results of some testing done by Jim Gilbert and Mike Churchill over at the SEM Clubhouse blog.



• Barry provides links to a discussion in Google Groups that talks about whether Flash is still a problem with search engine optimization. While it's true the engines have announced they're making strides toward reading and properly indexing the content in Flash files, a former Googler issues a smart reminder of why Flash should still be used with caution.

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Everyone wants to celebrate a viral success at some point in their marketing life. After all, who wouldn't be thrilled to have their message take off like a streak around the web? The problem comes when you get so focused on the spreadability of an idea you miss the marketing ability of an idea.

In this four part series I'll dig beyond the hype of Viral Marketing and look at four key lessons companies need to learn before diving into this style of outreach. Part one covered the need to know your customer and to speak to their desires. Part two talked about the need to be remarkable in either your business or your marketing. Part three took a look at the hardest commandment to follow; the need to try, try again. Today, I'll wrap things up by pointing out the three levels of viral impact and which level you should aim for.

Viral marketing campaigns tend to fall into three distinct categories when it comes to generating marketing or branding impact. They can get attention, they can build your brand and/or they can sell your product. In an ideal world, you'd find a way to make all three happen. In a realistic world, you may need to ask yourself which of these goals matter most to you.

Do You Want to Get Attention?

When most people think viral, they think of the campaigns that hit and hit big. Subservient Chicken, the Diet Coke and Mentos fountain, JibJab's "This Land is Your Land" and some of the other viral greatest mega hits all have one thing in common. They're entertaining enough people feel like they're spreading joy rather than a marketing message.

But there are some pitfalls to the "get attention" approach as well. With that in mind, let's take a look at the Elf Yourself campaign from the last two years. Elf Yourself allowed you to upload a photo of yourself or a friend and generate a video of a dancing elf with your face to send off to anyone and everyone. It was such a hit, it spread beyond the web and ended up being featured on tons of nightly news and morning shows.

But take a close look at the video snippet of Elf Yourself on Good Morning America:

Did you notice anything there?

Did you ever hear mention of which company Elf Yourself was promoting? Nope. In fact, ask yourself right now...what company put Elf Yourself out there as a viral effort? Do you know? (I'll bet roughly 20% of you do and most of you know only because you've heard or read the case study so many times.)

Now, go ask someone else you know...what company was Elf Yourself promoting?

The answer is Office Max, but only a small portion of the people I've ever asked can answer that question. Why? Because the Office Max brand isn't integrated into the ad. Office Max did something fun and sent it out. Sure, it went big, but what benefit did they really reap from it?

You have to ask yourself if that's the kind of viral attention you want to score for your company.

Do You Want to Build Your Brand?

A better option than focusing on simply creating something likely to go viral is creating something viral that builds your brand. This is really only a slight departure from the "seeking attention" plan, but it's an important departure. The idea here is to carefully integrate your company name or product name into the viral effort so there's no question what's being promoted.

A great example of this style of viral marketing is the McDonald's Chicken McNugget Rap commercial. McDonald's spotted the user generated rap on YouTube a little over a year ago and recognized the opportunity. They purchased the rights to the video, spliced in a commercial message and ran it both on YouTube and as as a prime time commercial. The video does a good job of retaining it's catchy "non-corporate" viral feel, but there's simply no question what it's promoting.

The original video has logged more than 1.7 million views on YouTube alone and the subsequent commercial has logged nearly half a million. While the video never went as viral as some of the examples I mentioned in the first category, there's no question what they were promoting. McDonald's enjoyed a slightly smaller reach, but benefited from a much larger impact thanks to the integrated branding.

But there's still an even better way to build your viral message for maximum impact.

Do You Want to Sell Your Products?

My favorite form of viral marketing is the type that promotes both your brand and your product. The ones that give people a reason to want what you have while still entertaining, educating and encouraging pass alongs. These types of campaigns are hard to come by, but there are several great examples out there.

The best one I've seen has to be Blendtec's "Will it Blend?" campaign.

Created on a shoe-string budget, the campaign brilliantly accomplishes several things.

1.) It's entertaining enough people will want to pass it along.

2.) It clearly and definitively explains the value of a Blendtec blender. (The blender may cost $400, but it will blend anything you could ever dream of putting in it without breaking.)

3.) It's ongoing. There are literally dozens of Will it Blend videos on YouTube with new ones added regularly. The old ones still play, but the new ones capture attention and give people a reason to go back and view the old ones as well.

4.) It plays off reader feedback. Will it Blend regularly blends popular new products based on reader requests, essentially turning "being blended" into a pop culture status symbol.

The results have been stunning. Both awareness and sales of Blendtec's home blender line went through the roof. Blendtec captured that rare combination of entertainment, education and persuasion. In an ideal world, it's what your company would go after as well.

Put it All Together

You can create a successful viral campaign following any one of the four commandments. You can create an excellent viral campaign by following two or three of them. You can create a Will it Blend? style campaign by carefully following all four and adding in a hefty dose of timing and luck.

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The government is finally on the social media bandwagon. The U.S. Dept. of State not only has a blog with comments but it also has YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and Facebook accounts, plus RSS feeds. Also in the news, Yahoo launches their Buzz.com site, emulating other social bookmarking sites like Digg. Search Engine Watch talks about the implications of Google AdWords turning back on all inactive keywords as well as Google's continued domination with 71% of searches in July. Last but not least, check out Zillow's new showcase ads based on zip codes.

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