JOHN SUMSER,
S P O N S O R S Find out more
Hall Of Fame8 Corners of ECommerceTypes
of Links
Red Herring
The advertising industry is on the verge of being shattered into a thousand fragments due to the knowledge explosion and the proliferation of new technologies. There are no more grand theories that hold sway over the entire industry. Michael Strangelove
Advertising is
Reality
The System
It's better to
All material on this
|
... |
Click OK to receive our occasional Newsletter
Regular readers of our columns and attendees at our seminars
for recruiters will be aware that we are leery of the use of the word
"community" when applied to the Web.
After all, "community" in the accepted sense of the word is a "body
of people living in same locality; body of people having religion, profession
etc in common" (Concise Oxford English Dictionary).
Obviously, the first part of this definition cannot apply to a virtual environment.
Which is not to say that an "online community" cannot exist, simply
that the term is, in our opinion, over- and often mis-used.
So how can you create the notion of a commonality of interest around your
Website?
An obvious channel is the institution of a "chat area" - which
has unfortunate connotations, not entirely unjustified. "Chat" takes
place in real time, which makes it subject to the vagaries of time zones.
It is also ephemeral, the start of any given thread being perhaps several
screens away. It is also subject to the 80/20 rule: 20% of users contribute
80% of the input. And, in general, the quality of discourse is not high.
We prefer the model used by Anchor
Desk. In this model, users are invited to comment on a posted article,
which in turn is posted. Further participants comment on the response as well
as the original article, and thus begins an ongoing "conversation".
One advantage is that site content becomes self-generating and semi-permanent.
Another is that you are facilitating a genuine commonality of interest, centred
upon a specific topic or series of topics.
As a recruiter, for example, you may wish to post an article about employment
trends in your particular occupational area. It helps if the article is somewhat
contentious.
Now distribute the article via eMail along with a link to the site and an
invitation to comment (you may wish to brief a "shill" to get the
ball rolling...). Of course, the 80/20 rule applies.
In this way, you will begin to build a core constituency who will return
to your site in order to see what you and other respondents are up to today.
Repeat weekly or as prescribed... --John
Blower
Now that the Gorilla is behind
WebTV, we suppose that
we'll be
seeing more of the great unwashed accessing our sites through their 36"
Sonys.
Indeed, WebTV estimates that an astonishing 95 million
Americans will
access the Web through the boob tube in 1998.
Of course, we all know that the Web isn't "just another
channel",
although we suspect that URLs accompanying TV ads subconsciously
convey that
impression.
We suppose that, eventually, we shall have to come to terms with reality.
So what are the design constraints imposed by WebTV?
Here they are:
IOHO, putting that lot together would give you nothing less than a
dog's
dinner of a site...
Is it worth it? Nah!
(BTW - you can find the Full Monty
at http://www.webtv.net/primetime/preview/design/sguide-3HTML)
--John
Blower
"Spammers" are universally excoriated, at least in the circles in
which
we move.
But "universally"? Perhaps not.
A recent survey undertaken by California-based Internet research
firm, Esearch
appears to indicate that one man's (Ooops!
"person's"...)
"Spam" may be another's source of sustenance.
A respondent group numbering 2,041 was characterized by being
young, educated,
and relatively affluent with males (49%) and females (51%) evenly represented.
Their marital status was also evenly represented (married 49%; not
married
50%). Half of the respondents live in households with two members
contributing
to their annual income. Over half (58%) of the respondents did not
have children
under the age of 18 living in the household. The households were
relatively
small with a majority containing one to three members (68%).
Here's the interesting stuff:
What this appears to indicate is that, as Web access expands and
the number
of naive users increases, so the definition - or at least the
perception
· of what is and what is not "spam" may change.
Indeed, today's processed product may be tomorrow's nutritious,
USDA-approved
food supplement...--John
Blower
Like most great ideas, it seems so obvious. Instead of forcing a user to
plow through thousands of search engine results to find, say, dinosaur sites,
organize dinosaur-related sites into interlinked "rings," enabling the surfer
to move between sites known to be on the topic.
A simple enough concept, and the advantage is that you know that visitors
who come to your site via the "ring" are, by definition, interested
in your subject matter.
The first, largest and most ambitious is Webring,
which plays host to 18,000 rings linking nearly a quarter of a million sites,
and is currently adding an astonishing 1,800 sites a day!
The site provides a subject-oriented search engine. Simply plug in a keyword,
and a list of available rings is provided. A search using the word "recruitment"
provided a grand total of three rings, one of which ("Mentoring")
was redundant, and the other two were directed at job seekers. (Why job sekers
would want a ring escapes us...)
If the subject of your choice isn't available, then you can create your own
ring, although it's fair to point out that setting one up can be quite time-consuming
and requires a fairly comprehensive knowledge of HTML.
It strikes us that, with the mind-boggling proliferation of sites and the
imminent breakdown of the search engine model, a canny recruiter (for example)
may find it worthwhile to plug into a ring which concerns itself with the
professional or technical field into which they are trying to recruit.....
Or even, in the co-operative spirit of the New Medium, team up with a number
of other recruiters in complementary fields to offer a focussed service to
those seeking a career move....
Just a thought. --John
Blower
In this column, we have discussed various ways of getting your
site listed
with various Search Engines.
Let's take a step back at this point and take a fairly broad
overview of
the function of Search Engines and one way in which you can improve
your placement
in them.
The Web currently has literally thousands of Search Engines and
Directories
where you can list your site.
In point of fact, most traffic travels through seven engines and one directory.
It's therefore sensible to concentrate your efforts (at least
initially) on
trying for good placement on those sites.
The major directory is Yahoo!. It differs from the engines
inasmuch as sites
are selected for inclusion by people, and are arranged by both
subject area
and geography. Regard it, if you will, as a Table of Contents of a
book, with
the search engines functioning as indices (with greater or lesser
levels of
inclusion).
The major Search Engines are:
This last, Northern Light, is a relative newcomer. It reputedly has
the most
comprehensive index of the Web. It also "pre-sorts" the results of a
search
· information is, allegedly, a mere "four clicks away" from hitting the search
button. Northern Light also provides access to information not on the
Web through
its "Special Collection", which is available on a "dollars for data" basis.
Each engine categorizes and ranks sites slightly differently. Many
engines
use "meta tags" as a means of categorization and assessment, while
other, most
notably Excite! ignore them. The concept of "keywords" is central to any meaningful ranking in the engines.
"Keywords" are words - and combinations - which define the content of your page(s).
The important thing is to remember that they need to be chosen from
the potential
user's point of view. For example, as a recruiter based in Kansas and looking to fill
retail positions
in the North East, you may perceive your "keywords" as "Kansas,
recruitment,
retail, North East, career, careers, job etc etc". However, if you shift perspective to the user's point of view and try
to imagine
what search terms would give rise to your listing, you would probably
come up
with a very different list - for example "executive, career,
opportunity, retail,
Boston". Keywords first come into play in the " And avoid repetition. This is known as "search engine spamming" and is penalized by most engines. We'll be taking a look at other specific techniques for improving search engine listings in future columns. --John Blower LinkExchange Member
Take a look at the Archives. We've indexed all the past issues with topic pointers.
All material on this site is © 1995, 1996 by IBN (The Internet Business Network), Mill Valley, CA 94941 |