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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
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Administering a survey is a great way of gathering information on site
visitors in order to tweak your product/service and site to better serve
them.
(Of course, this si predicated on the assumption that your site is
providing value-added content to its visitors, otherwise there is no
incentive for the survey to be completed.)
The mechanics of designing and posting a survey page can, however, be
burdensome for the technically-challenged.
SurveySolutions for the
Web is a complete package which simplifies the design, delivery and results
management of surveys.
The package is Microsoft Office Compatible, and "builds on your familiarity
with business software to streamline designing, conducting and analyzing
Web and e-mail-based surveys".
You can download a 30-day evaluation copy of the package from the Perseus site - which is
attractive and easy to navigate. The full version costs $149 (electronic)
or $179 with disks and full documentation.
At the end of the day, a major source of site traffic must be search
engines. (We are of the opinion that their utility has become severely
circumscribed recently, and that this process will continue. Still, for the
time being...).
In point of fact, being in a SE index will do little to promote your site
traffic - unless you are on the first three pages (how many times have you
been to page 20 in Alta Vista?).
Web Position
Analyzer is a promotional spider which "utilizes Artificial
Intelligence (AI) to read the content of your web pages and makes dynamic
additions to your postings. It greatly improves the quality of
registration and places you near the top of categories in most of the
search engines."
Not only that, but it allows you to monitor positioning of your site in the
major (and some minor) SEs - as well as that of your clients or competitors.
You can download an
evaluation copy, which comes packed full of information about how SEs rank
sites, hints on keyword usage and how to best use this useful gizmo.
The full version is undergoing a major upgrade, and is currently
unavailable. Net Submitter Professional costs $100, with a year of
upgrades costing an additional $50.
After you have registered your evaluation copy, you are offered the
opportunity to subscribe to MarketPosition Newsletter, which will
help you through the SE maze.
We also liked the fact that the folks at WebPosition followed up with an
eMail offering free advice and help if any problems were encountered using
the application.
Go for it!--John
Blower
As hardware prices drop through the floor (at least here in the US), so the
specifications of the average "newbie's" starter-kit rise to unprecedented
levels. (This is based upon a correspondent's completely unscientific
observation of the thousands of dollars' worth of hardware leaving a CompUSA store on a recent Saturday.)
The behemoths being purchased in profusion feature the ability to support
all the latest and greatest multi-media gew-gaws. And, of course, the
ability to access the Web through a couple of mouse clicks (credit card in
hand) is a given.
But having accessed the Web, where does a "newbie" go? Well, probably in
the first instance, to either the Gorilla or the homepage of the
ISP whose CD they picked up in the store.
Novice traffic then cascades down from these sites, in most cases to the
sites of established players, corporations with household brand-names. And
these sites will probably feature effects supported by our novice user's
new machine.
This phenomenon will tend to shape the novice's expectations of what a
website does and what one looks like.
So what can smaller fish do to make their sites attractive to those whose
expectations have been shaped by the full multi-media monty?
The answer lies in simplicity.
In much the same way as twentieth-century abstract art evolved as a
reaction to the Baroque complexity of the visual art of the Victorian age
(we are thinking here of Mondrian and Picasso as prime
exemplars), so we believe that simple, elegant design will, in the end, win
out.
But when approaching site design and architecture, keep in mind these two
fundamental principles:
As part of our ongoing process of monitoring recruitment-oriented sites, we
subscribe to a number of agents which monitor the appearance of new sites
and report back via eMail.
Whats New?, for example,
reports back weekly on new entrants in a wide variety of fields. In the
field of Jobs and Employment, What's New? reports an average
of 30 - 50 new sites a week.
A lot of these new sites, it's fair to point out, are MLM-oriented and are
blatant pitches for other spurious "get-rich-quick" schemes.
Nonetheless, that leaves a healthy number of new recruitment-oriented sites
joining the 25,000+ already out there.
Cresta Recruiting is one
such new site. It bears the hallmarks of some thought having gone into the
design and architecture. Images are suitably minimalist, and the site has a
clean look and feel. Job descriptions are comprehensive, and the copy is
appropriate for the audience. And Cresta has adopted the practice of
including full contact information on every page, something which eludes
many.
We would venture to suggest, however, that Michelle Cresta re-examine her
META TAGs - they do not appear to be particularly user-oriented.
We wonder what Cresta's plans for site promotion are.
In other news, Digby Clarke alerts us to his new site Recipes for Life.
It's straightforward advice for those facing life crises, presented in a
tabbed notebook format. The site is a mite graphics-heavy for our taste,
and that "splash page" serves no apparent purpose. Nonetheless, if you feel
the need for reassurance that you are "normal", Digby's site is worth an
off-duty visit... --John
Blower
The Society of Iranian
Professionals is an organization whose "mission" [sic] is
"to improve opportunities for, and promote the recognition of Iranian
professionals from a wide range of disciplines and professions."
Founded in 1982, SIP claims to have no political or religious preferences.
Based in the Bay Area of Northern California, SIP aims to:
The organization not only acts as a clearing-house for the collection of
the resumes of Iranian professionals, but the site actively solicits
advertising.
So what? you ask.
Well, your correspondent - who spent a year in Iran in the mid-70's and who
last visited the country just before the Islamic Revolution - is aware that
many of the emerging middle-class at the time attended school in the US,
gaining qualifications across a variety of occupational areas. And that
many of those same professionals who returned to Iran, fled to the US as
exiles before, during, and after the Revolution.
In other words, here is a group of US-qualified professionals who are
linguistically accomplished, and, for the most part, culturally integrated.
Recruiters who wish to reach this geographically-specific group may wish to
investigate the possibilities of using the SIP site as a medium of
communication, either through advertising or sponsorship.
Take a look at the Archives. We've indexed all the past issues with topic pointers.
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