Sorry to be so crass, but  it’s like an issue of Star Magazine when they make a big deal about Brad’s new shoes. WHO GIVES A SH*T! In case you haven’t been forwarded the viral video, or haven’t seen the pile of headlines raping the worldwide news sites (AP: “Barack Obama: The human flyswatter,” Canadian Press, NY Daily News, and also TV Personalities Bill Maher, John Stewart, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon )….check out the video on YouTube. According to ViralVideoChart.com, the video has received over 3.2 million views across the internet since it’s debut on June 16th during a CNBC interview.

Just Curious…Who DOES give a sh*t?

I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t try and find a few internet idiots who actually cared, and in some cases, were actually OFFENDED?! That’s right! I now present to you EXHIBIT A: PETA miffed at President Obama’s fly “execution”. If it was a bird or a dog, I’d understand, but this was a FLY! Nearly everyone has killed an annoying insect quickly without thinking. “Believe it or not, we’ve actually been contacted by multiple media outlets wanting to know PETA’s official response to the executive insect execution. In a nutshell, our position is this: He isn’t the Buddha, he’s a human being, and human beings have a long way to go before they think before they act.” And the best part?…The group has sent Obama a device that traps a fly so it can then be released outside.

You think that was bad? Now for EXHIBIT B: Obama kills fly, Obama kills Iranians: Do we need to stop and think before acting?. They agree PETA was a bit extreme, “However, when killing people and invading other countries, some serious thought is required.” Wait…did they just compare him killing a fly to killing people? They continue on…

“Obama is just like the previous US Presidents. He has enormous power. [..] Obama could stop our needless killing and causing of great suffering just as quickly. But he hasn’t done that. He’s behaving just like he did with the fly, acting without considering the consequences of his actions. He’s only human, but he has chosen to take on a position of great power.”

Wow! All that from Obama killing a fly. That take a good amount of imagination. Who thinks of this garbage? At least some people have a sense of humor. Jimmy Fallon remarked “That’s some pretty impressive hand-eye coordination right there. Makes Obama look like a bad ass.” AMEN BROTHER! I guess Mr. Miyagi would be very proud of Obama. Speaking of witch, here’s the famous Ninja re-mix of the legendary “FlyKill”:

Posted under Blogs, Online Video, Viral Marketing

I recently started web design/online marketing agency First Time Online, LLC. Our 1st motto is It’s Time to Get Online. Assuming that you’ve arrived at that same conclusion refer to our 2nd motto, It Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive In Order To Be Effective. Once you’ve made the decision to create a website, there are essential tasks that will define the overall success of your site. The best part is most of those things can be done for free!

The only reason this article exists is because of another article I wrote for HP back in January (Using WordPress To Grow Your Business). Interestingly enough, I received great visitor feedback which ultimately led me to start First Time Online, LLC. Based on popular demand, I was approached to write another article for their newsletter (which has a distribution of about 80,000+). You can also check it out on the HP Logoworks Small Business site,“Free Website Essentials 101?.

GETTING STARTED

Before you build a site, you need to register a domain name (i.e. www.MyBusiness.com) which also means the use of a personalized e-mail address. I would suggest using GoDaddy.com. It’s a tough economy which means “Coupons” and “Promo Codes” are 100% necessary. It’s easy to find coupon codes that will save you money. I found a pretty good list on FatWallet.com. Half the codes go inactive very quickly, but the forum is constantly being updated. Once you have a website name, you need to consider hosting your site securely. GoDaddy provides those services, but if you want to get a better deal I would suggest the use Blue Host, as they are affordable and you get a free domain name when you sign up with them. The key here is saving money and nothing is better than free.

SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY FORMAT

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the amount and quality of traffic to your site from organic searches within search engines. There’s no cost to get listed naturally in Google, Yahoo and MSN…your job is to try and rank correctly for any given search. For example, if you sell Shoes online, then when someone searches for Shoes in Google, your website would hopefully pop-up. In order for search engines to do this, they use crawlers to find pages to feed out as search results. If those crawlers have a hard time reading your websites code, then your chances of getting listed are decreased. There are free tools out there to help you optimize your website and I would highly suggest the use of Google Webmaster as a starter. I can’t stress this enough so I’ll repeat it one more time: Without good SEO, you’ll have to pay for people to find you. Your chance of selling a product to someone who is looking for you is higher than someone who is not.

UNDERSTAND YOUR TRAFFIC

Without a question, analytics is the double-edged sword of Online Marketing. The information you can collect about your visitors is extremely valuable, but the amount of information can be overwhelming. Set a benchmark for yourself and use analytics software to help define whether or not you’re reaching pre-assigned goals. Google Analytics has an internal feature to help track visitors and goal reaching. By understanding such things as, source of traffic and content-overview, you’ll be able to help your site evolve into a stronger source of business…and again, this software free.

BE CONTACT FRIENDLY

A business without a website is like an individual without a cell phone, they’re impossible to reach. If you’re a business with a website, then you should be very easy to reach. Unfortunately, that’s not always the cases. In order to increase visibility, a company should register for local listings on the major search engines. For Google, go to www.google.com/local/add and for Yahoo!, check out http://listings.local.yahoo.com/. When an individual searches for your company, your contact information will come up in the search, making it easier for them to reach you.

On another related topic, a few of my clients have expressed the fear of “e-mail spam” and have refused to lend out their contact information. There’s a very easy way around this: A “Contact-Us” page with a contact form and spam protection methods including a visual based key code that must be entered in order to send. Ask your web developer to put something like this together for you, or refer to free contact form services such as FreeContactForm.com. (Notice how it’s FREE!)

REMEMBER: EFFECTIVE ISN’T EPENSIVE

It doesn’t have to expensive in order to be effective. Your main objective is to stay focused on your goals, which by now, you should have an idea of what they are. If you’re trying to sell a product, then your goal is to direct traffic as far down the purchase process as possible. If you’re selling a service, then your goal is to get visitors to contact you. Want examples of what I mean? Take a look at Craigslist. The site serves over twenty billion page views per month, putting it in 28th place overall among web sites world-wide, and analysts value the site to be worth over $150 million. The best part is…their interface is simplistic and commonly referred to as “ugly”, BUT it’s effective.

SIMPLE METHODS TO INCREASE TRAFFIC

If you’re looking to bump up your traffic, then consider adopting some of the following trends: Company Newsletters, Blogging, Social Networking, Videos on your website and finding sponsors to host local events. Your goal is to create buzz, drive traffic and create loyal customers.

If you manage to do all of this, there’s no doubt that success will follow. Somehow “free” just smells, looks and tastes better!

Posted under Blogs, E-Mail, Online Marketing, Online Video, SEO/SEM, Social Networks, Viral Marketing

I really wish I was kidding right now…but I am 100% serious! Man vs. Wild premiered the video Tuesday, June 2, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Here’s how they pitched it on youtube:

“In the harsh arctic tundra of Sweden, Bear Grylls and Will Ferrell from the Land of the Lost set out to conquer the wilderness … together. See if they make it out alive.”

It’s all due to Will Ferrell’s recent film starring in Land of The Lost. Bear Grylls and Discovery Channel used this as an opportunity to promote their Facebook (facebook.com/ManVsWild) and Twitter (@beargrylls) popularity. Just watch the promo:

How the heck did I find this video?

Well, unfortunately I found it by accident. I guess you can say that’s the true art of viral marketing, when it reaches users randomly with an impact. I was researching the youtube trial pre-video ads, when I happened to wittness a post-video, only to be too in shock to hit “print-screen” to capture prof. I’ll make sure to follow up with an article…BUT NOW BACK TO HOW I FOUND THIS VIDEO. I simply typed in Discovery Channel and it was the 2nd one down from the top.

My Thoughts?

This is HUGE! Will ferrell is simply a genius. He is the genius by one of the top comedy video sites online, FunnyOrDie.com. I wrote an article on it about a year ago titled FunnyorDie.com: Online Video and TV Merge. Seriously, Will Ferrell is doing everything right online. I have a feeling this is just the beginning.

Posted under Online Video, Viral Marketing

According to the facebook blog, users will finally have the chance to create usernames for their profiles:

“From the beginning of Facebook, people have used their real names to share and connect with the people they know. This authenticity helps to create a trusted environment because you know the identity of the people and things on Facebook. The one place, though, where your identity wasn’t reflected was in the Web address for your profile or the Facebook Pages you administer. The URL was just a randomly assigned number like “id=592952074.” That soon will change.

We’re planning to offer Facebook usernames to make it easier for people to find and connect with you. When your friends, family members or co-workers visit your profile or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you. We expect to offer even more ways to use your Facebook username in the future.”

How will this change everything?

This really follows the whole idea of making the internet a more “Search Friendly” (ie: SEO Friendly) environment to help users find their way through all the crap being added daily. My question is WHY THE HELL HAS IT TAKEN THEM THIS LONG? LinkedIn and Twitter have been doing this for ages. In fact, most social networks adhere to the “user-name”.  Now, browsing for the correct user URL will be that much easier:

Room For Concern…

I am a bit concerned about the ‘you get 1 chance’ rule. They warn users to “think carefully about the username you choose. Once it’s been selected, you won’t be able to change or transfer it.” Now that’s just not fair! Why not step up their game and find a way to make it so you can choose multiple user names. Like “Keyword” for SEO, this will help expand the searchability of each individual.

Either way, this is a great move for Facebook and will definitely help them out in terms of increasing traffic and overall ease of use. Good job! As usual, I look forward to seeing a “We Hate Facebook Usernames” facebook group…though in this case, I’m not sure that will happen (though I wouldn’t be surprised).

Posted under Blogs, SEO/SEM, Social Networks