It’s The Holiday Season!

Not much good me telling you that. But when your favorite online store or preferred real estate information portal seems to be in the festive mood as well, I’m sure you would pay a lot more attention to it.

Customizing your website according to the current holiday or season is an excellent way to generate PR for your business. Your market knows you are as savvy as you claim to be. Additionally, consumers spend more in an environment that makes them feel good; and when a personal touch is added to a retail business, consumers are known to not mind the expense.

The web developers at Clear Media Online can customize websites for holidays using a lot of appealing features like animations, catchy graphics and interactive flash pages. Whether the holiday is for a celebration or for commemorative purposes, we are able to customize accordingly.

It is important to time holiday website customizations according to the start and end of a particular holiday. Consumers can get annoyed trying to locate what they are looking for on the website if a 4th of July podcast keeps popping up during Halloween.

Holiday customizations have to be included in the regular content of a website in such a manner as to not detract the site visitor from pursuing the main purpose of his search. For instance, a visitor looking out for hubcaps on an automobile website can get turned off if an animated page showing Santa singing a carol pops up. The customization has to be in sync with what the website offers.

At Clear Media Online, the website designing and website development packages we offer are some of the best available on the net. The websites we develop can be customized according to client requirements. Each website is designed according to the business it promotes.

Happy Holidays!!

The Personalized E-experience:

High paying guests are treated like royalty in every business. Whether it is a hotel or a departmental store, a database of customers is regularly maintained and updated. It’s all about maximizing profits. The profit-makers are a valuable part of every organization worth its name. The biggest benefit of the personal touch practice is retaining customer loyalty.

Online, the issue of customization and personalization is given a lot of thought. While it is impossible for a retailer to personally write a mail or send a message to every visitor that visits the site or makes a purchase, it is possible to invest a little more time and attention to detail.

For instance, if there is a visitor from Singapore viewing the products of a company that retails primarily in Europe, adding a store locater can make it easier on the international visitor. The visitor knows that there is a chance that he can avail of the company’s services and the company in turn has secured a potential buyer.

The search engine bigwigs are constantly developing newer and advanced methods to woo the average consumer. Targeted advertisements, smarter search engine algorithms, social bookmarking, file/ photo/ video/ audio sharing, widgets and a host of options are today available to a retailer to get closer to his market.

At Clear Media Online, we understand the value of personalization. We study the latest market trends and focus exclusively on those areas which can benefit our clients. We also encourage client participation in each of our projects. After all, who can know a business better than the business owner!

Visit us today to avail of a range of successful e-marketing and SEO services. Click here to know more.

The Mad Hatters And The Smart SEOs:

When any kind of important electronic information is stored on a computer, it becomes imperative that protection of this information is not overlooked. There are rogues that exist in the virtual world and they usually consider breaching a system’s security as child’s play.

Black hat crackers and white hat hackers have a close knowledge of the security systems that are weaved to protect an organization’s information. The manner in which they treat this information is the determining factor in their difference from each other. Sometimes the term hacker in used in conjunction with both these groups.

While black hat hackers are malignant forces in the hacking community, white hats form their complete antithesis.

In e-marketing circles, online search engines frown upon SEO techniques that compromise a website’s relevancy.These techniques involve the inclusion of hidden or invisible text and links, creating mirror websites, link spamming, etc. and are termed as black hat SEO or simply spamdexing.

Spamdexing generates traffic for a website that does not hold any relevancy in terms of content or search results. Just like black hat hackers, black hat SEO techniques are a malicious presence on the Internet. While the real world treats black hat hackers with strict action, the online world has its own system of dealing with black hat SEO users, via the search engine.

Search engines utilize algorithms to screen out websites that seem to apply black hat SEO. These sites are treated as search engine abusers and are simply not included in search engine results.

At Clear Media Online, we make use of ethical SEO techniques. Our methods are search engine friendly and assist in garnering natural listings in search engines. The integrity, accessibility and security of our client websites is maintained. Visit us to know more about our SEO and online marketing services.

MicroMedia:

The social network is widening in the online universe and rapidly spilling onto the screens of newer, smaller and faster gadgets. The market out there wants precise and concise information in the palms of their hands.

As a result a communication tool like the computer has given way to the laptop which in turn turned in the reins to PDAs and cell phones. Even communication services like blogs have evolved into moblogs, and short messaging services have transformed into micromessaging services with the likes of Pownce and Twitter arriving on the scene.

New, Small, Fast. Three words that are fundamental to the term MicroMedia, which Jeremiah Owyang, a web strategist has succeeded in making sense of.

From an online marketer’s point of view, this new form of communication can turn out to be very useful for a business. Similar to a regular social networking site, a MicroMedia site can allow business owners, employees and the consumer stay in constant touch for regular updates on a product or service.
T
his type of communication need not require either party to be near a computer either, thus adding to its appeal. An element of informality is included in business dealings which in the long run helps foster deeper B2C relationships. As social networking sites are the new conquerors of the virtual sphere, their utility cannot be ignored. A business today, has to look at breaking into new markets with innovative approaches.

At Clear Media Online, this is what we help a business achieve. Our teams of SEOs and e-marketing experts keep a close watch on consumer behavior. We sieve out those gems which have the power to captivate the consumer mind and keep it asking for more.

Managing Content:

Successful management of any type calls for a collaboration of resources and personnel. The same works for content management. There is a lot of team work and collaboration on knowledge involved in content management and maintenance. Content constantly requires to be upgraded and this characteristic makes it important to manage content as it evolves.

The content writer, editor, publisher, administrator and the end consumer are important elements that influence content management. Close interplay between all these domains is necessary for a content management system to be effective. They have to manage content in such a way that it confirms to the objectives of a business and helps it achieve its goals.

Well arranged content has to be such that it enriches the user experience. After viewing a mélange of text, graphics, audio and other site content, the end user or consumer has to go away with a sense of well-being. Appealing user interfaces matter and proper content management manages this well.

A lot of web development companies adapt content management systems via which all the fore-mentioned elements of a website can be made available over the Internet as well as in the office. The use of server-based software further broadens quick file location.

At Clear Media Online we adapt superior content management systems that are worked upon intimately by our teams of content writers, web designers and web developers. Efficiency, easy accessibility and flexibility are provided by our optimized methods. We allot each team with a balance of tasks to achieve a common end, which is mainly to meet the goals of our clients.

Pixels, Polygons And Picturesque Pictures:

Rich. Sleek. Stylish. They could be words describing a dream car, the dream man, or a gadget. But these three words are increasingly being associated with websites of the Web 2.0 era. Web 2.0 emulators conceptualize a website keeping these three words in mind. An e-marketing campaign is greatly affected by the combination in which these words are used.

Think the iPod silhouette campaign, the Hed Kandi girl artwork campaign. The use of high precision images generated a lot of impact in the consumer mind. The new art style a lot of web designers and graphic artists are playing around with these days is vector art which is what these advertising campaigns made use of.

The great thing about vector art is the sharp image quality it delivers. Unlike regular pixel-based raster images, vector-based images use geometrical lines, curves and polygons. They can be scaled indefinitely without any degradation in quality. Thus, the same vector image can be used for a small business card as well as for a huge boarding.

The main aim of vector art is to create visually striking and crisp images. Softwares like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Flash, CorelDRAW, etc. are some of the vector editors that are used while designing vector graphics. The flexibility that vector graphics provide a designer with is amazing. Almost any pattern and design can be tweaked, moved or spinned with vectors. This is one of the main reasons for their popularity among website designers.

Such visually rich images are just a few of the web development techniques that the designers at Clear Media Online use when creating a virtual address for a business. A client’s website is our drawing board and differing ideas and concepts provide the colour that goes onto this canvas. The results are outstanding. Rich. Sleek. Stylish.

Know us better at: www.clearmediaonline.com

The New Media:

Computers are getting smaller and cell phones are getting even more compact. Information is available everywhere; but information that is available anywhere and at any time is need of the 21st century web surfer and holds more importance for him.

Croteau and Hoynes discovered that people are spending more time online but visiting fewer websites. The invisible web just might be expanding faster. The New Media has proved helpful in checking this unwanted growth.

Instant Journalism is a term that has been becoming more common on the Internet lately. News is just not being covered by journalists and reporters alone. Anyone having a blog account, a camera and access to the internet is a reporter in the New Media age.

Podcasts, blogs, wikis, multimedia content, virtual worlds, social networks, interactive websites, mobile phones, video games, etc. are a few of the off-shoots of the New Media modes of communication and education.

How all these elements are incorporated into a website or adapted by a business go a long way in determining their popularity quotient. At Clear Media Online, we manage this exceptionally well. Web developers and online marketing professionals intermingle and collaborate on knowledge. Our company is a pool of diverse ideas and talent.

Our blogs, websites and portals feature the user-friendly proponents of the New Media. Our designs reflect the fundamentals underlying this term very effectively. Visit us to know more about how we do this.

Colors And Your Brand:

Branding - one word that is taken very seriously in marketing circles. Whether it is offline marketing or online marketing, brand recognition is a factor most businesses hinge upon to get their message across to the masses.

A powerful weapon marketing gurus utilize when formulating branding strategies is color. The very concept of the Internet is contained in its visual and psychological nature. A combination of words, pictures and colors work in sync to get a message across to a site visitor. These are the basic elements which have to be taken into account when conceptualizing and designing a website. Audio, animation, video and interactive features come secondary.

The over-all look of a website has to be considered before hand as web designers and developers juggle these main elements. The colors used should convey to the target market the organization’s message. A careful study of the target market is necessary to understand the colors that work best for an e-marketing campaign.

According to research, when color is used effectively it directly affects readership increasing it by 40 percent while boosting comprehension by 78 percent. Emphasizing certain areas and down-playing certain areas has to be done judiciously when designing a website. A balanced blend of all the different parts of a web page is a requisite if a site is to be embedded into a visitor’s memory.

When personal computers came into the market, they were rather basic and functional with standard boxy designs and bulky frames; but when the Apple iMac was introduced, it literally bloomed into the market. The iMac infused new life into the Apple brand which dealt heavy losses in a period of two years. Today, people know that the ‘P’ in personal is firmly fixed with an Apple iMac.

At Clear Media Online, inventive web designers know the right way to channel audience attention to a brand with a careful interplay of colors. The websites we design are streamlined and visually striking. We know how to entice with colors.

Four High Impact Branding Must Haves:

1. Brand Name:
Brand names go on to feature wherever a business has established or wants to establish its presence; as such, they have to have a high recall quotient while managing to project an image of what the business is all about in the minds of the average consumer. Your business objectives, mottoes, ideals, policies, products, etc. have to be incorporated in some way or another in the brand name.

Misleading the consumer for the purpose of having a catchy name is not really necessary. That is a sure-fire way to minus valuable credibility points from your business. One good example of a business that has used this branding technique successfully is our own client site: www.plasticsurgeryinstituteofcalifornia.com

2. Favicons:
These little 16 x 16 icons are displayed in a browser’s URL bar, next to the website name in bookmark lists and in the address bar. A favicon is designed keeping the main characteristic or defining feature of a website or business in mind. They add an extra zing to an interesting website. A good example is the ‘W’ favicon associated with Wikipedia.

3. Blogs:
Blogs educate. Blogs encourage interaction. Blogs call for immediate, anytime publishing and are a treasure house of information on the inner workings of a corporation, company policies and product and services. They keep the general public up-to-date on a business’ latest offerings. A good example is this blog which is the business blog for the online marketing and web development company: Clear Media Inc.

4. Content:
Yes. I shall be using an oft repeated line out here, “content is king”. However frequently this phrase is dragged all over the Internet, it is something to think about. Where all the flash and dazzle of web designing stop, information-rich content takes over. Without it, all the branding efforts of an SEO fail. Text plays a vital role in all the above elements of branding. When content quality is maximized, content quantity can be done away with.

Visit Clear Media Online to know more about the innovative e-marketing techniques we apply.

Selling Real Estate Properties Through E-marketing:

Regina Lewis, AOL’s consumer advisor admits buying and selling houses on the Internet has become a necessity these days. According to her, "Playing your online cards right, is not just smart anymore ... it's make or break."

A lot of real estate developers, agents and brokers agree with this view and are increasingly using the very economical option that Internet marketing provides. They number nearly 75 percent of the total dealers in real estate.

Online marketing is a great way to establish credibility and make the target audience more aware about your product. With the help of market savvy web designers, features like virtual tours, property photographs, RSS feeds, e-mail alerts, and even social networking are incorporated in the client website. Such features are a must to retain your previous and existing clients and attract potential clients. It lets them go that extra mile to associate with your business if there is always something new and interesting on your business website.

When web developers work in cohesion with online marketers or SEOs, the resulting website is search engine friendly as well as a market attractor. An online presence widens the market further for your business. If your real estate business is based in Denver, it will be drawing the attentions of buyers and sellers from as far as Tallahasee and Wisconsin if marketed through the right channels.

And these are only a fraction of the benefits of e-marketing. To know more visit Clear Media Online where professional web designers, efficient SEOs and knowledgeable web content writers work in rhythm to market your real estate business.

Building Up On Popularity And Links:

When the mighty Google awards page rank to a particular website or web page, it weighs the quality of the back links to that site. Incoming links, inbound links, in-links and inward links, they have many names, but they all highlight the important role they play, which in a way is akin to a passport to your site from another site. But then again, the other site has to have content that is relevant to your site as well as receive traffic that is beneficent for your website. It’s your credibility at stake if it’s otherwise.

Back-links are also known to keep the crawlers on their toes where your website’s visibility is concerned. By regularly visiting and updating your website, crawlers oil your website’s position in the search engine index and prevent it from being treated as spam. And spam is one word you do not want your website to be associated with.

Besides back links, there are internal links and outbound links as well that play an important role when it comes to search engine optimization. The first type of link is essentially a link between the pages of your website, while the second type of link is a link from your website to another site.

When SEOs utilize link building strategies, the resulting benefits are rather helpful in boosting a website’s popularity status. For instance, the long term ranking of a site in search engines is assured while improving its Google page rank.

Visit Clear Media Online, to know more about our quality link building strategies. We maintain that essential balance required between quality links and the quantity of quality links for effective SEO.

The LSI Algorithm For Better Search Rankings In Google:

The web crawlers are still trying to better their technologies. Human intelligence or a semblance to it is a state they are still aspiring to reach. The human mind, after all, can better recognize the relevancy of the sites spewed out from search engine results than these mechanical crawlers.

The latest algorithm applied by Google tries to mimic human sensibilities for this very reason. The Latent Semantic Indexing [LSI] algorithm sieves out websites containing the keyword typed in by a searcher as well as websites having keywords similar to the main search and related phrases.

A proper understanding of this concept can be explained by this example. If a web content writer has written an article related to online marketing, then according to traditional SEO conventions, he would repeat the keywords a certain number of times to increase the site ranking in search result pages.

If he has peppered his content with variations and similar terms like online marketing strategies, online marketing professionals, online marketing strategies, etc. the LSI algorithm will alleviate the ranking of the site and in the process increase the search engine ranking of the page.

The quality of the content should not suffer though when employing such writing techniques. It is important for the writer to preserve the relevancy and quality of the content.

The research methods utilized by Clear Media Online are thorough and our team of professional web content writers is constantly keeping themselves attuned to new innovations in the field of SEO.

Know our work better, visit us at www.clearmediaonline.com

High Impact Viral Marketing Strategies:

Speed, low cost of development and optimized interaction are what make online viral marketing such a popular concept in e-marketing techniques.

When you are making use of viral marketing strategies for spreading the word about your business, remember these words- ‘easy access’ and ‘free’. People would rather be paid for advertising your product than not being paid at all. But if you want them to advertise effectively, it is your responsibility to make it easier for them to do so. After all, you know your service better than them.

Allow them to publish and feature any article written by you on their website, blogsite, e-book or whatever medium they are using citing you as their source. This is a good strategy employed by many businesses to attain credibility and visibility for their sites.

If you have a discussion board on your webpage, allow advertisers who don’t have one to use it on their own site. Make sure they display your banner on it though. This happens very rarely, but then again you can be one of the few people using such a method.

Any business oriented software, freebies or tools you have developed give them away generously and freely. Allow users to use these wherever they want and however they want to. Put in your ad on each copy though. Highlight your hand in any programme, feature or service they provide.

Linking. It matters a lot. Let people add their link to your free website directory. Just make sure they link back advertising your directory.

‘Free’ and ‘easy access’, these two words can take your business far if utilized prudently in a viral marketing strategy. When online marketing teams apply strategies like these the benefits are bound to be four-fold.

Visit Clear Media Online to know more about how effective such services have proved for our clients.

Points To Ponder While Selecting A Web Host Company:

Web hosting companies provide clients with server space and internet connectivity on a server they own. They also provide data center space and connectivity for servers they do not own to be located in their data center.

There are certain factors a site owner has to take into account if he is contemplating a web host company for his website.

There are thousands of small and big web hosting companies out there and some come cheap while some are expensive. While it is natural to think that the more expensive host will provide better service, most often it is not the case. The best way to find out is to check customer reviews in open forums or through web hosting directories.

There are many hosting services that web hosts provide. For instance, a shared web hosting service places a web site on the same server as other sites, while a dedicated hosting service allows a user to get his or her own web server and get full control over it without owning it though. This service again can be Self-Managed or Unmanaged.

Web hosts providing related services like virtual private networks [VPNs], back ups, e-mail management, security, VOIP, domain registration, blog hosting, shopping cart features and video hosting can also be given a second thought.

The location of the hosting company is one of the main factors that affect SEO. Some search engines like Google cough up pages based on the searcher’s location and the hosting location. So if you have searches coming more from one area, try to select a host for your website in that country.

Clear Media Online uses sophisticated servers providing a lot of the optimum features mentioned above besides others more. Our web hosting services work in tandem with our search engine optimization efforts.

To know more visit our website at: http://www.clearmediaonline.com/