The new ezine for UK online marketing best practice

UK ONLINE MARKETING LINKS, TIPS & RESOURCES

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Further reading on Click Fraud
How Click Fraud Could Swallow the Internet - from Wired.com
Click Fraud: What It Is, How to Fight It - from Clickz.com
Exclusive: Google’s Click Fraud Rate is Less than 2% - from MarketingPilgrim.com
Click fraud scams on the increase - from ZDNet.co.uk
Needed: A Detailed Picture of Click Quality - from Traffick.com
Click Fraud Detection - from MarketingExperiments.com

SEO Resources Update
Search Engine Land - Danny Sullivan's great new resource on everything to do with search
Search Engine Watch - news, blogs & forums on search engine marketing
Clickz - regular columns from leading online marketers
Search Engine Guide - online marketing tips for small business owners
High Rankings Forum - great forum and advice from leading SEO specialists
Sitepoint - web development & online marketing resource for techie types

Last Minute Holiday ideas
No sign of a heatwave this summer is there? If you want to escape the crappy weather, then check out some of these sites for last minute deals:
Lastminute.com - we couldn't start this list without the best known last minute holiday website
Teletext Holidays
Opodo
Holiday Hypermarket
Travelzoo UK
Late Rooms


Green & Eco Products for the Home
World Wildlife Fund Shop
Friends of the Earth Shop
Nigel's Eco Store
Natural Collection
So Organic
Eco Zone
Ecotopia
Greener Living

Pay per Click Resources
Pay per Click Universe - a free resource to SME businesses on PPC advertising
Pay per Click Search Engines - reviews of 198 PPC search engines
Google Adwords Help Centre
Yahoo! Search Marketing FAQs
Microsoft AdCenter FAQs

Content ideas
As an extra to this month's content tips, here are some examples of websites making the most of their site content:
Firebox's Dr Who Phone Flasher - this product shows how Firebox is making the most of customer video & photos
Boden - An e-commerce site regularly featuring new products & offers on their home page
Travel Rants Blog - Busy blog with many comments on the travel industry
PistonHeads.com - Latest news & featured cars for petrol heads
Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce - Lectures and notes that can be downloaded as mp3 files
Barbican - A range of video downloads available to preview events and productions at the Barbican


Computer Safety:
With computer viruses so prolific, here's some tools to help you surf the net more safely.
Get Safe Online - Government site to help us surf safely - safety week starts 26 March
Staying Safe Without Anti-Virus - from BBC.co.uk
Anti Virus Software:
Sophos
Symantec's Norton
McAfee
Anti Spam Software:
Inboxer
Cloudmark
Spamcop
Anti Spyware:
Microsoft's Windows Defender

Social Networking websites:
Get out there, network & make new contacts online!
MySpace
Ecademy
Orkut
43 Things
Care 2
Flickr
LinkedIn
Friends Reunited


Email Marketing List Management & more on Email Scams
List Management:
Sign-Up.To
MailerMailer
Vertical Response
Constant Contact
More on Email Scams & Phishing:
MillerSmiles.co.uk - good resource on latest email scams
Sophos article highlighting another new scam
Information on scams from the Office of Fair Trading

Green office supplies & promotional materials
The Green Stationery Company - good selection of recycled office paper and eco-friendly supplies
Green-Works - redistributing used and second hand office furniture
Recycled Products Online - recycled promotional materials from Remarkable. Can be bought from resellers such as The Green Shop
What to do with waste at work from Waste Online
Recycle Now - ways you can recycle your rubbish

Increasing your website's conversion rates
Grokdotcom - excellent articles and research on visitor conversions
Conversion Chronicles - monthly newsletter on website conversions
How to calculate your website's conversions- from Clickz.com

Google specialist search tools & applications
Google Alerts - receive your chosen news by email
Froogle - price comparison search tool
Google Groups - mailing lists & discussions
Google Image Search
Google Local - find local businesses and get your business listed
Google Answers - get specific answers from researchers (paid service)
Google University search - search university websites
Blogger - set up your own web log for free
Google Earth - a great way to view the world
Google's complete list

Web Analytics / Log File Software Providers:
Statcounter.com– free details of 100 visitors, or $9 upwards per month for 1000 + visitors
Google Analytics - free with a Google Account
WebTrends- $895
Counter Central- $7 per month
OneStat – from £68 per year

Online Content and Copywriting:
Excess Voice - superb newsletter and archive of articles on writing content for websites, email newsletters and search engines
Five B2B Copy Myths - Jonathan Kranz, author of Writing Copy for Dummies, smashes through the copywriting urban myths - from MarketingProfs.com (free membership required)
Seven Keys to Writing Powerful Online Marketing Copy - the key essentials for effective online marketing copy - from MarketSTART for Free Content
Website Copywriting - a few practical tips on getting the most from your copy - from wahmcopywriter.com
Creating Marketing Copy - some useful pointers on drawing on basic human psychology to create copy - from tamingthebeast.net

Link Building:
12 Essential Strategies for Building & Structuring Inbound Links - from MarketPosition
Linking Matters - various reports to download
131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies - from SearchEngineWatch.com. Although this article is a couple of years old, the strategies are still the same.
If you want to find out who is linking into your competitors, you can use the Marketleap Link Popularity Check or try a backlink search on Google using the following in the search box:
link:www.mycompetitorssite.com
or on Yahoo:
linkdomain:www.mycompetitorssite.com

Pay per Click Resources:
Smaller pay per click search engines:
Mirago - UK based
Mamma - US based
MIVA - UK /US & European
Enhance - US based

Useful Pay per Click portals:
Pay per Click Search Engines
Pay per Click Analyst
Pay per Click Guru

PPC management software enables you manage all your pay per click campaigns in one place (we will be reviewing AtlasOnePoint in the coming months):
AtlasOnePoint (formerly GoToast)
WSPS (Bid Buddy)

Spam, Scams & Virus Protection:
Anti Phishing Group
DTI guide to scams - 'Don't be a mug'

If you were a carrier of the MyDoom virus, make sure it doesn't happen again by taking preventative measures. This useful guide is over 2 years old - and although it still makes sense, we're still not listening:
Top 10 tips for a virus-free life from Silicon.com

Ethical business and businesses:
AccountAbility
An international membership organisation committed to improving social and ethical accountability and sustainable development.

Triodos Bank
As an independent international financial institution aiming to make a fair profit within a framework of clear social objectives.

Ethical Threads
A brand of clothing and merchandise sourced from workplaces that meet international conventions on workers rights, and which are verified by free trade unions.

Greenleaf Publishing
Independent publisher specialising in business and sustainable development. Catalogue includes titles tackling both environmental and social aspects of the growing imperative for business: to make profit while performing sustainably.

Responsible Travel
Helping travellers book more real and authentic holidays which also benefit the environment and local people.

Fairtrade Foundation
Guaranteeing a better deal for producers in the developing world.

Institute of Business Ethics
Encouraging high standards of corporate and business behaviour and the sharing of best practice.

New Media Resources:
E-consultancy
- a hoard of useful research info and frequent updates. Some content subscription-only
Marketing Vox
- good online news portal, US-based
Netimperative
- UK news, in-depth content and events
New Media Knowledge
- recently revamped site worth a look. In partnership with London Development Agency and the University of Westminster
newmediazero
- New Media Age online
Revolution
- Revolution Magazine online
UK netmarketing discussion list
- Discussion, sound-offs and general bitching

Keyword Research:
Keyword research plays a very significant part in search engine marketing. Ensuring you are targeting the right key phrases is key to the success of your search engine marketing efforts. We have found some resources to help you with your selection:
Keyword Discovery - a comprehensive paid keyword research tool
Overture Search Term Suggestion tool
Google Adwords keyword selection tool
Wordtracker.com - offer a free and paid service with new UK specific keyword research
Others:
Google Sets - from Google labs
KWMap
Online Thesaurus
Online Dictionary

Some search engines also make suggestions when a query is entered into a search box, on the results page. See AltaVista and Teoma.

Advanced Search Techniques:
Sometimes you may find that you're not quite getting the results you're looking for in a search and get thousands of irrelevant results or a list of 'over marketed' web pages (the shopping websites have a lot to answer for!).

Often, putting your query into quotation marks, e.g "London hotel", will ensure only web pages including that exact term will show. Also, ensure you select 'UK results' in your search, particularly if you are looking for UK based products and services.

There are advanced search methods you can learn which will provide you with much more specific results. This method is called 'Boolean' search, and is particularly useful if you spend a lot of time researching information online. We have found some good resources to help you with this method of searching:

Search Day
- Excellent resource from Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Watch about how to get the best out of searching the web.

Google’s own website offers some tips to help get the best out of your search:
The basics of Google search and Advanced search made easy
Also look at:
AlltheWeb's resource on advanced searching
BBCi's Webwise
- helpful hints on getting more out of your search.

Web usability and accessibility:
Use It
- Jakob Neilson's website with news and resources on website usability

Is your website disability-friendly? The Disability Rights Commission is clamping down on websites who are not taking into consideration their disabled visitors and have published a Code of Practice, which states that websites would be in breach of the code if they do not consider the disabled.

The following resources provide information about how to make your website accessible to disabled users:
Disability Rights Commission
The RNIB Web Access Centre
World Wide Web Consortium
- specifications and guidelines for the web

General Internet Marketing Resources:
Did you know that if you include 'web beacons' within consumer emails (to track opens, for example) that this now has to be declared, and recipients must be told how the information is used, and how they can refuse web beacons should they wish to?
More on this and other related points at the IAB site All About Cookies

The Marketing Dictionary
- you'll never struggle to explain 'below the line' at a dinner party again
Internet Marketing Reference
- more internet marketing terms explained

Email Marketing Resources:
For more information on email marketing, JunkMail have a comprehensive page on the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC) Regulations
Not new, but still useful on the subject of email marketing: Five key drivers for successful e-mail marketing by Peter Clark, Tom Farmer and Andy Brocklehurst. From thewisemarketer.com (Feb 2003)

The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group
- find out what they're doing about spam
Round-up of current virus hoaxes and false alerts
- stern advice from F-Secure
Debunking the hoaxes, scams, spoofs, urban legends, chain e-mails, etc
- so you've never fallen for an email hoax? Are you sure?

Search Engine Marketing Resources:
Marketleap Link Popularity Check
- check the number of incoming links to your website
Keyword Success
- check the density of your key phrases here
Google zeitgeist
- search patterns, trends and surprises according to Google, month by month
Search Engine Dictionary
- at last, the jargon revealed - what is a 'spider'? What is Hotbot? And what's SEO?

Search Engine Marketing Forums:
Webmasterworld- News and discussion for the 'independent web professional'
High Rankings Forum - Search Engine and Online Marketing discussion board
Ihelpyou Forums - includes a UK-specific forum
SearchEngineWatch Forums - the Big One, now part of the Clickz network

Online Research Resources:
Ipsos MORI Technology Tracker
The UK's largest market research company

Forrester
Forrester Research identifies and analyses trends in technology and their impact on business. Check out the Integrity Policy

Jupiter Research
Another Jupitermedia site (like CyberAtlas) - industry-specific business analysis. A US site but with some European data

eMarketer
reports from over 1,500 research sources covering internet and e-business topics. Includes European and UK-specific data. Free daily emails alerts with research updates but membership required for full access

ABC Electronic -auditing of all forms of electronic media

Alternative travel ideas:
Looking for ideas for your holidays? Check out these travel resources for ethical travellers - they might inspire you to do something different this year:

i-to-i - Volunteer, work & teach abroad
Responsible Travel - Responsible & eco holidays
Gecko Travel - Adventure tours that respect local people & cultures
Global Vision International - Conservation expeditions and volunteer work
Global Volunteer Network - International Volunteering Opportunities

Other Resources:
Ethical Affiliates
- promoting ethical business through affiliate partnerships

Logged Off? How ICT can connect young people and politics
A 2002 report suggesting that the anonymity of online communication may be an important way to encourage young people to participate in debates. NB Demos have recently announced that all their reports are to be freely accessible on their site.