eMarketing Myths

By David Golding

A close friend of mine began researching the internet and wanted to learn to build websites. Once he could effectively build one, he ran into the problem that every single one of us out there in cyberspace have asked ourselves at one time or another: How do I get traffic? So he did what any rational web surfer would do. He turned to the internet to get answers. In a matter of seconds, he came across a handful of websites that promised lots of eMarketing secrets, sure to provide the “secret” source of traffic for any website in existence. He plopped somewhere in the vicinity of $40 for an ebook and read it all that same day.

We discussed the book at length, and I’ll admit, it sounded too good to be true. The secret this particular ebook mentioned had to do with price positioning. The author claimed that what you had to do was inflate the price for your services. Instead of pricing something in the $10, $20, or $30 range, you ought to push it higher like $100, $200, or $300. He claimed there existed a strange phenomenon on the web that when the price was ridiculously high, users attributed higher levels of credibility to the price, and online retailers actually made more money.

I just read a study that was published not six months ago by Harvard Business School. Not only does this study prove that my friend’s ebook was a total waste of $40, but the whole concept of price both offline and online is something even more serious to consider in forming any kind of marketing strategy for any company both offline and on. This research shows emphatically that users gauge price carefully and will make different decisions based on the perception of the cost. (For example, they show that you can have the same total price for a CD + shipping, but when the shipping cost is higher and the CD price lower, people rate their satsifaction lower. Perceived costs of secondary features like shipping have a significant effect on the perceived total cost.)

This is only one of many stories I’ve seen. I’m here to try to persuade all my readers to avoid the emarketing myths. They are rampant. They can be seen everywhere. The only way to steer clear of them is to focus entirely on the subject matter as a whole. More research is being done by corporations and business schools about the whole of marketing strategy than any one-man-band out there on the net.

Some have tried to separate internet marketing from the mainstream marketing strategies claiming that it’s somehow different and special. That’s like saying algebra is not math because it’s different than overall math, that it’s more “targeted.” No, algebra is math, and math is greater than algebra. If I study all the math I can, I can apply algebra to more than what algebra students can. In the same way, studying marketing as a whole will allow internet marketers to apply their ideas of marketing strategy on the whole to the web more efficiently.

The fact is, internet marketing is one of many disciplines of the whole of marketing. And I vote emphatically for online businesses to focus on the marketing principles on the whole rather than consider their website special or different from a legitimate business venture.

For some additional reading, go see how others have argued the same point not 3 years ago: Search Engine Optimization Myths Debunked.

Yes, do some SEO. Yes, factor in the current internet marketing trends into your strategy. But ignore the current marketing research and overall principles to your own demise.

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Firefox’s Best Kept Secret

By David Golding

I’ll admit it: I love Safari. As with many Apple products, it’s just beautiful. I love the Aqua-fied buttons and forms in the main browser window and the sleek metallic look of the interface. With the advent of Firefox, well I have only been so-so in terms of my own personal use. Absolutely ecstatic about PC users adopting it over IE, though. (If you still use IE, goodness, I honestly don’t know what to say…) But as for me making the move over to Firefox, I guess I’ve been just a little slow. My final reason, the one I’ve stood by for so long, was an enhancement made back in the day with Safari Keywords and more recently with Sogudi. This feature became indispensable for me.

Well, I have now made the switch in great measure because of Firefox’s best-kept secret. Right under my nose it was built in all along, just like Safari Keywords and Sogudi.

Seaching is a beast

Searching the web is a beast, and not because of the accessibility. The web is plenty accessible. It’s having to navigate to a bunch of sites to make the searches. I’ve always wanted just one place where I could search them all. For example, if I wanted to search eBay, I’d have to go there, select the search field, type the query and click “Search.” And so on for Wikipedia, Google, Clusty, or whatever.

Firefox actually brings together the search power into the browser to search any of these sites right from the browser window. And I’m not talking about the search field in the upper-right corner.

No Mouse

What slows me down considerably is to have to use the mouse. Right now, if you want this capability in Firefox using the search field, you have to install the search plugin, select it, type in the field and hit return. Then it runs the search for you. This would be alright if it weren’t for the fact that you have to use your mouse at least once (usually more).

The best-kept secret requires no mouse use, which I find indispensable for my web surfing experience.

The Best-Kept Secret

I’m going to set up an automatic search function in Firefox using bookmarks to run queries through Wikipedia. Here’s what I mean. All I do is type “wiki” and then the query in the URL field, or location box, in the Firefox browser. It will run the search right there without me having to browse to the site, find the search field, and run the query. The beauty is, you can do this for any site. Here’s how.

Open up Firefox and browse to the site of your choice. In my example, I’ll show you how to set up Wikipedia. You’ll find the search box on the homepage of Wikipedia. Run any kind of query through it. I’m running “salad.” It runs the query as “http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salad”. So I copy the URL.

Now, in Firefox, go to the menu Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks. Select “New Bookmark” and type in the name whatever you want (e.g. “Wikipedia”). In “Location,” paste the URL from Wikipedia. Now here’s the secret: replace “Salad” with %s. The URL should appear like so:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s

What the “%s” is telling Firefox is that it should replace that with the query.

Last step, pick any kind of keyword. In this case, type “wiki” in the “Keyword” field. You’re done. Go to the standard URL field and type in “wiki salad” and it will search Wikipedia for an entry about salad. Well, you can type “wiki” + space + query for any search string and it will pass that into Wikipedia for you.

This can be applied for any site. Just find out what the URL search string is, and plop that bad boy into the Firefox bookmark, replace the query piece with “%s” and assign a keyword and you’re in business. Here are some pre-configured ones for you:

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Sony Bravia’s Commercials

By David Golding

I absolutely love Sony’s campaign for their Bravia high-resolution TV screen.

Here’s an awesome example of positioning a product perfectly. Of all the descriptors that define the differences between competing products, “color” hits this market on the bullseye. And Sony is pushing Bravia out in the marketplace as the definitive product for achieving color.

The tag “Like No Other” is much better than their first run of Bravia commericials. My pet peeve is splitting three words by periods for your slogan, which is what they did on round one (e.g. “Like. No. Other.”). I find that rarely does the three-word-split-with-a-period tagline really work. Usually it makes up for a lack of creativity to say it right. Well, in this round of Bravia commercials, they just say “Like No Other.” Good job guys.

By the way, all the paint explosions are real, not computerized. If you don’t believe me, go visit their behind the scenes site.

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