On Search Engine Watch (@sewatch), Ryan Woolley (@RyanWoolley) explains the above SEO Tactics chart (available in print) in a 4-part series, covering
· External Influences (Off-site Optimization)
For example, Woolley writes about applying direct response methodology, granular keyword-level data analysis, and focusing on quality over quantity as being 3 keys that drive SEO success. He describes how to determine which keywords to focus on, what relevance means, attention to user intent, and business impact.
Read each essay by clicking the above bullets.
The Blog Herald (@blogherald) offers bloggers “a brief overview of some of the facts that you need to know in order to stay safe online. For example
1. The Web is world-wide. As such, your content will reach virtually every country and every jurisdiction in the world. As mentioned above, the facts below are based on US law but you always have to remember that what is legal in one area may not be legal in another. That can, in some situations, bite you.
2. As a blogger, you’re posting works to a public forum. Even if only a few people read your site, the law treats it largely the same as if you had screamed everything in a crowded square or printed it on the cover of your local newspaper.
3. As a blogger, you’re responsible legally for what you post and, posting anonymous or pseudonymously is not a guarantee against legal consequences. Such steps can help avoid other consequences, such as professional ones, but generally not legal ones.
Stay informed with SomersaultNOW, our (@smrsault) dashboard of more than 400 links and RSS newsfeeds specifically for publishing and marketing executives.
trendwatching.com (@trendwatching) says the consumer arena has moved beyond the ‘old’ model of consumption (brands produce, consumers buy). “Now, here’s yet another twist on consumers making the most of their assets and possessions: RECOMMERCE.”
It’s never been easier for consumers to unlock the value in past purchases. Novel brand buy-backs, exchange schemes, online platforms, and mobile marketplaces offer smart and convenient options for consumers keen to ‘trade in to trade up,’ alleviate financial strains, and/or quell environmental and ethical concerns.
RECOMMERCE is now increasingly affecting even consumers’ initial purchase decisions. Just as they do when buying a car or a home, consumers are factoring an item's resale value into the cost of ownership for an ever-wider range of purchases.
3 drivers behind the RECOMMERCE phenomenon:
1. NEXTISM: Consumers will forever crave the new and exciting experiences promised by the ‘next’.
2. STATUSPHERE: The growing status boost that comes from being savvy and shopping (environmentally) responsibly.
3. EXCUSUMPTION: Cash-strapped consumers embracing creative solutions.
Stay informed with SomersaultNOW dashboard's Research and Future tabs.
Here’s a new facet to enhanced ebook publishing. Booktrack (@Booktrk) is a new technology that synchronizes a customized soundtrack of ambient audio, music, and sound effects to written text of ebooks in a way that’s automatically paced to the reading speed of the user to create an immersive entertainment experience.
Mary Meeker, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (@kpcb), explores in the slides below the significant trends shaping the Internet today. She says the mobile revolution is still in its infancy and poised for tremendous growth.
Her presentation zeroes in on the newest breakout trends driving e-commerce, including local commerce, the global race to adopt mobile devices and apps, and the latest innovations in online payments; the evolving social space comes under Mary’s scrutiny as well. She says the mega-trend of the 21st century is empowerment of people via connected mobile devices.
Springwise (@springwise) reports that the advantage of the printed book’s ability to have the author handwrite at a book signing a personal message to the book’s owner on its pages is now gone. “Kindlegraph (@kindlegraph) aims to challenge that, by enabling authors to send personalized, digital inscriptions directly to the reading devices of their fans.”
Created by Evan Jacobs, a former programmer at Amazon, Kindlegraph is designed to facilitate a closer connection between authors and their fans. To personalize their ebook, users log in with their Twitter credentials and select from a list of popular ebooks. So far approximately 1,700 authors are involved, with around 7,500 books listed.
After selecting an ebook, a request is then sent to the author who, after logging in, will see a list of current requests. There is space to type a personalized message, and clicking “Kindlegraph it” will send the message to Docusign APIs which embed the signed message and sends a PDF back to the reader’s Kindle.
Jacobs hopes that authors will use it as a means to build relationships with fans; for example: sending preview chapters or short stories before they are published. A video on the Kindlegraph’s website explains how the platform works in more detail.
Also see our previous blogposts, “Ebook Autographs” and “How Authors Can Autograph Their Ebooks.”
The health of America’s congregations remains a challenging situation, according to a new report from Hartford Seminary’s (@HartSem) Faith Communities Today.
A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000-2010 shows that despite efforts at innovation, bursts of vitality, and increased civic participation, faith communities are entering this decade less healthy than they were at the turn of the century.
In 2010, more than 1 in 4 congregations had fewer than 50 people in the pews. And although the number of megachurches doubled in the last decade, the growth of the evangelical church seems to be plateauing and their congregations beginning to shrink.
· Fewer members
· Older members
· More tech-savvy
· Less funds
· More fights
The findings dovetail those of the Barna Group’s report, State of the Church, announced in July. A story in the Sun Sentinel says that study, covering 20 years, finds a general slide in adult church attendance and volunteer work at churches, and that most people don’t normally read the Bible or trust it to be totally accurate. Yet 84% of Americans call themselves Christian, and half say they’ve made a “personal commitment” to Jesus.
Also see Religion News Service (@ReligionNewsNow) article “Trends For US Churches Mostly Pointing Down, Says Report.”
This article in The New York Times (@nytimes) says, “Amazon.com (@amazon), the online retailer, has long competed with bookstores; now it's starting to make deals with authors, bypassing the traditional publisher.”
Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and ebook form. It is a striking acceleration of the retailer’s fledging publishing program that will place Amazon squarely in competition with the New York houses that are also its most prominent suppliers….
“Everyone’s afraid of Amazon,” said Richard Curtis, a longtime agent who is also an ebook publisher. “If you’re a bookstore, Amazon has been in competition with you for some time. If you’re a publisher, one day you wake up and Amazon is competing with you too. And if you’re an agent, Amazon may be stealing your lunch because it is offering authors the opportunity to publish directly and cut you out."
Also see International Business Times (@ibtimesnews), “5 Reasons Kindle Fire Tablet May Kill Barnes & Noble.”
Mark Coker (@markcoker), founder of ebook distributor Smashwords, wanted to know how readers discover ebooks. So he posted a survey at the ebook forum Mobileread (@mobileread), “challenging readers to select the single most common criterion they follow to discover their next read.”
To capture a broad range of usable data, I suggested 12 answers, one of which was “Other.” Respondents were allowed to select one answer only since I wanted to identify the single most important discovery criteria.
The most-selected answer was “Recommendations from fellow readers on online message forums, blogs and message boards," with 29% of respondents choosing this. By contrast, only 4% selected, “Personal friend/family member recommends it to me.” I think this is fascinating, because it implies readers might trust the collective wisdom of strangers and online acquaintances more than they trust the recommendations of immediate friends and family. At the risk of placing too many eggs in this basket, remember 71% selected something else....
What to make of the results? How might authors and publishers focus their e-publishing efforts based on the data?
· Target readers who are active in online communities because they influence their fellow readers
· Maximize the availability of your book so readers can randomly stumble across it and sample it
· Boring titles, unprofessional cover images and poorly written book descriptions are instant turn-offs
Also read our previous blogpost “Where & Why We Buy Books.”
More research on a variety of topics is available on the SomersaultNOW dashboard under the Research tab. Stay abreast of the latest information with this helpful online resource for publishing and marketing executives.