How to build a Local Website

Go Local is the name of the game in 2011/12 and the success of bringing the global web developments back home is a trend of the time. First it was about tagging people, now we tag locations, be it on social networks such as Facebook or on Photo sites, such as Picasa or Flickr.

Based on the fact that surfers search for and prefer local business to cross border transactions, social networks namely have built in the local tags and stimulate users to hook media and events to geographically tagged locations.

In order to dominate the local market, you need to assess the use of the internet your neighbors make; chances are that they mostly hang out on social media, search Google and use email. This is of course an extremely simplified view but it gives an indication about where we need to build high visibility.

You also want to have an idea about how people access the net and websites; you will notice an increased use of mobile deices, which means that your content needs to be formatted and optimized  for desktops as well as for tablets and mobile phones.

Finally you may notice that surfers prefer visual content to text, which impacts on editing and publishing for multiple platforms.

In order to build high visibility on search returns, you need

• a local website.
• make use of all possible Google Listings pertaining to the geographic location.
• great content and consistent publishing to provide useful information and trigger conversation.

To dominate social networks (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn) we need

• optimized profiles.
• Facebook Pages.
• a consistent flow of information to trigger attention and conversation.
• an optimized set-up to assure traffic back to our websites (let the social networks work for us instead of the opposite).

To dominate the mobile web we need

• mobile versions of our websites (tablets and smartphones).
• mobile search optimization.
• ideally an App.
• easy to use interactive functions.

The answer is similar to managing a business online. There are three main elements I like to focus on:

• an optimized workflow to assure maximum productivity.
• high quality content and content providers.
• an integrated publishing network to hit all the important targets with per platform optimized content.

• Ads from Local Business.
• Ads from external Business wanting to do business locally.
• Eventually by integrating a local directory.
• Eventually by integrating a real estate classifieds feature.
• Eventually by integrating a service and products exchange.
•  … and more.

Just a few ideas:

• Talk about people.
• Talk about events.
• Talk about stories concerning the community.
• Talk about Local Sports, Clubs, Associations.
• Publish Pictures (people like to see their face and place).
• Talk about local business.
• Integrate a news wire from the major’s office.
• Have a local Gossip column.
• Let visitors contribute and discuss content.
• Don’t forget rating.
• Create competitions, contests, top 3 lists.
• Exchange advertising space with local media to promote your site quickly an consistently.
• Bring the conversation from social networks back to your site.
• … and so much more!

I hope this post helps your brainstorming when creating your local project. I will publish shortly a detailed project for my demo community, Vouliagmeni.

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Ycademy: Facebook, WP and the Mobile Web

This month’s Ycademy Online Seminar will take place on March 24 and 25, starting at 1 pm London (GMT) time and ending at 21 pm London time on both days.

Some of our developers have asked for a program covering Social Networks, namely Facebook and the Mobile Web and how to take advantage of them to distribute, promote and gain high visibility with own content.

The Seminar will cover the following areas:

• Strategies for Individuals

• Strategies for Businesses

• Strategy for Brands

As you may know, Facebook will change  the rules of the game on March 31, when the new FB pages will be released (again!). In fact the new FB page format will be similar to the timeline format and a few important changes will be of utmost importance to businesses and promoters.

• New Facebook Cover Photo and Profile Image

• Larger, Highlighted and Pinned Posts

• Company Milestones

• New Applications

• Facebook Offers

• FB Insights, Admin Panel and Messaging

• Facebook Advertizing

If some of the above topics do not have a meaning for you, never mind: we will deal with them and make sure you are ready and up to date before March 31.

To the above Facebook on-board means we will add our own means.

The permanent changes of rules and features on Facebook have lead professionals a long time ago to structure and manage their assets outside of Facebook on a CMS or other appropriate website.

In as much as we are concerned, at the Seminar we will focus on consolidating our own assets on a WP CMS, typically XO or EVO by Semiomantics.

If you don’t talk about your business, someone else will do it — probably not the way you prefer. I guess there is no doubt in the business world about the necessity to take social networks seriously. Not for what they are, but for what users can do to your reputation. Internet promo often is based almost exclusively on testimonials and testimonials can take most any form and shape.

Word of mouth or viva voce has been a proven marketing strategy for ages.There are two principals to it:

1. A recommendation by a trusted person will trigger about the highest conversion rate. 
2. A lot of people blowing into the same horn cannot be wrong.

Ad 1: The most important term is “TRUSTED”; it’s not a matter of numbers but of authority and trust.

Ad 2: 800 Million people are trusting Facebook … 800 Million people cannot be wrong! How does that sound to you? Yeah, we have heard such like about most any product. The fact that the masses use a product will attract new masses by building on the humans’ herd instinct’. And it works! Like Hype works and Spam works. If it didn’t work, fewer people would spam or hype up the junk they are trying to get rid of.

So, how can we profit ethically from the herd instinct and from word of mouth marketing in connection with Facebook?

Join the Seminar to find out :-).

Focusing on one single platform or publishing environment is not enough. To reach out for a maximum of customers, readers or just interested visitors it is of paramount importance to build a strong presence on Search Engines and Social Networks. Equally important is to take into account the increasing importance of the mobile web.

Therefore we need to publish and interlink our content in an efficient way to display on mobile and static devices and at the same time we must optimize it for all sorts of Search Engines as well as Social Networks.

The Seminar will show you how to build an effective publishing network across platforms while preserving productivity.

As usual, just click on the image to get your ticket. Discounts as usual for Ycademy Pros; for the discount code please contact Bianca: bianca(at)ycademy.com

Ycademy Online Seminar March 2012

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10 Steps to Implement your Facebook Strategy with WordPress

Implementing your Facebook Strategy will be at the center of the November Ycademy Seminar. This hands-on Seminar and Workshop will stretch over two days and build with participants an eye-ball-twisting Facebook presence. See the seminar schedule at the bottom of the post.

The Seminar is designed for WordPress Developers and WP users who are looking for high productivity and customized publishing and marketing solutions.

This topic deals with efficient strategies which will efficiently improve your Facebook presence.

Visit the Semiomantics Facebook Page

Surfing through Facebook we notice some common errors well intended people commit when building their Facebook presence. We will discuss these issues and show you how to eliminate them from your personal or business Facebook.

While content is king, there are different ways of making it accessible to visitors. We will discuss the recent changes Facebook has implemented and show you where the focus should be in order to improve your visibility, traffic and business or network expansion on Facebook.

Function of your strategy we will define and optimize privacy settings in order to grant potentially interested visitors access to relevant information. Privacy, Accessibility and List-building as well as Targeted Communication are the essentials of this key session.

For people looking for you, your business, services or products, your Profile and Info page are of the utmost importance, the more that your info is visible from outside Facebook and therefore Google efficient. We will set up with participants an efficient Info Page.

We will discuss the recent changes implemented by Facebook and how they impact on our strategies.  Friends, Fans and Subscription features impact on the way we expand our network and influence on Facebook.

Overview of the Facebook Page feature. Integration techniques, Apps, Content, Canvas and Pages.

The focus is on the technical set-up of a Facebook Page. As  content we will use a graphic, picture of video.

What is it you actually wish to display on your Facebook page? In fact there is no limit and it depends entirely on your strategy.

This is the center piece of the seminar. Creating Facebook Page right from your WordPress site is now possible. We will set up a reveal page and different Facebook pages depending on participants needs. In fact we show you how to create a whole website in Facebook, straight from your WordPress.

While this works with most any WordPress 3.1 enabled Theme, we will demonstrate the integration with Semiomantics XO.

In fact we will work with a professional plugin modified for Semiomantics XO.

The Seminar will guide you to master the following and more:

• Create Unlimited Facebook Fan Pages with WordPress

• Increase Likes by 150% with Reveal “Like” Tab Gateways

• Unlimited Customization Options When Designing Your Fan Pages

• Create Unlimited Custom Pages with the WordPress Page Editor

• Create Custom Menus and Navigation with Just a Few Clicks

• Comments, Like, Send and Over 50+ Custom Shortcodes for Enhanced Customization

• Facebook Open Graph Integration for Enhanced Facebook Integration and Google SEO

• Auto Post to Facebook From Your WordPress Blog

• Use Your Facebook Albums and Photos on Your Blog and Fan Pages

• Add Google Maps to Your Facebook Fan Pages

• Create Squeeze and Sales Pages with Just a Few Clicks on Facebook

Add Facebook related widgets to your front and/or content pages. Google+ and Twitter buttons. Pull in Facebook Albums, Events, like Buttons and more. Use Facebook Connect to log in to or to register with your blog.

Create content which is only accessible after visitors clicked the “Like” button. A smashing filter which allows you to manage accessibility right from your XO.

Saturday and Sunday November 26/27, 2011.

We start at 1 pm London Time and end at 9 pm London time both days.

You need a WordPress blog preferably with FTP access.

Scripts and all other materials are provided.

We will install the necessary scripts for you previous to the Seminar; please get your Tickets early. If we are not yet in possession of the FTP access to your site, please send it by email to Bianca Gubalke at bianca(at)ycademy.com.

The Price for Participating, Materials and access to recordings is $85.

Click to get your Ticket

Discount as usual for Ycademy Pros. Please contact Bianca Gubalke at bianca(at)ycademy.com for the code or any other question you may have pertaining to the Seminar.

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Empire Avenue Changes Again

Subsequent to a recent blog post by Empire Avenue concerning recent changes, here are some comments:

While the old system may have rewarded people for posting any nonsense, now we are rewarded for clicking on and engaging with any nonsense.

What’s the improvement?

The retweet of retweets remains and becomes increasingly a rewarding industry on EA.

My Yin and Yang Approach to Empire Avenue’s Changes

The modifications don’t really improve EA’s real problem, which is its own growth.

Since May, EA has only lost traffic and looking at the quality and number of new arrivals, my projection on the future would be bearish.

While the game is exciting at the beginning, it becomes boring after a while and as rewards drop dramatically (cashflow) as the share-price increases you see people stagnating somewhere at the 80-120e level.

In fact, the regressive reward system means that people would need to increase their social activity daily to maintain their growth, which automatically drives the system right into the wall.

The recent changes seem to be in favor of large portfolios and highly priced shares while they are a disadvantage for those who actually drive the program, which are all those struggling somewhere in the 50-120e segment.

Have you noticed that expensive shares all of a sudden do better daily scores (growth) than a little while ago.

I am not in the secrets of the Gods here and I have no insight into the algorithm used. But I can show some of the problem areas which need to be addressed if EA wants to be a fun program for years to come.

a) Sign-ups: there is too much dead meat on the bone.

b) There are not enough new arrivals.

c) The middle section (50 — 150e/share) needs to be better rewarded if you want to keep people on board.

d) Blogs are where many serious people create real and original content. This is not rewarded.

e) A lot of endorsed “blogs” and RSS feeds are of absolutely no value as people add any feed stream they can grab, from Twitter to Google+ where no original content is produced.

f) Most people’s Facebook consists of re-blogs or re-tweets or re-publishing of someone elses content. If the social activity consists in redistributing YouTube and CNN news, and  in commenting thereon, then all those people who really produce content of value will see no interest in EA on the long run, as EA rewards the copycat and re-distributor better than the original producer.

Just look at your Facebook Feed and see all the nonsense that comes in. It get’s even more irritating, when EA members and friends retweet each others nonsense and you get it twice or more times onto your feed and EA rewards you for re-commenting … . This is by the way one of the reasons why increasing numbers of people quit SN or use very restrictive settings which prevent the undesired intrusion of nonsense.

g) EA is too much focused on the cave system consisting of interlinked social networks. The internet has a lot more to offer than social networks and it would be much more interesting if we could attract people from outside as well, namely those who have built authority, high visibility on Google and who do real business online, feeding their families with their online activity in stead of feeding birds on Twitter.

Also you may notice that people are getting tired of social networking for the purpose of social networking.The kind of social activity EA is rewarding is not quality but remains quantity focused — something we have seen with mass-mail 10 years ago.

h) EA should be more user-focused and ask: What can EA do for the subscribers?

If people are rewarded to add just to the global cyber-waste, then it may be a nice distraction for a while but without any real value and benefit for our personal, professional or financial wellbeing :-).

i) EA is not explaining why it has disabled the share issue control function!

Having said the above, I like EA as a program and I like to note that developers and designers have done and are doing a great job on the site.

Also, I have met some nice and interesting people with whom the conversation continues outside the cave.

Can I recommend Empire Avenue to my friends? For learning purposes yes, for the reward system, no. For social benefits: there are better places to go. For tracking: there are more accurate programs.
For traffic generation: only if you want to build traffic for EA and social networks. For the fun: YES, untill you bump into the wall :-).

Finally: One of the smartest use people make of EA is the Kiva Initiative. From that we can learn even more than from EA itself.
Viva Kiva!

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Surya Ray on Google

When I told Surya Ray this morning that I would demonstrate to him how much more efficient a self-hosted high profile site is, compared to blog farms, I was betting on a 36 hours success. Now 12 hours later, here we go:

As the .com was already taken, I registered the suriaray.net domain at yorgodom :-). Yes, that’s about 12 hours ago. I pointed the DNS to a yorgobiz server and loaded a Semiomantics XO script and optimized it a bit. Then I punched in 1 post saying that the site was about Surya Ray and syndicated 25 posts from my Author blog into the site. That’s it.

Surya Ray makes it with the new domain to rank 6, just one rank behind the YORGOO blog :-) beating already most of the competitors and large networks. The goal is to pass ahead by tomorrow.

Surya Ray on Google Top 10

Surfing Google further, we find our entry on ranks 18, 19 and 20! That’s 5 in the top 20 and 2in the top 10.

Surya Ray Ranking 2

Let’s look forward to tomorrows situation, I bet it will be better!

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The Ycademy September 2011 Seminar will take place this coming week-end as usual starting on Saturday at 1 pm London Time and closing on Sunday night at 9 pm.

The Goal of the Seminar is to understand the principles of social media marketing and to set up a social publishing and marketing network allowing for an efficient workflow.

Particular attention will be brought to privacy and security issues as well as to creating streamlined publishing accross networks and platforms.

Details to follow later.

Tickets are available as usual from HERE.

Discounts as usual for Ycademy Pros.

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Copyright © Yorgo Nestoridis - Original Article at Social Media Marketing Seminar.

The social network frenzy is far from being over and with Google +, the giant definitely is aiming for a part of that cake. It’s not the first time Google is trying to steal the show from the main players in social communication; remember the flop of Google wave?

Nobody knows if this time Google is on the cool side of affairs or if they just go for another dive in social media development.

Google + allows me to organize my contacts in Circles and to manage them easily. Plus is also an easy to use media manager allowing for quick distribution of content to targeted circles.

The Sites design is functional, rather minimalist and of good taste. Personally, I like it, however, those who find the dreadful design of Facebook cool, will not feel at ease on Google.

What could it be that makes internet users shift away from Facebook to Google?

What do you think?

If you still need a Google+ Invite, just grab it from HERE.

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Copyright © Yorgo Nestoridis - Original Article at Who needs Google Plus anyway?.

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Copyright © Yorgo Nestoridis - Original Article at Accommodation in George.

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Copyright © Yorgo Nestoridis - Original Article at How to reach Google Top 10 with Images.

Online Advertising with YORGOO Booster makes of every web master an Advertising Virtuoso. Content served in the High Performance Semiomantics Script and enriched with unlimited advertising features result in the most explosive mix ever driven to the top of google.

Best of it: the site is largely automated as it has been designed as a “Set and Forget” Publishing Platform.

When years ago web designers were kings, most site templates featured large header graphics, between 100 and 250 or more pixels high where the designers had a playground to exhibit their skills.

Today this is considered as valuable space which is used for branding and commercial purposes. Some standards have emerged, such as the small half size header banners and the 728 x 90 banner which typically is placed on top of the site.

Another standard for advertising consists in showing first an advertising page before redirecting to the addressed URL.

YORGOO Booster allows the web master to load header images in any size and to associate a link to each image. The header image can thus be used similar to a traditional site header linking to the home page or it can be used for commercial purposes putting on display a more or less large image linking to any target.

According to the YORGOO Booster strategy, the header should be between 930 and 970 pixels wide and between 500 and 700 pixels high with the goal to occupy maximum space on the visitors screen. The header bears the most important commercial message and it is the webmaster’s goal to convert as many visitors as possible from the header ad.

Images can replace a thousand words, namely if they are captivating. Large captivating images definitely have mega impact. The disadvantage of such images is their size: a good quality image will always be heavier than just some text lines or a small banner. It is therefore important to edit images with care and if possible with a minimum number of layers.

While the YORGOO Booster allows for loading any number of header images which show randomly or which can be allocated to particular posts or pages, the script does not allow for loading sliced images.

The image formats accepted by YORGOO Booster are: .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, .swf

To get the best impact, it is important to name and tag the images properly.

Flash files, or .swf files are an interesting option, the more that flash content will not deviate the search spiders’ attention.

Example:

top10

Camtasia or similar can be used to produce such flash files if Adobe Flash is not available.

The default header ad on YORGOO Booster is the first impression the visitor gets from the site. A captivating header of good quality can become your best feature for conversion on your site!

Considering the above, imagine the power of the Header Ad: YORGOO Booster is designed to grab Google Top 10 positions. A visitor finding your Booster under a targeted keyword, will be exposed to the header ad which must be keyword related to create immediately the empathy necessary for a high conversion rate.

Check out our Editorials about Online Advertising.

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