Her Media specializes in managing affiliate programs that promote products or services of interest to women. If your product or service targets a primarily female or parent audience we would love to offer you a free consultation.

We offer two affiliate management solutions;

Full outsourced affiliate program management   more info (from $1350/month)

Basic program management solution for small businesses   more info (from $675/month)

I spend a lot of time speaking with new affiliates and bloggers hoping to earn ad revenue on their blogs and as a result I decided to focus some of my posts on the “Internet terminology’ every publisher (and blogger) needs.

Today ‘s Internet Geek Terminology choice is:

BOUNCE RATE

Where you will see this term ? In your traffic stats .

What is it ? This is a term of measurement that defines the percentage of initial visitors to your website (or blog) who ‘bounce’ away from your site instead of clicking through to a second page within your site.

Example A

Susie lands on your website and sees a second blog post (or page) that she likes – she clicks another blog post to open it and read. Susie is NOT a bouncer

Example B

George lands on your newest blog post and starts reading – George sees a banner for hot girls in your side bar and clicks it. George goes to look at hot girls (and to download spy-ware and Trojans to his site.) George IS a bouncer. (Of course you don’t have those banners on your site it was just a hypothetical example.

What are other ways a person can  ‘bounce’ off their initial visit ?
A visitor can bounce by:

• Typing a new url into their browser.
• Clicking a link on your page to a different website
• Closing the browser window or tab
• The session timing out (inactivity)

So how to you determine your blogs bounce rate ?

Bounce Rate = Total Number of Visits Viewing Only One Page / Total Number of Visits`

What is a good bounce rate?

Pick a card, because it’s not a black and white answer.  You have to KNOW the purpose of every page to determine what a good bounce rate is for any page. If you PURPOSE is to get a visitor to click through to an affiliate offer or ad then you want a high bounce rate. If the purpose si to engage the user into registering for your site then you want a low rate.

Generally an AVERAGE bounce rate rate is between 45- 60 %.

I really needed a way to sync my outlook contacts (and calendar) synchronized to both Gmail AND my blackberry (with out having to plug my blackberry into my computer).

Here are some ways to sync your outlook with your Google Account:

1) Google Business members can use Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook ($50 per user a year).

2) Blackberry users can sync your BB contacts with outlook contacts (using BB Desktop Manager). THEN use the free Google Sync mobile software, sync your BB contacts with your gmail account. (Requires you to plug your blackberry into your computer.)

3) Companion Link: A variety of sync products including Outlook to Google. $free 14 day trial to make sure it works for you then $39.99 to buy. Reports of doubling contacts and extensive time to sync large volume of contacts.

4) Soocial: Soocial is very upfront stating they are a BETA project when it comes to syncing with Outlook.
They clearly list possible conflicts and suggest backing up your contacts before syncing. A few fields will be overwritten. “Are you aware the Outlook client has issues? ONLY DOWNLOAD IF YOU THINK YOU ARE UNAFFECTED OR YOU CAN LIVE WITH THE ISSUES.”

Soocial is only for contacts. I am going to test Google Calendar Sync to see if these TWO options together will work for keeping Google updated with both my outlook calendar and outlook contacts. A possible solution to my outlook/google/ blackberry contact syning issues….

Flippa.com: Sell your website from $19.00 plus 5% ** Top marks for LISTING the sales. You can check to see what website for sale have recently sold, the number of bids and winning bids.

Flogyr Beta – a new site. Sell your website for free.

BuySellWebsite.com: $59 to list your website for sale

GeekVillage.com Forums: $just under $10 to list your site- however there are listings from BUYERS looking for sites as well.

InternetCompanyForSale.com: $39.95 one time until you sell your website (though the views look low)

Webmaster-Talk.com Marketplace:

WebsiteAcquire.com:

WebsiteBroker.com: Looks interesting but no cost clearly listed.

650 Media: Their website states they will buy websites.

Buy Businesses: This site allows website owners to list their websites for sale.

I am going to give Flippa a try. I have listed OrganizedFamilies.com for sale at Flippa. We’ll see how it does.

Working with female demographic companies, I find many are looking for some funky, retro, or unique fonts and Princess fonts is a great free resource.

Princess fonts offers hundreds of free fonts that you can search for alphabetically. My search this morning was for some fun fonts to create a birthday party invitation for my daughter.

Here are two free fonts  I liked -> Just a Dream font & Freebooter font:

I like the Category Posts Widget. It is light weight and has most of the features your average blogger would need.

Display thumbnail images via WP 2.9′s new post thumbnail feature.
Set how many posts to show.
Set which category the posts should come form.
Show the post excerpt and how long the excerpt should be.
Show the post date.
Show the comment count.
Option to make the widget title link to the category page.
Multiple widgets.

Another great side bar widget for wordpress is Query Posts Justin Tadlock. It allows you to display posts by tag, category, author, time/date, custom field key and/or value.
Choose any number.
Order by various terms.
Show pages.
Show the full post, excerpt, or even order them in a list.
And much more…

Justin’s side bar widget is a bit more ‘techy’ but all of his plugins get high ratings from me.

I have put together a list of services and programs that allow you to schedule future tweets on twitter. Some are free twitter schedulers and some a premium services allowing you to schedule your tweets and provide other options as well.

1) Twuffer A simple easy to use website for individual accounts. No sign up required.

2) Future Tweets: In beta and expected to always be in bets Shows the source of this Twitter update as “from FutureTweets” or not at all. Didn’t see a way to set a ‘custom’ note.

3) AutoTweeter. Desktop software only $20. A lightweight platform that runs on windows start up.

4) Tweet you later: Nice dashboard, easy to use, free auto twitter scheduling, lists your past and pending tweets, no need to enter your twitter account details (more secure).

5) Twaiter: Twitter url shortner, spell check (yeah!), follow management, multiple account option,

6) Schedule Twitter Posts: Free with a cap of one post every five hours.

7) HootSuite: All in one social media manager and twitter auto scheduler. Allows multiple accounts. Amazing amount of plugins and addons. Schedule tweets from yoru desk top or browser, even your i phone.

My top choices:

For those of you with one Twitter account to schedule future tweets on. I suggest Twaiter (with spell check). It’s simple and has the tools you need.

For those of you twitter geeks (like me) needing more – it’s all about HootSuite.

I can not help but wonder how some of these smaller PR firms stay in business. Their email write ups are  fine, but they are agreeing to take money from a client whose Internet presence is well – horrid. Step 6 before steps 1-5 are done.

PR is about a clients reputation and sending out news releases to promote a site that looks as though it was created in 1999, does not brand the client in a positive way.

I feel the purpose of hiring  New Media PR company is to  help a client build their reputation online. A important  part of that would be providing the feedback for necessary changes to their online presence before you launch any PR strategies.

Today I received a pitch for a children’s holiday book. The pitch was written and sent by a PR company for authors.

You have to remember that this pitch is being sent to a list of Internet Savvy mom bloggers who understand web 2.0 (they are bloggers!) From the email they are directed to a website that looks like it may have been put together by my 7 year old son in his elementary school computer center (which is NOT an exaggeration.)

I then went to the PR companies site and again saw a site that would have been a candidate for my webinar ‘Is your website a web 1.0 dinosaur’.

So here are some tips for PR people who may not be all that Internet saavy.
Before you start promoting a client online;

1) ensure they have an up to date website. WordPress is free and a well designed SEO business site can be completed for about $500.

2) Ensure your clients are up to date on social media concepts and using social media. $300 US will get them up and launched across over 200 social media sites.

3) Launch your PR strategies to point back to  landing page on your clients site -(or your website) specific to the offer you are promoting. Include an online form for more details, a place to download creative, press releases, media tools (including HIGH res images) and your full contact details as the PR rep.

If you need help finding affordable Social media consultants or WordPress Design, please ask me and I will provide you with some names.

But for the love of all things on this planet. PLEASE update your websites and STOP all promotion online until it is done.

]]> http://her-media.com/2009/12/before-you-pay-a-pr-for-new-media-pr-services/feed/ 1 http://her-media.com/2009/11/word-press-seo-plugin-page-error-redirection/ http://her-media.com/2009/11/word-press-seo-plugin-page-error-redirection/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:03:22 +0000 Her Media http://her-media.com/?p=1219 WordPress SEO is my topic of research for the next few weeks. So be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss all of this weeks WordPress SEO plugins and tips.

Today’s Worpdress SEO Tip: Don’t lose your posts when you update old posts or adjust your wordpress permalink structure.

Install this handy WordPress SEO plugin:

Redirection WordPress plugin

The Redirection WordPress SEO plugin allows you to manage all your 301 redirection and track your 404 errors in WordPress. Redirection is now on my list of MUST HAVE SEO wordpress plugins.

I normally charge $50 over at Her Social Media for a custom twitter background but my Get Her Media to Affiliate Summit Jan 2010 special offer is just – wait $30.

AND I will list your blog or business here on this page forever (or for as long as blogging is still in fashion and the blog still exists). So please contact me with your Custom Twitter background request by sending me a @hermedia shout out or using the contact page.

Click Here to see samples