It’s taken me a while to get around to trying Live Writer… and it turns out that Microsoft had released a new version (Windows Live Writer 2008) just as I decide to try it.  This is my ‘first look’ post.

So what is it and what can it do?

Well, it’s a blog post editor.  I’m writing this post using Live Writer.  And, more interestingly, the editor is formatted just like my blog.

The width of the page, the paragraph formatting, the font… all taken from the settings of the very blog you are reading.  It’s a WYSIWYG blog post editor (you can also view/edit is as HTML)

It works with most major blogging software (not just Microsoft’s own) which in my case is WordPress. Plus it will spell check, automatically post images, maps and video, set categories, publish date and it has a plug-in model for extending the functionality (take a look at the plug-in gallery here).

I thought I’d try the Silverlight streaming plug-in - which as you’d expect allows you to add a streaming link to a post.  If it worked, you’ll be able to see the first frame of the video with the title ‘Raw Food Recipes eBook’ or will see an ‘install Silverlight’ icon.

(the Silverlight video is from our ValuedClientSystem.com demonstration videos)

Enjoy…
-Mark

Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box

Keywords and phrases drive internet search, they drive search advertising and so they are used in search engine optimisation.

And I’m going to let you into a little secret… when we do SEO for our clients or ourselves and when we are looking for the best combination of keywords and price for advertising (looking for niche phrases that arn’t going to cost £££’s per click), we use WordTracker.

The folks at Wordtracker periodically compile a database of over 330 million search terms which is updated on a weekly basis - and then makes it available for our research, which they make pretty straight forward.

Anyway, my point is that as one of their clients and affiliate partners they have given us the ability to pass on a rare discount opportunity on to you… a 15% discount on their service during November, so it ends on November 30th.

To take advantage visit
WordTracker and use this promotion code: us-annual-15

Enjoy!
-Mark

Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box

On 30th April Microsoft made a major announcement and update to a new product it calls Silverlight.

Silverlight is a web browser plug-in for playing rich media content, much like you would expect with Adobe’s Flash player.  Unusually for Microsoft, this is a cross platform and cross browser plug-in, tested on Windows in Internet Explorer and Firefox and on a Mac in Safari and Firefox and on Windows based mobile devices like PDA’s and Smartphones.

Of course, Adobe already provides coverage of these platforms, so there must be something different and special for Microsoft to make any kind of impact with this type of application.

In my Beyond the Browser piece last month I gave the example of the British Libraries ‘Turning The Pages‘ application as being beyond the browser… using the internet as a delivery mechanism, but not using HTML like a typical web page.  The problem with the Turning the Pages application is that it is designed to run only on Microsoft Windows - which if you run a Mac is frustrating.

Well, this new Silverlight product has the ability to run this style of ‘rich interactive application’ cross platform.  Well, yes, OK, just like Flash.

There appear to be three unique benefits Microsoft is leaning on:

1. Very high quality video - right up to 720p, High Definition and using standard encoding which means that millions of hours of video is already compatible with the player.  AND very low cost (staring FREE) video streaming (sign-up here).
2. Great tools support for building rich interactive applications
3. Integration with HTML and AJAX applications

Imagin having high definition video streamed to your web browser!  I still don’t have a HD compatible TV (I know, I’m lagging, I’ll get there), but I do have an HD compatible computer monitor

What’s just as exciting is that Microsoft are offering the ability to host your own video on their streaming servers so you and your customers can stream it - saving you having to spend money on the bandwidth (and no U-Tube type branding).

Now, this ‘free streaming’ has limits, but even after final release of the products, 1 million minutes of streaming at 700 Kbps will still be free.  For the details of bandwidth limits etc take a look at the What You Gettt section of the Silverlight streaming page.

Great tools can make a huge different to the speed of technology adoption.  If it’s easy and inexpensive to do something great, that’s a great start.

Microsoft is in the process of releasing its Expression product set for web designers, and it has extended these tools to support Silverlight.  Specifically Expression Media for encoding video, Expression Design for creating graphical elements and Expression Blend for combining graphics, video and user interaction.  Again you can read all about these products on Microsoft’s site.

The key for me, in a nutshell is that they provide a clean and straightforward ‘programming’ model.  I find the Adobe Action Script approach somewhat frustrating - though clearly there are some very proficient people out there that don’t have that problem.

Finally, the HTML and AJAX application support means that Silverlight applications can easily interact with the web pages that host them; this should result in a much better experience for the website user!

There’s plenty more to Silverlight than I’ve discussed here and you can read more here., but I hope you’ve got the flavour.  Rich interactive applications on the web take another leap forward.

-Mark

Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box

What do you think it is?

I haven’t done a survey, but I have been around for a few years it seems to me that there is one topic that just keeps coming back.  Like safety in motor racing or brain damage in boxing this one doesn’t go away.

There are certainly fads and trends that take us away from the topic in its raw form.  But, at the end of the day an internet site is nothing without it.

I’m sure you’ve guessed by now.

When you look for a location to build or buy commercial property as a retail outlet or other business that requires your clientele to visit you.  A big consideration is the number of people that walk or drive past your property.

It’s the same with a web site.  You may as well not have bothered creating a site if people never see it.  The buzz word then is… traffic.

And if you want to be more specific, it’s targeted traffic!  That is people visiting your site that are interested in what your site is offering.

We’re just building a web site for a dancer and model.  The aim of the site is to provide agencies and other people interested in hiring a dancer or model enough information to want to contact him for audition.

It’s nice if I visit his site.  But given that right now I have no need for a model or dancer, I wouldn’t be targeted traffic.

In fact, given that ‘bandwidth’ is one of the commodities we pay for on the internet you might argue that I’m bad traffic.

So, how do you get targeted traffic?

The reason that this topic just keeps coming back is that 1) there is no single answer, 2) people invent new ways all the time and 3) there are always new sites cropping up that want targeted traffic!

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is one of the areas that addresses targeted traffic – and it’s an alluring one.  After all, if a search engine delivers you traffic it’s typically both targeted (people were searching for something relevant to your site) and free.

Because of this allure SEO gets a lot of bandwidth!  My only advice when looking for an SEO solution is that if the promise looks unbelievable (we guarantee number 1 on Google) then it probably shouldn’t be believed.

I’m sure there are exceptions but as a rule of thumb there is probably plenty of small print behind a statement like that.

You can find some of my own thoughts about traffic using SEO on one of our experimental sites: SEO Articles at OnlineMarketersChoice

One of my favourite techniques (and importantly some steps on how to do it) is covered in this $7, 14 page article by Gordon Bryan.

Finally, here’s a list of 10 traffic generation ideas, many of which I’m sure I’ll expand on in the future and all of which have been expanded on by somebody!!

1. Write and publish articles
2. Use pay-per-click advertising
3. Traditional marketing – how many of Jay Conrad Levinson’s 100 Guerilla Marketing Wepons are you using?
4. PR, do something interesting enough for journalists to write about it
5. Contribute to community sites (bulletin boards, newsgroups, blogs)
6. Use search engine optimization techniques
7. Create a great affiliate program
   Find and work with other businesses through joint ventures
8. Use Email Permission Marketing
9. Make it easy and compelling for current customers or visitors to tell others about your services through viral marketing
10. Oh yes, and, write a blog!

Take care,
Mark

Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box