The GottaQuirk eMarketing blog The GottaQuirk blog is a great resource for information about internet marketing. It’s an up-to-date resource on the happenings in the fast-moving eMarketing industry. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 13 4697

Articles from The GottaQuirk eMarketing blog

The Importance of Web Accessibility 2007-10-03 04:38:20 "You must be blind not to see the point of Web accessibility guidelines" Often when I’m explaining some of the details of on-page optimisation to clients, I tell them that many of the steps we take benefit not only search engines but also users using screen-readers. Generally, the response we get is one of, “Yeah, but how many of our users screen-readers anyway? Surely it’s not worth considering something that accounts for so few users?” I was reminded of this today, while reading this article: “A federal judge in California certified a class action lawsuit against Target Corp brought by plaintiffs claiming the discount retailer's website is inaccessible to the blind” Win or lose, the case will undoubtedly draw some attention to the issue of Web accessibility and hopefully in the long run lead to better implementation of accessibility guidelines. Even though the number of users specifically affected might be relatively small, the size ...

Samwise the Brave 2007-10-01 07:52:37 My name is Samantha Barwise, yes Barwise - I have the most legendary surname EVER! I am the latest newbie intern at the QuirkStation with a hobbit nickname (no, I do not have furry feet). I am originally from Jozi, please don't hold it against me, and would like to believe I am a feisty gal with a good sense of humour and gleeful abandon. So why am I here? This question has many more answers than you may think, but I'll leave the philosophical ones for another day and concentrate on those relevant to Quirk. The first answer would be Tim and Sarah B (Sarah the Third). Both close friends of mine they have been raving about Quirk for months now and what a wonderful place it is to work at. Secondly I am at UCT studying a Bachelor of Business Science majoring in Marketing and with eMarketing being the IT space to get involved in at the moment Quirk really seems like the place to learn as much as possible from some very talented eMarketing gurus. Now… on to who I am. There's ...

Security and social networking 2007-10-01 04:34:43 There’s a lot of talk going on at the moment surrounding the topic of social networks and how safe your personal information really is. A recent publication by emedia's RapidResearch service highlighted this for me. The “RapidResearch Social Networking Sites Survey” focused on online users’ views of social networking sites and over 100 individuals, exclusively from the UK, took part in the research study. The central research findings were as follows, "nearly two thirds (62%) of UK’s social-networking site users say they are worried about the safety of their personal data" and then "nearly one-third (31%) of users say they have entered false information about themselves to protect their identity". Interesting, yes? It seems that people are weary about posting their personal information on social networking sites, rather preferring to create an alias for themselves or just leaving out some important information. People are learning&h ...

Don't judge too fast 2007-09-30 03:48:34 Craig sent me a series of virals for Ameriquest the other day. I saw this one a while ago (still bloody funny though) but it was the one below that really made me giggle. I don't think I've ever seen a funny ad for a a mortgage company before these, and I'd def never seen one I'd watch more than once. Obviously I'm not the only one who thinks they're really funny as the series has done really well on YouTube over the last year. … Check out some others from this series here, here and here. Comment on "Don't judge too fast" ...

The Chief is Back 2007-09-29 04:17:40 It’s probably safe to say that Halo 3 has been the most anticipated game of all time. Heck, the build-up has been phenomenal. Released on the 25th Microsoft reported sales reaching $170 million within a day, making it the all-time top grossing American entertainment product within 24-hours of its release. Now, any online campaign that had this much buzz surrounding the product itself and aimed at a market that lives predominantly online was destined to be viral no matter what the creatives rolled out. Still, this clip surprised me: The thing that caught me most off-guard was the fact that it wasn’t spectacular, nor flashy, nor did it try and build on all of the buzz surrounding the product. Instead the above clip seems very un-Hollywoodish for lack of a better word. Well, ok, there is one; understated. It seems to build on the legend of the game’s principle character, the Master Chief. The green armoured fellow has become one of the game’s main draw-card ...

The World of Virtual Goods hits a new level 2007-09-28 02:04:25 The online gaming world grows everyday, with 9 million subscribers to the most popular MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) World of Warcraft (WoW) - to which I myself, have lost two years of my life. I am now a recovering addict, and only visit Azeroth twice a week (okay, okay maybe four or five times). Yes, it's like virtual crack and I'm considering opening the first Rehabilitation Center for junkies like me. More alarming however, is the market of this virtual world - game goods like weapons, armour items and gold (WoW currency) have real world monetary value. I think it's something like 50c for one piece of gold, (I being the junkie that I am have a connection that gets it for 35c!). Other than that, levelled characters can be bought or levelled from the starting level to the max level (level 70 at the mo). The latest news in the virtual market is a record sale of a fully levelled character for almost £5,000 (7,000 euros). The reason for the ridiculous price was that th ...

People hate to be silenced 2007-09-27 02:33:08 Those of you that keep close tabs on all things Online Reputation Management related will probably have heard about 2Clix, the Australian accounting software provider, trying to sue Whirlpool, an Aussie online forum, for $150,000. The thrust of the charges – Whirlpool owner Simon Wright allowing false and malicious comments to be made on the forums regarding 2Clix. Well last week we heard that the lawsuit has been withdrawn. I think I’m not alone in breathing a sigh of relief at this. With no precedent on this kind of case a ruling in favour of 2Clix would have had some serious ramifications for the rest of the global online community At the end of the day 2Clix now seems to be in a worse position that when it started. The efforts exerted by 2Clix in silencing its critics only seems to have damaged the company far more than the critics themselves ever could have done. Doing a quick Google search for 2Clix I spotted 7 results on the first page relating to the Whirlpool ...

Facebook Flyers Pro - What you've gotta know 2007-09-26 06:01:11 Heidi posted about Facebook Flyers Pro, last week but to recap Flyers Pro essentially enables you to reach the right audience for your ad and only pay for the clicks you receive. One of Quirk's amazing new clients are a company called Wicked Uncle. Wicked Uncle is a solution site for time-poor professionals who have nieces, nephews and God-children, but no idea what to buy them for their birthdays or Christmas. These bankers and lawyers don’t have kids yet, but their friends and families do. They also don’t have the time or inclination to spend a Saturday morning surrounded by moms and screaming kids in a toy store. Wicked Uncle provides the answer by offering a limited selection of the coolest kids’ gifts, arranged by age and gender, making it easy for visitors to select the perfect present in under a minute. They will also wrap it and deliver it the next day, with a hand written, personalised card.  To top it off, they will also remind you next year that t ...

Data... Pros or Plagiarists? 2007-09-25 07:46:06 Ok, so I’m not going to sugar coat this – I am writing this post because some of the copy on our main site, Quirk.biz, has been plagiarised by DataPro, one of the largest players in the South African IT and communications space. As a copywriter I appreciate just how much time and effort goes in to producing well-written web copy. While it may not always be poetry in motion it has to be informative, succinct and turn visitors into customers - which is not always an easy task. That’s why I get a little hot under the collar (read pissed) when I see other companies taking content off one website and putting it onto their own. As an established eMarketing agency we see this happening to our content and marketing initiatives quite often - which really is frustrating. But while the majority of these “content borrowers” do actually try quite hard to at least rephrase what’s been written, we do encounter something quite shocking every now and again. Las ...

Web Trends of the future - top 10 2007-09-25 02:45:43 The Internet has changed a great deal about how we communicate; I touched on this in the post I wrote on Quality vs. Quantity a little while back. I like to think that early postmodernists would be proud of the way knowledge and fact are becoming fluid (hmm, I see another blog post here). As information exchange rates increase it’s consistently more difficult to rely on “fact” to remain as, well, fact. With this increased information exchange rate in mind the time-delays between conceptualisation and successful product rollout are steadily decreasing. It is becoming imperative that either you are able to do product role out within a matter of weeks OR you forecast the trends of the future and take a risk on developing the incorrect product. I recently read a post by Richard MacManus looking at his 10 future Webtrends. These included: Semantic Web – the way computers interact with each other and the mechanisms supporting information sharing. Artificial ...

MySpace Makes an Easy Target 2007-09-24 08:48:27 Heidi recently posted a blog (Facebook draws a bullseye on your profile) about how Facebook is allowing those who use their new PPC product, Flyers Pro, to target certain demographics on Facebook. It’s no surprise then that MySpace has announced that has been dabbling with allowing advertisers to target a much more select group of users according to the users’ tastes, according to ioltechnology.co.za’s article, MySpace launches targeted ad program. Apparently they have been experimenting with this idea since July. The move allows advertisers to target users’ profiles who have specific keywords in certain categories. It fits capitalist logic perfectly; if you have the information, use it to your benefit. With a fierce battle raging between social networking sites, especially with the announcement of Yahoo!’s Mash, MySpace offers an advantage to advertisers. I just wonder why they hadn’t thought of this sooner, especially News Corporation. What they ...

Googlism: What Google Has to Say About you 2007-09-24 04:12:18 While taking my morning stroll though the Internet a few days ago I came across the little novelty nugget known as Googlism. In short, Googlism searches the internet (specifically Google indexed pages) for mentions of your query. Described on the site as “a fun tool to see what Google "thinks" of certain topics” this gimmicky little engine is pretty good for a laugh. The site is in no way affiliated with Google itself, but the Australian owned website delivers some real leg slapping results, perfect for those who get their kicks from the Facebook status blurbs These are a few of the results from the Quirk search… Quirk is an ambitious and opportunistic sycophant. Quirk is the one exception to that rule. Quirk is somewhere between a bug and a feature. Quirk is a constituent particle and protons and neutrons are composed of quirks as protons and neutrons form an atomic nucleus. Quirk is the co. Just a bit of fun - we all need a br ... Google

Connectivity 2007-09-23 04:04:07 The Internet has given us the power to change the world as we knew it... This Microsoft ad illustrates this perfectly. It may be a little mushy and a bit feel good for some of you - but I'm in a mushy mood. I'll be back to sarcy and cynical on Monday... promise. Comment on "Connectivity" ...

Music Too Loud? 2007-09-22 03:12:00 This is a pretty cool viral from the Hearing Foundation of Canada, albeit not too original. Relying on a bit of humour and on being a slightly cringeworthy experience for the viewer this one is sure to drag out a few smiles if nothing else. Comment on "Music Too Loud?" ...

Music Too Loud? 2007-09-22 03:12:00 This is a pretty cool viral from the Hearing Foundation of Canada, albeit not too original. Relying on a bit of humour and on being a slightly cringeworthy experience for the viewer this one is sure to drag out a few smiles if nothing else. Comment on "Music Too Loud?" ...