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 79 4942

Articles from The GottaQuirk eMarketing blog

Find the kinks in those links 2007-03-29 05:42:34 In a recent poll on SEOPal, readers were asked for their opinions on the Top Ranking Factors in SEO. These are the current top 10 factors: # Title Type 1 Anchor Text Inbound Links 2 Unique Content Content 3 Title Tags On Page 4 Site History On Site 5 Back links Inbound Links 6 Link age Inbound Links 7 Site Trust On Site 8 Site Subject On Site 9 Page Rank Inbound Links 10 Site Age On Site ...

We all speak Google 2007-03-28 09:54:18 According to an article in the M&G, Google are on the verge of a major breakthrough in instant language translation. Machine translation is not new. Ever since the early days of Babel Fish, web surfers have been able to sample foreign language text. The translations were never that good though, and there seemed to be minimal progress over the past decade or so. Traditionally, machine translation systems have worked based on grammar rules and dictionaries programmed in by linguisitic experts and programmers. Now, Google researchers have taken a new approach. They feed in documents that have already been translated, using an approach called statistical machine translation. This method allows the machine to identify and replicate patterns, leading to a far more accurate translation. The more documents that get added, the larger the statistical sample, the better the results get. Make no mistake. Human translators are not suddenly going to find themselves out of work…yet. Mac ... Google

Closing the loop 2007-03-28 00:23:24 Unlike with a lot of traditional marketing methods, eMarketing’s success can be accurately tracked. This is one of the things I love about my job - It’s marketing with statistics. The creativity of above-the-line (well, sometimes) with the quantitative measurability of below-the-line. The Quirk PPC team, for example, tracks everything that happens up until the conversion stage. We count how many times a PPC advert was seen, how many people clicked on it, how many of those people converted (by buying a product or filling in an inquiry form) and in some cases we even count the amount of money spent by each visitor. Basically, from the moment a user types in a key phrase until the moment they convert on the site, we gatherer, analyze, and feed back information into the system. So, once the user has converted, the cycle is completed, and the job is done, right? Wrong. Because, a conversion does not necessarily equal a sale. How many of those enquiries turned into sales? For h ...

iBurst prices to soar by 614%? 2007-03-27 06:32:21 While Vodacom recently announced an up-to-61% drop in their mobile broadband prices, iBurst could be on the verge of dropping a bombshell on the broadband market by introducing new out-of-bundle rates up to 614% more expensive than their current rates. This is according to a MyADSL report this morning which stated that they (MyADSL) had received correspondence regarding the rate hike. This correspondence takes the form of a letter to resellers (PDF) from iBurst boss Alan Knott-Craig and its accompanying new pricing structure (PDF). However, these rates have not been officially confirmed as they still need to be approved by ICASA. The new rates for iBurst’s add-on data bundles are as follows: 100mb - R 110 200mb - R 209 500mb - R 495 1000mb - R 853 (614% increase) 2000mb - R 1540 3000mb - R 2145 6000mb - R 3630 9000mb - R 4950 I called iBurst to attempt to get some clarification on the matter. I first spoke to product development assistant, Candice du Plessis. She was hesitant t ...

Amatomu Search Plugin 2007-03-26 13:54:58 The title pretty much says it all - I've just put together a search plugin for the South African blogosphere's Technorati, Amatomu.com. It's based on the OpenSearch format, so it should work with Firefox 2 and IE7, searching South African blogs for whatever you can dream of. Here's the link - it will need to be clicked from the browser itself: function addopensearch(url) { try { window.external.AddSearchProvider(url); } catch( e ) { alert("You need to use Internet Explorer (7.0 or later) or Firefox (2.0 or later) to install the OpenSearch plug-in."); } }  Amatomu Search Plugin Please check it out (it adds to your drop-down list of search engines in the top right) and let me know how it works. Many thanks to the scott for the idea. Comment on "Amatomu Search Plugin" ...

Watch the cricket on the net 2007-03-26 09:05:38 The World Cup over in the West Indies has certainly seen a few instances of the minnows humiliating the masters. Who would have thought Bangladesh could have beaten India? On the same day, 17 March, Ireland beat Pakistan. South Africa succumbed to arch-rivals Australia, but we’re hoping they’ll bounce back for the Super 8s stage. So the cricket is going strong and it looks like the final stages will be hotly contested, even though some of the big names have already been sent home. No TV? No problem! The marvel that is the Internet allows for every single game to be watched online – for free. You would need a pretty stable Internet connection with a high cap if you intend watching hours upon hours of coverage, though. To get started with live cricket streaming you’ll need the WebPlayer software from SopCast. Once you’ve got that installed, head over to Live Cricket to get updated details of which channels to tune into. My fellow copywriter, Bianca, ...

Xbox 360 Shoot Out 2007-03-25 09:53:40 Not too long ago Sarah (M, not A) plonked a clip about the Xbox 360 into our viral vault. It was meant to be an advert but as far as I can see it got banned from TV. Now to follow up, here's the Xbox 360 shoot-out casting. To me it looks like the woman's trying to audition for the All Blacks haka – and personally she's scaring me more than Carter or any of his teammates could. (And no, I'm not taking a jibe at the New Zealand boys. Honest.) Comment on "Xbox 360 Shoot Out" ... Xbox

Powerade Ace 2007-03-25 09:49:24 Wow. The guy can do this and he still struggles to make Federer sweat. Speaks volumes for the Swiss maestro's ability that he can make a world-class player like Roddick look average. I didn't catch this game so I don't know the outcome but I'd guess that technically it'd count as an ace. However I'm sure that they just retook the point. If it did count as an ace then it's probably as close as you can come to the perfect serve. Any thoughts as to what the outcome should be? Comment on "Powerade Ace" ...

Gender Specific Shower Habits 2007-03-24 03:20:27 I found this clip ages ago while looking for something else on YouTube. It is quite possibly one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I know it’s not an ad but I thought we could all use a laugh, especially since it's not looking good for the SA cricket team at the mo. Isn’t it remarkable how spot on they are? Comment on "Gender Specific Shower Habits" ...

You must be Cloaking 2007-03-23 10:18:04 Recently ‘Marketing Pilgrim’ writer Jeremy Luebke posted an article -“The art of Link Cloaking”. He made quite a few interesting comments about the benefits of link cloaking; where some are true, and others are not. (In my opinion, anyway) The origin of Link Cloaking Link Cloaking was originally used by Affiliate marketers to ensure that their affiliate ID is present when you click on a link. For instance – having a link: http:/www.domain.co.za/product.php?id=146233ZA, you might stand the risk of someone just copying the URL and going there directly, thus not giving you the credit for the sale. Enter Link Cloaking… Marketers will then rather use http://www.mywebaffiliatesite.co.za as the link, which will redirect (using a 301 redirect) to http:/www.domain.co.za/product.php?id=146233ZA So how can we use this information in our SEO campaign? These were some suggestions according to Jeremy: Take into account websites A, B, and C. • &nb ...

The one that plays them all 2007-03-23 10:10:43 Today, Sony’s PS3 finally launches in Europe, Australia and Africa. So it’s a pretty big week for gamers in South Africa. Also today, I get a Press Release in my inbox telling me, “a little known South African company, announced that a gaming console that is capable of reading and playing games from three of the world’s most popular gaming consoles has finally been developed” ‘“This has always been a dream of ours to build a console on South African soil that can play multiple formats of gaming software. Now avid gamers don’t have to buy the three different types of consoles due to the fact that the phantom HP is capable of playing all three types at the same price as the Xbox 360,” says Chris Hott, marketing manager for Reinventech. Not only can the Phantom HP read different disc formats but has also improved many aspects of   each of the worlds best selling consoles. The main developer responsible for the Phantom HP, ...

Ufuna ntoni? Amatomu! 2007-03-22 09:32:28 Just when we thought that there may be a chance that we’ve run out of amazing changes to witness and experience, someone always whips one out of the bag. We love it when that happens. Yes we do. In this case, the perpetrator of such a marvelous occurrence being Vincent Maher, online media strategist for the Mail & Guardian. This is the man who brings us Amatomu! This highly beneficial blogosphere tool has been hailed by some as the South African Technorati, its function being to rank, organise and connect the SA blogosphere. The launch of such a product has and will undoubtedly become a super catalyst in the growth of the rate of the social and business media realms, not only within South Africa, but also between South Africa and countries abroad. Having been kept as top-secret information for some time, the news was finally broken yesterday by blogger Tyler Reed, who could no longer keep such a marvelous discovery a secret. On his site, he lists the basic features of Amat ...

eMarketing 101 Update 2007-03-22 04:57:57 So yesterday was Human Rights Day – I hope all the South African’s had a relaxing public holiday spent with family and friends. Unfortunately there is no rest for the wicked, and being a Wednesday it meant that it was time for Quirk’s fortnightly newsletter. After a few dramas (we love living on the edge - it adds some excitement) the newsletter went out, albeit a bit late. We released Chapter 9 of our eMarketing 101 series: Affiliate Marketing – because we all need friends. Go on – check it out. Those 101 collections should be growing quite nicely now. Make sure you’re signed up to the newsletter so that you receive the chapters as they’re released.   PS – yes I realise there is a small mistake in the newsletter – a little slip-up on my behalf… Comment on "eMarketing 101 Update" ...

Podcasting: video wins, audio loses 2007-03-20 07:30:14 This is a follow-up, or more accurately an add-on, to this morning’s Go forth and podcast post. First up, some simple technical clarification. Podcasting can take two forms: audio or video. The 5fm competition welcomes entries in either format. However, it seems the audio podcasting format is dying a slow death – at least in terms of its revenue potential. Conversionrater.com published an article today entitled Five Reasons Audio Podcasting Isn’t Going Anywhere. They reckon audio podcasts suck because: They’re hard to scan quickly; They’re hard to link to a specific point in a podcast; Downloading and managing the files sucks; Amateur podcasting is hard to take; Audio advertising isn’t moving quickly. In my previous post I put forward the opinion that “this competition can only do good things for the promotion of the Internet as a powerful platform on which the opinionated voices of Joe and Jill Soap can be widely heard ...

Go forth and podcast 2007-03-20 03:30:26 5fm, Apple, Coca Cola and MINI have launched a podcasting competition with R250 000 of slick prizes like iPods and MacBooks. The grand-prize winner gets to zoot around in a MINI Cooper for two months, and category finalists get VIP tickets to one helluva gig to “soak in the fame and the adoration of your friends when we play the category finalists’ podcasts on the big-screen in front of thousands of thousands of screaming fans”, according to the getpodcasting competition site, which began accepting submissions yesterday. The competition urges one to “Enter now and be part of the next wave of technology sweeping the planet.” A tad gallant, perhaps, but nevertheless it is great to see that podcasting in South Africa is being given such a significant boost. Let the people speak. Too bad the fine print is pretty nasty. It’s probably safe to predict that most people who enter this competition will match the demographics of 5fm’s youth market. Thi ...