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News and Events upto October 5th, 2007 |
| Web Designing trends October 2007 |
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Bermuda International Film Festival Call for Entries
The Bermuda International Film Festival is calling for entries for its 11th festival of world cinema, 28 March - 5 April 2008. The festival, which is recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a qualifying festival for the Short Film Academy Award, screens some 30 shorts, plus eight documentary features and eight narrative features in competition.
Cash prizes are given to the winner of the Mary-Jean Mitchell Green Award for Best Narrative Feature (US$5000), and the M3 Wireless Bermuda Shorts Award ($3000). There is also an award for Best Documentary Feature. The winner of the Bacardi Limited Audience Choice Award receives a $3000 cash prize. Directors whose films win the awards are invited to Bermuda the following year to sit on the festival jury.
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KUKA Robotics to Present New Trends in Plastic Processing Robotics at AT
KUKA Robotics will present emerging trends and advancements information regarding robotics at the Assembly Technology Expo (ATE) to be held from 25 to 27 September at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont (Chicago), IL. John Nelson, plastics industry product manager for KUKA Robotics, will be presenting new trends in six axis robotic applications for injection molders on the KUKA booth No. 335 on the hour from 10am to 2pm throughout the show.
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Budget Lighting Sponsors development
Budget Lighting Inc recently sponsored, with a financial contribution to the AgoraCart project, the development of a new add-on module for the AgoraCart ecommerce shopping cart system. The new module, suggested selling, will allow a store owner to suggest other items to a store visitor that compliment or are similar to the items being viewed.
Features of the new module include: ability to specify the use of an image in the suggestion either from a list of installed images or manually typing in the image location; use of a product identifier by category of products, an individual product ID, or a unique keyword used within any product range; selection of product page layouts form installed list, and a simple code snippet (agorascript - which is perl in html pages) inserted into the layout(s) of choice in order to display the suggestions.
All functions come from a single file, uploaded from AgoraCart's revolutionary update/upgrade modules manager, that performs all the complete install and directory setups dynamically while saving the initial suggested selling manager settings.
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YouTube for E-Tailers: Tips, Camcorder Reviews
At least four new products — Pure Digital's Flip camcorders,
Sony's Net-sharing CAM, Casio Exilim digital cameras and Apple's
latest version of iMovie — promise to make uploading videos
to YouTube easier than ever. But how difficult is it to create,
upload to and optimize your videos for YouTube? What are the
advantages to e-tailers and small retailers for posting videos
on YouTube?
Why YouTube
Posting videos related to your product or service on YouTube is an inexpensive way to enhance your marketing message and get attention. "YouTube gets millions of eyeballs," said Michael Miller, author of YouTube 4 You and the blog Video Blogging for Business. "If you post a video that's informative and entertaining, you can promote your business to hundreds or even thousands of potential customers."
For example, Miller cites the YouTube videos of Charles Smith, an Alabama potter whose video demonstration of pottery making has been viewed over 11,572 times. Smith's videos are "interesting, informative, and they have the URL to his Web site at the beginning," Miller said. Clearly, this is a great way to drive traffic to Smith's site, where visitors can browse his pottery and place telephone or e-mail orders.
But don't simply post a video ad, Miller advises. "Give step-by-step instructions or do something else that's interesting and entertaining," he explains. "If you just post an ad, you probably won't get many viewers."
Search Engine Watch Editor Danny Sullivan has argued that
relevancy matters most, and has urged the search engines to
come together to develop a uniform way to measure relevancy.
"Who's biggest really doesn't matter, as I and others have
written so many times before," he wrote in a blog after Yahoo's
announcement last month. Asked to respond to Sullivan's comment
that relevance trumps size, Schmidt said: "You get better
relevancy and more comprehensive news with a larger index."
"We congratulate Google on removing the index size number
from its home page and for recognizing it is a meaningless
number," Yahoo said in a statement. "As we've said in the
past, what matters is that consumers find what they are looking
for, and we invite Google users to compare their results to
Yahoo search at http://search.yahoo.com."
Creating and Editing YouTube Videos
The most difficult part of getting on YouTube is shooting and editing your video, according to Miller, particularly if you aren't experienced with digital video. He recommends keeping your video as simple as possible. YouTube videos appear in fairly small windows on the site, he said, that aren't well suited for displaying expansive landscapes or lots of frenetic motion. Instead, shoot close-ups of people and objects against simple, static backgrounds.
To shoot your video, you can use anything from a $100 (or less) Webcam to a digital video camcorder costing several hundred dollars. "I prefer hard drive-based camcorders because they capture good quality and make transferring videos to a computer easy," said Miller. Videos are captured on hard drive-based camcorders as digital files. By comparison, videos captured on tape-based digital camcorders must be imported into a digital video editing application first and then saved as digital computer files.
For basic video editing software, Miller recommends iMovie on Macs and Windows Movie Maker for Windows PCs. Both programs are preinstalled on most Macs and Windows PCs, respectively, and don't cost extra. With both programs you can add still images, titles, transitions, music and effects. Apple's iMovie '08, the latest version, now includes an option for exporting and uploading directly to YouTube.
YouTube Capture Mode
In recent months Casio has announced four new Exilim digital cameras that provide a YouTube video capture mode, which Casio says will be unique to its cameras through the holiday 2007 shopping season. The Exilim cameras with YouTube mode also offer an eBay photo mode, for taking pictures optimized for eBay.
Using the YouTube mode, you can capture video clips pre-formatted for YouTube. Currently, there are four Exilim digital cameras offering the YouTube capture mode:
Exilim Card EX-S880 ($280 list), with 8.1 megapixels, in black and red ;
Exilim Zoom EX-Z1080 (list $280), with 10.1 million megapixels, in blue, black, gray and pink;
Exilim Zoom EX-277 (list price $300), with 7.2 megapixels;
Exilim Hi-Zoom EX-V8 ($330 list), with 8.1 million megapixels . This is the only model of the four that captures stereo audio sound in video clips (though YouTube video audio is mono.)
In informal tests of the Exilim Zoom EX-277, video quality recorded with the YouTube capture mode passed with flying colors. To see for yourself, take a look at a video clip captured in bright daylight with the EX-277 and another recorded during a full moon.
Also, the Casio cameras ship with a convenient Windows XP and Vista utility that consolidates into one dialog box the multiple steps required to upload to YouTube. But if you want to edit your video clips or add titles, transitions, audio tracks and such, you'll need to perform those tasks in a video-editing application such as iMovie or Windows Movie Maker first before uploading.
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Picking the Perfect Shopping Cart
E-commerce shopping cart software is necessary for anyone who does business on the Internet, and often, choosing the right one can be an overwhelming task. There are hosted solutions, software applications you install and host on your own, free ones and more.
And, because each online venture has its own needs and goals, no one but you can really know which option is best. So, while we can't tell you what cart to get, we can tell you what not to do, and provide you with a checklist of important factors to consider.
Joan Stewart, an Internet marketer who offers the free e-book "Internet Cash Machines: How to Pick a Shopping Cart System that Makes You Money," said the process of picking a cart doesn't have to be confusing — or expensive. Stewart sells CDs, reports and audio recordings of her seminars at her site www.publicityhound.com, which has been online for about 10 years.
"This is my biggest piece of advice to anyone doing e-commerce, and I learned it the hard way myself," said Stewart. "Do not let a Web development company talk you into getting a customized cart that's just for you, for two reasons. The first is because if you're cart goes down and you can't fix it, or you simply want help making adjustments, and you can't reach your developer, you're sunk. The second is because it will cost you several thousand dollars, and that's totally unnecessary."
Depending on your business, you may not need each of the 27 functions listed in the e-book, but you should definitely consider each one before making a decision. We've highlighted several to get you going.
A Web-based administrative page: If your electronic shopping cart software has a Web-based managers' administration page, then you can work on your shopping cart (add products, change prices, and so on) from anywhere.
Associate/affiliate program compatible: Someone else should be able to put your link on their Web site and sell your products and services for a commission.
Up-sell module: E-commerce shopping cart software should give you the capability to "up-sell" your customer to a related product or service.
Broadcast capability: The cart should have integrated e-mail capabilities that can allow you to sort customers, and e-mail them immediately.
Integrated auto-responders: Sequential auto-responders are one of the most powerful sales tools on the Internet today, and your shopping cart software should let you send e-mails to customers and prospects automatically. Only the most advanced carts would have this function integrated.
Hard and soft products: A good cart will let a customer buy a hard product, that you have to ship, on the same order form as a soft product, such as an electronic e-book that the customer can download as soon as the order has been approved.
Calculate shipping and tax: Make sure your cart has several options on how to calculate basic shipping charges.
Customizable "return to shopping" pages: The capability to send your customers after they add a particular item to their cart can mean a big difference in the amount of money they spend with you. Sophisticated shopping cart software allows you to customize the "return to shopping cart" button so it takes the customer to a related product of their choice.
Promotion functionality: Be sure there's a way to offer discounts for multiple purchases or to offer "one free when you buy three" or similar special offers.
E-mail confirmation: The shopping cart should be able to send an e-mail confirmation automatically to the customer and automatically generate a receipt for you to put in the package if you are shipping a product.
Multiple order and drop-ship e-mail capability: You should be able to e-mail suppliers who ship directly to your customer (drop-ship) without including the customer's credit card information.
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Yahoo Embraces Universal Search
Yahoo isn't giving up on search. It is, however, giving up on trying to catch Google by offering users just another set of "ten blue links," Vish Makhijani, general manager of Yahoo! Search told InternetNews.com .
Universal Search Comes to Yahoo
To that end, Yahoo this week re-launched its search, replete with special features designed to improve the experience and better enable rapid, accurate searching. Chiefly, that will be due to the new Yahoo Search Assist feature and efforts to integrate audio, video and photos into general Web search results.
Makhijani characterized Search Assist as a "step beyond" pre-filled search queries; It's a drop-down menu that allows searchers to narrow and broaden their queries by topic and concepts, delivered via an AJAX interface. There's also a new feature called Yahoo! Search Shortcuts, which integrates ratings, reviews, photos, and official Web sites into a box at the top of a search results page.
The new features are supposed to differentiate Yahoo from crowd of search engines that are starting to look all the same.
"If you cover up the logo [on a search results page], it's very hard to distinguish ten blue links from ten blue links," Makhijani said. "But from an industry point of view, some branching away from those ten blue links is starting to happen. That's providing opportunities for differentiation."
That opportunity is crucial, Makhijani said, because "absent compelling differentiation, [users] don't have a reason to switch search engines."
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Chasing Google
And Yahoo needs users to consider switching. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Google again dominated search market share in August, with 4.2 billion searches to Yahoo's 1.5 billion. That's 53.6 percent to 19.9 percent of market share.
One hitch in Yahoo's differentiation plan, however, might be that the new changes may not be unique enough to stand out.
Back in 2005, When Ask.com was still AskJeeves.com, it announced Zoom, a navigation tool that lets the users narrow down their search queries based on topics and concepts, like Yahoo Search Assist. The feature has since become an integral part of Ask and its campaign to take market share from the top four search engines on Nielsen//NetRatings's chart.
A year later, Internet pioneer Bill Gross' business factory Idealab launched search engine Snap.com based largely on the premise that, similar to Makhijani's view, users are tired of the generic search result format.
And more recently, Google began mixing images, video and books results with its general Web search results when it launched Universal Search in May.
Cautiously Optimistic
Still, though Yahoo's search innovations might not lead the cutting edge, there's reason for optimism at the company.
Yahoo search advertisers may have jumped on its new Panama advertising platform bandwagon first, but investors are starting to follow. In September, Yahoo's share price started at $22.73 and finished at $26.84, an 18 percent gain.
Additionally, Makhijani also said Yahoo sees some deficiencies in chief rival Google's user base, adding that he believes Google's growth been inflated by a series of distribution deals it signed with third parties such as MySpace and Dell. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Google saw 39.8 percent more searches in August 2007 than during the same month in 2006.
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Using E-Mail Marketing to the Max
E-mail marketing works. Seventy-nine percent of consumers have signed up to receive e-mail at least from one company, according to Forrester Research , and two out of three people surveyed said they read e-mail every day of the week. E-mail marketing delivers a US$51.45 return on investment (ROI) for every marketing dollar spent, according to the Direct Marketing Association.
Further, a survey of 55,000 consumers by Decision Direct Research revealed that the number of respondents that visited a Web site when they received an e-mail promotion increased to 62 percent in 2007.
No wonder e-mail marketing is becoming an increasingly popular alternative or component to traditional marketing campaigns among businesses of all sizes. Marketers everywhere are shifting and recalculating their budgets to capitalize on the revenue potential of e-mail marketing this holiday season.
Immediate, Measurable Results
By using an advanced e-mail marketing system, measuring the results from your e-mail marketing campaign is fast and easy. Intuitive online reports reveal not only know how many e-mails were successfully sent and delivered but also how many people opened their e-mail and clicked. Other forms of advertising such as direct mail and print simply can't compete in delivering this type of valuable marketing data.
Unlike print campaigns, which can take weeks and even months to run, or postal mail that takes days to deliver, an e-mail marketing campaign can generate immediate, same-day results. Marketers can schedule an e-mail blast for 8 a.m. and begin to see results the same day -- Web site traffic can increase within an hour.
A Viral Component
Unlike virtually every other form of direct marketing such as direct mail, print ads, television ads, billboards and telemarketing, e-mail marketing offers marketers the potential to reach a significantly larger audience than originally intended. By leveraging the built-in features of recipients' e-mail software ( i.e. Outlook), savvy marketers can transform a standard e-mail campaign into a powerful and inexpensive viral marketing initiative.
Encouraging recipients to share or forward the e-mail to a friend or colleague helps to not only spread the message but continually increase the size of the e-mail list for future mailings. Best of all, a recipient can forward an e-mail at zero cost to the advertiser.
The Perfect Marketing Testing Platform
If you're not sure whether a new promotion will work, one of the best ways to test your concept is via e-mail. With an e-mail marketing application, it's easy to split your list into several small lists and test multiple promotions simultaneously. You'll know which of your promotions significantly outperform all others and which e-mail designs get the most clicks or subject lines get the highest open rates. This type of data can be highly valuable for traditional marketing campaigns.
So why isn't every business using e-mail marketing to its fullest potential?
Having worked with thousands of businesses, I have found two primary reasons that prevent most business owners and executives from fully capitalizing on Internet technologies such as e-mail marketing:
They're busy running their business so they lack the time to learn new marketing strategies.
They lack the internal technical resources and expertise to get the job done.
The Best of Both Worlds
Sound familiar? Although there's no shortage of do-it-yourself e-mail marketing applications, most business owners don't lack vision or desire but simply the time and expertise. Running an effective e-mail marketing program requires building (or acquiring) a target e-mail list, designing compelling and visually stimulating e-mail content, managing the e-mail campaign and properly analyzing the results.
If you're like most busy business professionals, outsourcing the management of your e-mail marketing program may provide you the best of both worlds. Here are some tips for successfully outsourcing your e-mail marketing program:
Look for a company with a proven track record in the industry. As the industry continues to evolve, working with a market leader and pioneer can have its benefits.
Make sure they have the internal technical and creative expertise to not only set up your e-mail marketing system and blast out messages but also to work with your Web site. Building your e-mail list, tracking results and creating compelling campaigns typically requires modifications to be made to your Web site layout.
If possible, work with a local e-mail marketing consultant who can spend the time to get to know you, your business, your customers and your objectives.
Don't look for the cheapest vendor or you'll get what you pay for. At about $0.01 per e-mail sent, e-mail marketing costs only a small fraction of traditional postal mail. With this type of cost savings, and for less than the cost of a part-time employee, you should be able to hire a professional services firm to manager your e-mail marketing program.
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Web Designing And Web Site Development Services In India
Delivery in time and quality is our motto. Our ISO 9001:2000 certification validates our commitment and constant endeavor towards providing the best quality to the client… always.
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