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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
March 11, 2016 3:59 PM
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
February 15, 2016 7:48 PM
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Adding Haiku Decks To WordPress I love Haiku Deck tool and figured out a way to add our decks to our blog:
http://www.curagami.com/marketing-haiku-decks/
I've been prodding Adam Traitt, one of Haiku's founders, for a user profile (done) and more control over display (Haiku Deck team is working on it). In the mean time I decided to add my decks to Curagmai's blog. Here's how we did it.
*How To Add Haiku Deck To Your WP Blog*
1. Create a new Haiku Deck category on your blog.
2. Create posts for every Haiku Deck to be added. You may want to use a date from last year or the year before to fool WordPress into moving your new Haiku Deck posts to the back of your stack.
3.Create a grid we used WP Ultimate Post Grid and we upgraded to premium for the ability to filter by category.
4. Redirect your WP posts to your Haiku Deck (we cheated and used the Twitter links, better to grab the nasty URL you can find in the embed area since we will drive up our Twitter share numbers artificially) we used Redirection plugin by John Godley.
We wrote copy into this page mostly for reasons. You can see a grid without copy here; http://www.curagami.com/magazines-2/ ;
We also use embedded feeds behind the "Magazines" link. Each "Magazine" is firing from our Scoop.it feeds. This is how we see "websites" changing. Instead of a place where you creating everything tomorrow's sites will share your creations from all over and encourage visitors to collaborate and share too. If that sounds like we suggest you create online community you win a cookie (and I'm writing this from so just tell me what kind you want :). Marty
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
October 12, 2015 9:58 AM
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Learning From Video Game Designers Video game designers can teach you a lot about how to great great ecommerce and B2B websites. Video games are gamified, social and understand the stimulus - response nature of online interaction in a fluid and must imitate ways.
Here are WhatCulture.com's picks for the 20 best video game websites in the world. We like Gamers With Jobs and Kotaku (though we don't understand a lot of it).
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
October 2, 2015 9:04 AM
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Google SEO Buzzcut Google can cut our website's hair, but they aren't alone. We can be vicious barbers. Our unintended actions often mess with our URLs and that messes with the infinite universe we create whenever we publish.
Lessons shared here including an October update will help your site recovery from a bad Google or self inflicted haircut.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
August 20, 2015 10:37 AM
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With 22,000+ views SEO for Web Designers blew up thanks to a defined tribal audiences, advocates and luck. Discover tips on how to blow your content up too.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 22, 2015 12:06 PM
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How Become A Great Web Marketer? Every time I suggest this idea to B2B content marketers they roll their eyes and think my suggestion stupid. Everyone can learn new ideas, ideas that inform all digital marketing, from creating an online store.
Each day someone asks how they can learn Internet marketing? Hard to sit in a classroom and learn this stuff. Better to DO IT and no better thing to do than use a tool such as Amazon's Associates to create an online store.
Think of how much stronger your personal brand would be if a potential hiring manager could see what you are reading, ask you questions about those books and get to know you long before an offer is made.
We live in a DIY time when 60% or more of the decision about YOU and your company's products, services and brands will be made BEFORE any active engagement (before picking up the phone or asking you to interview).
Given how much scrutiny your brand is under BEFORE you ever meet a prospect be it for a job or to make a B2B sale wouldn't it be a good idea to do something simple, engaging and fun to show how much you know about digital marketing. Let's see say I have two resumes on a pile and qualifications are equal, but one has a link to a blog & a "bookstore".
Which resume gets more engagement? Let's say your B2B Software As A Service Company is up for a big project. I go to your site and see the books that made you. I, as the hiring manager, have read several of them. We have a connection now and who am I more likely to hire?
HUGE benefits for half a day's work and work that teaches you more about how the web really works than every class you are likely to take (unless I'm teaching it of course lol). DO don't STUDY and you will understand one of the most important concepts about web marketing.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
May 24, 2015 6:47 PM
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Tease marketing because in overwhelming times marketing needs to underwhelm, tease and inspire customers to find their truth and yours. Tease the click.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
April 2, 2015 12:31 AM
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Asking the right questions in the right way is key to online marketing success. How SMBs can compete with Amazon isn't as important as what is their why and how are they learning from Amazon's web marketing power.
Running into the web team from http://www.MoonandLola.com today after meeting them last week helped us realize we needed to add slides to our presentation. We HATE IT when that happens (lol).
Last week we spoke with about 40 Small to Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs) in a conference sponsored by FedEx and seeing the team at the Digital Summit today jogged our thinking. We forgot to discuss the importance of PLATFORM thinking.
We all know winning platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and my favorite Scoop.it. Platforms are winning because they play the "new SEO" game beautifully. We added Video Notes on YouTube to explain all of this (https://youtu.be/tSHeIxtrs4g ).
Find the Haiku Deck here: http://shar.es/1g7Kfb
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
February 19, 2015 9:22 AM
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Websites don't age well. Sooner than you think it's time for a web redesign, but don't forget the 5 CSFs (Critical Success Factors) shared here.
5 Critical Success Factors For When Your Web Redesign
- Start with Why.
- Listen to customer votes
- Test if you can, jump in if you can’t.
- 5 Easy to forget things.
- Prepare for rain, hope for sun.
This post features behind the scenes notes from our http://www.Moon-Audio.com redesign. Picture above is a "Before" and "After" view of Moon Audio's website. We spent a lot of time working on the site's information architecture.
We spent so much time because we have a lot of customer data now thanks to Google Analytics. We used that data to find the 80-20 rule and kept that finding in mind as we changed site navigation and categories.
This kind of "What Business are we In" work goes to the first two bullet point - Start with Why and Listen To Customer Votes. Another goal, not stated in the Curagami post, was to create an immediate sense of "I'm in the right place" scenttrail.
Ecommerce, especially in popular categories such as #headphones and #electronics, have two kinds of sties. One site is informational making money from passing customers over to sellers. Cnet.com is an example of a content site making money by capturing attention with great content and then passing customers on to a site where they can buy what they've just researched.
The New Ecommerce We see the New Ecommerce merging Cnet and commerce to build sustainable online community. But there's a problem. Either of those missions is a full-time job - commerce, content or community. Merchants will need to delegate content creation to trusted members of their community and find ways to merchandise content and commerce more seamlessly than ever before.
The new Moon-Audio.com begins the move toward sustainable online content, commerce and community by clearly signalling THIS IS A STORE. Soon we hope to increase the signal to THIS IS A STORE WHERE YOU CAN LEARN TOO and finally THIS IS A COMMUNITY WHERE YOU CAN BUY AND LEARN.
Mashing up, curating and listening are the new skills needed to be a successful online merchant. No ecom site is GREAT at content, commerce and community...yet. Moon-Audio.com will fire on all three ideas over the next few months. Stay tuned.
http://www.curagami.com/magical-thinking/5-web-redesign-ideas/
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
November 4, 2014 8:59 AM
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Here A Wiki, There A Wiki, Everywhere A Wiki What is a Wiki if not an invitation to create online community. The "open source" like collaboration Wiki's provide is a blueprint for creation of online community. After months working on http://www.Curagmai.com we've discovered how close Wikis are to...well everything.
Wiki Ideas To Steal Include: * Open Source Like Content Collaboration.
* Use community to steer and de-spam ecosystem. * Depend mostly on social reward. * A healthy and competitive contest never hurts. * Feature and thank contributors. * Provide ways for contributors to know where they stand vis-à-vis other contributors. * Create ways contributors can follow and communicate with each other. * Include ways for contributors to create mini-tribes. * Make sure "rules of the road" are understood and published. * Communication with sponsoring agents must be easy too. * Normalize greatness by sharing across ecosystem. * Role of sponsors becomes more curators than creators. * Ask for help. * Provide social rewards (such as features) to contributors. * Create ways to identify contributors in the world (t-shirts, stickers). * Appreciate, be nice and thankful (always no matter what). Following a few simple rules will dramatically increase the most important content you can't buy (User Generated Content or #UGC) and build sustainable online community. Sustainable online community means costs go DOWN even as other material rewards (UGC, followers, traffic, money) go UP.
This Haiku Deck is about why we are all in the Wiki business whether we realize it or not AND how to design for the Wiki-ization of marketing, brands and online community.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
October 20, 2014 9:04 PM
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The "Web Design" category of general interest covers its fair share of ground. Informative articles on everything from UX to client management, to conversion psychology,...
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
October 13, 2014 11:37 AM
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Best In Class From Conversion IQ The other day I complained about "pretty picture' ecommerce sites that make conversion harder. So much of ecom is ditch digging. Ditch digging to make sure you have things such as:
* Email subscription form (prefer presence to popunders). * Clearly ECOM - looks like a store with things to sell not content to read. * Social (easy to find theirs and easy to contribute). * Content Curation from social / comments / reviews (should feel like a party with people who share love / interests). * Offers, deadlines and a sense of time (of the year today is Columbus Day for example).
These examples from Conversion IQ are closer to "ditch digging" ecommerce websites. Conversion either BUYING or into a list are easier, more clear and so these designs make more money than the pretty picture websites I shared last (http://sco.lt/4ijZIH ),
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
September 27, 2014 2:10 PM
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Jenny Odell is a gifted artist, web designer, writer. The icon page in the Red Bulletin with a tiny name was intriguing enough to prompt a Google search. The Red Bull Bulletin is one of my favorite publications.
The Bulletin is visually stunning but that's not all. The Odell page is a great example of the intelligent and very NOW sensibility Red Bull's Bulletin uses with such grace.
To intrigue, take advantage of how the world is not how it was and engage is so important in today's social / mobile / connected world. Red Bull's publication and core branding GETS IT.
The Jenny Odell page of tiny icons such as the Eiffel Tower, Spiral Jetty and squiggly lines requires WORK to see and decipher. Work to find out what the page is al about. Red Bull GETS that their customers are connected so they build in hooks to those capabilities.
Brilliant marketing I wrote about for Curatti in Red Bull's Branding Lessons: Why We Are All Media Companies Now: http://curatti.com/red-bulls-branding-lesson-media-companies-now/
Jenny Odell's site http://www.jennyodell.com/
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
February 17, 2016 9:55 AM
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Content Marketing Is Key Important post from Scoop.it CEO @Guillaume Decugis because the 12 step program he outlines clearly cleaves content marketing pros from everyone else. We share this post in our Design Revolution Scoop.it feed because we would add 2 more items to a solid list:
13. You aren't designing for content curation and content marketing. 14. You are building community in
Designing for content curation means incorporating the automated feeds Guilluame discusses and leaving room for community and collaboration.
Community's pillars such as user profiles, timeliens, following, comments, wikis and blogging have to be fuilt into a design or you are talking to yourself about yourself even if you follow many of Guillaume edicts. Guillaume's 12 Step Progam: 1. You’re not tracking your results. 2. You’re not repurposing your content. 3. You aren’t automating at least part of your social media activity. 4. You aren’t automating some of your email marketing. 5. You’re only sharing your own content – you’re not adding any content curation to the mix. 6. You aren’t testing. 7. You don’t have a content strategy that’s tied to business goals and your buyers’ journey. 8. You haven’t defined your buyers’ personas or their typical journey. 9. You aren’t creating content strategically. 10. You don’t have a centralized “vault” of all your company’s content assets. 11. You aren’t promoting your content, either via social sharing or by making it visible to the search engines. 12. You have nothing to show for your work.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
January 21, 2016 4:29 PM
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WordPress auto blogging plugins can help you to get new content for your site on complete autopilot, it is extremely important for every blogger
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Martin (Marty) Smith
October 9, 2015 2:34 PM
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Designing a good website that accommodates a lot of content is a tricky balancing act to pull off. Does one attempt to present the user with all the information
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
September 15, 2015 12:36 PM
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
August 11, 2015 9:44 AM
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Canonical URLs Explained The Yoast post provides an easy way to understand why rel=canonical is a powerful new SEO tag. Yoast has a dog in the hunt. They make a Magento plugin that easily writes the rel=canonical tag into a product page's head.
The explanation about WHY canonical URLs are so important is only half right. We have a million ways of expressing and sharing URLs these days. Without rel=canonical we end up duping content to distraction.
Here's the rub. All ecommerce sites dupe content. They must. When I was a Director of Ecommerce a single product accounted for 50% of our profits. You better believe I merchandised that product into every nook and cranny our site offered. I duped that product and it's content to distraction.
There are other ways to limit duplication including:
* Use of your Robots.txt file. * Locking content behind a firewall. * Use of blockquotes & rel=canonical tags. * Rewrite duplicated content so it's not as duplicated (lol).
We included our email output into a folder with a "no follow" line in our robots.txt. You may think such a move is enough. It isn't. Be sure NOT to drive links from spiderable content INTO that folder or you eliminate the effectiveness of the robots.txt.
In the end every ecom site worth it's salt MUST duplicate content. Rewriting sounds like a good strategy, but it isn't. Content = time and time = money when managing million dollar commercial sites. You will be duping content.
Best to use rel=canonical because it shows Google you aren't trying to STEAL anything. Reminds me of what a friend shared about the disavow tool (used to deny inbound links or signal they may be untrusted).
My friend was using the disavow tool daily on his clients accounts. "So you are brown-nosing Google," I kidded him. "Exactly," was his answer. Rel=canonical tells Google you are TRYING to do the right thing and sometimes that is enough.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 6, 2015 10:08 AM
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Jetpack's cool icon feature creates, adds & shares a mobile app like icon & link for your blog on you & your customers smartphones for free.
Why do this? Because coolest thing since sliced bread to hit your customers is their smartphones. Getting your blog linked there is ONLY a good thing for your content marketing, community building and ecommerce.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
May 1, 2015 4:27 AM
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Made to Stick explains why some ideas become popular while others wither and die. What makes ideas ‘stick’ in the mind, and how to make them work for you.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
March 17, 2015 12:01 AM
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Haiku Deck Zuru uses the power of artificial intelligence to transform your ideas into polished presentations. Become a charter member to get 6 months free.
Marty Note Haiku Deck is one of my favorite visual marketing tools. Our 41 "decks" have generated more than 100,000 views. We got the idea about slides being a new marketing channel by working with this magic wand of a tool.
Now they've got something new up their sleeve and the entry fee is a whopping $30 bucks (lol). Let's see, 100K views for $30 bucks, we signed up today and suggest you do the same. Whenever their new tool comes out of beta we know it will be worth many multiples of $30 bucks :). M
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
December 9, 2014 3:16 PM
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Knowing your website's navigational taxonomy can mean the difference between millions in traffic and money. Here are 5 Simple Navigational Taxonomy Rules.
* It's About THEM not YOU. * Create A Commons. * It's FREE and EASY. * Srart with Brands & Work OUT. * Find Engagement & Work IN.
Easy to follow rules so your site's nav WINS traffic, hearts, minds, SEO and loyalty needed to be around for a bit.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
October 28, 2014 3:02 PM
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An updated look at the hottest best web design trends of 2014 including a showcase of modern web design inspiration.
Marty Note This @justcreative post hit many nails on the head when it was initially published and Jacob's update of Helga Moreno's post doesn't disappoint either. Things I REALLY agree with:
See Less of (PLEASE):
* Stock photography (no photos? ASK your employees / followers for help but please no more Stepford people in pics on websites). * Flash (has killed more #seo and sites than you can shake a stick at and fact it is still alive is amazing). * Capcha - spam sucks but so do capcha forms.
More of PLEASE:
* Content First (implied in Responsive or Mobile First Design is a new way of thinking about, tagging and presenting content). * Interactive Exploring (BIG AGREEMENT see my post about Time is Money Online https://plus.google.com/+MartinWSmith/posts/RdjAjWoJTHw and tag this next to #gamification). * Arresting pictures and Video (YES, your great content will be ignored or under-shared UNLESS it is paired with strong visual hooks and supports).
Great post by Helga for Just Creative and so TRUE to our experience of web dev in 2014 for leading ecommerce clients such as Moon Audio.com.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
October 15, 2014 11:40 AM
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If you were to ask me what’s the best way to showcase your creativity, then I would definitely say that it is in designing a website.
Marty Note I love the "behind the scenes" honesty and accuracy of this Smashing Magazine post. Smashing Magazine is a trusted source for me and this post is true to my experience of creating hundreds of websites and helping Curagami.com clients to create thousands more.
The article I was looking for was how to design for constant change, for the smaller iterations we take now. If you now of a post like that please share. If I can't find it after more searching I will just write it since it feels like content marketing and web design have changed.
Content marketing is about QDF now (discussed recently here: http://www.curagami.com/featured/how-quality-deserves-freshness-changes-content-marketing/
If you have insight or resources that help explain how to design a web environment for maximum flexibility and an ease with the constant change we labor within these days please share. Thanks, Marty
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Rescooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
from Tracking Transmedia
October 1, 2014 2:50 PM
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Unknown Spring In March 2011 Jake Price, a freelance producer for the BBC, journeyed to Tohoku, Japan to document the devastation left in the wake of the Pacific tsunami.
The result of his trip is evident in his powerful and beautiful immersive web documentary, "Unknown Spring," which was awarded the World Press Photo Multimedia Awards...'
Via siobhan-o-flynn
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