Adverts pay for many of the resources we take for granted on the web. No one begrudges a few ads — you wouldn’t be reading this if you did — but some sites take adverts beyond a reasonable level. Google’s latest search algorithm change attempts to improve user experience by downgrading sites with too many adverts.

According to Google’s Inside Search blog:

We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.

The algorithm analyzes adverts in fixed positions; the Pagerank for sites using pop-ups, pop-unders or overlays will not be affected.

Google estimates the change will impact 1% of searches, i.e. you could encounter result reordering for one in every 100 searches. If your site’s affected, they recommend testing it with the Browser Size tool.

Perplexing Prerequisites

As with most search algorithm changes, Google is holding all the cards and gives us little to go on…

1. What do Google consider to be an advert? They’re not always banners or third-party scripts?
2. What do Google consider “above-the-fold”? It’s a dubious design term which changes from device to device and has no authoritative specification.
3. How do Google know whether an advert is above the fold? It’s easy to reposition advert blocks with CSS or JavaScript which wouldn’t necessarily be noticed by the algorithm.
4. How do they rank pages which use responsive design and reposition or remove adverts according to the screen size?
5. Google AdWords recommends advert positions above the fold. You may have received messages stating that you’re losing revenue because you’re under-utilizing the maximum number of slots. Could you be penalized for using Google’s own advice?

It’s great Google want to improve the web and search is their core business — they can do what they like and we’re free to use them or not. That said, should a company as powerful as Google be able to dictate something as subjective as design or user experience?

The Apple and Microsoft websites are essentially huge multi-page adverts. Could those sites be downgraded because Google (a major competitor) considers them to offer a bad user experience?

And where could it end? Could Google consider downgrading predominantly red designs because it’s considered a danger color in some cultures? Are they impeding your creative freedom? Is it censorship?

Don’t Panic

The vast majority of site owners need not be alarmed. Google’s announcement sounds more like marketing spin than an advanced new technology which will change the way designers approach pages.

I suspect the algorithm loads each page in a browser engine which emulates a 1024px width screen. CSS and JavaScript effects parsed during the initial page load may be applied but event or timer-driven code wouldn’t run. It then works out the vertical position of the first major content block and if it’s more than, say, 600px down, the Pagerank would be reduced accordingly. The overall impact is likely to be tiny, though. Factors such as keyword relevancy and even page weight will have a bigger effect.

There’s an easy way for site owners to avoid downgrades: simply place all your adverts at the bottom of the page then rearrange the content using CSS3 animations or JavaScript events. I’m no fan of intrusive advertising but that’s a horrible user experience — far worse than a little scrolling. Unfortunately, Google won’t know unless they manually check the site.

Will Google’s new algorithm affect your site? Is the policy at odds with Google’s advertising business? Is Google using it’s power to dictate website design and code quality?

A few years ago free shipping was taking the e-commerce world by storm … we saw several of our competitors implement free or flat-rate shipping and decided it was time to give it a try. In our e-commerce business we decided to offer free shipping on orders above $100, and flat rate shipping on all other orders (to the contiguous US). We created a coupon code that customers had to enter into the shopping cart at checkout to claim the promotional shipping offer, and added banners to every page of our website advertising the promotion and code.

The free shipping offer was very successful, and we saw a noticeable spike in conversion rate and orders. There were also a number of people who didn’t select the free shipping offer, and we just assumed they wanted their order shipped via a specific carrier. After a while, we started to get a few complaints from customers that overlooked the coupon code or couldn’t remember it once they were on the checkout screen. They would email us asking why they paid for shipping, when our site advertises it as being free.

During the holiday shopping season that year we did some user testing through UserTesting.com and quickly realized the free shipping offer was a major source of confusion with potential customers. Many didn’t see the banners advertising the offer, and of the ones that did, quite a few overlooked the coupon code.

I decided to make the flat rate shipping the default, and automatically select free shipping for all qualifying orders (in US over $100). Our e-commerce software wasn’t really set up to handle that kind of scenario, so I actually wrote a custom shipping module for our e-commerce platform.

When we implemented the new shipping options on our website, our conversion rate increased by 50% overnight.

Find Areas of Frustration

Adding the free shipping offer increased conversions, sure. But the way we implemented it also caused a lot of confusion and frustration. For months, we didn’t even know we had a problem. Looking back, I shudder to think how much revenue we lost in that period of time.

We get so used to our own websites, it’s hard to see it from a visitor’s perspective. Usability testing is the answer. Use a service such as UserTesting.com to let real users evaluate your website or landing page. UserTesting.com is a very affordable remote usability testing service that employs real users to test your website according to criteria you determine. You choose your target demographic including age, income, gender and even web experience. The user follows your instructions, recording their screen and audio as they tell you what they are thinking through each step of the process.

The real feedback you get from these users will likely give you several areas in need of improvement.

You can also use tools like CrazyEgg.com to see where people click, even areas that aren’t hotlinked, and your web analytics package can often shed some light on potential problem areas as well.

Survey Your Visitors

Another great way to find out about potential problem areas is to conduct an exit survey on your visitors. Invite visitors who started filling out your contact form, or have added an item to their shopping cart but didn’t complete the transaction to tell you about their experience.

You might be surprised to hear the reasons they left. Some may have just been doing research or comparison shopping, but some will have experienced problems along the way that prevented them from completing.

Test Changes

Using a tool such as Google Website Optimizer, test changes to problem areas (one at a time). I have made changes I was sure would increase conversions and to my surprise they actually made things worse. Even with all our experience, some things just aren’t “logical.” Test, test, test.

Using simple A/B split testing in GWO, test a couple of different variations and see which one performs best. Then move on to another problem area, make a change and test. Continue making changes, and testing, to continuously improve your conversion rate over time. You’ll likely find that some changes will have drastic improvements, like ours above, and others may only increase conversion rates by 5% or 10%.

Always Work to Improve Conversions

You should always be working to improve your conversion rates. If you run out of areas to test, check out this great article by Conversion Rate Experts. That will give you a few things to try: 108 to be exact!

There’s a good chance you might be missing out on a huge percentage of sales or leads.

The average e-commerce conversion rate is 2%, and conversion rates of lead generation websites aren’t much better. That means that 98% of website visitors don’t convert right away.

There are a plethora of reasons for this – some consumers are simply doing research, others are comparing different retailers’ prices, and even more simply get distracted either by something on their computer or by the real world distractions we all experience day to day. But what if there was a way you could find those visitors that left without converting, and offer them a second chance? What if you could target them specifically with ads that showcased the exact products they were browsing on your website? That’s where behavioral retargeting comes in.

What is Retargeting?

Behavioral retargeting, or simply retargeting, is the process of showing advertising (particularly display or text link advertising) to visitors based on their previous browsing behavior. In most cases, retargeting is used to show advertising more frequently to people who have visited a website before, but not converted into a customer or lead.

Let’s take an average niche e-commerce merchant for example … maybe a custom tailored apparel retailer such as Indochino. A visitor might search Google for custom tailored suits and visit Indochino.com. They browse through a few different pages, and maybe even add a suit or jacket to their shopping cart. But they get distracted by an email notification, instant message, or even a baby crying, and leave the website without completing their purchase.

But later that day, or even later that week, they are again browsing the web. They may be on a web page completely unrelated to men’s apparel, but they are shown display advertising from Indochino.com because they visited the website before. That is behavioral retargeting.

As it might seem, retargeting is an extremely powerful marketing tactic, because it only shows advertising to previously qualified candidates. They have already shown an interest in your product or service by browsing your website, adding an item to their shopping cart, or downloading a whitepaper (the trigger is up to you). They are far more likely to convert than unqualified visitors.

Utilizing retargeting can significantly drive up profit margins and lower per-customer acquisition costs by reclaiming lost visitors. AdRoll.com, Retargeter.com and Chango.com are three firms that specialize in retargeting, and Google Adwords also offers remarketing.

Is Google Crippling Remarketers?

Google recently made a change that could have a profound impact on the data website owners and marketers receive about their referrers. Previously, when a visitor conducted a Google search and clicked through to a website, information on the specific search phrase was also passed, which could then be analyzed by Google Analytics or other stats package.

Google announced recently they would no longer pass this referrer data by default for any logged-in users. While this only represents about 10% of global searches, I am curious to see what percentage of U.S. searches would be affected. One thing is sure, taking away this valuable information will hurt companies such as Chango and AdRoll, which rely on this data to target advertising to visitors based on their browsing history.

Give Retargeting a Try

Retargeting is an incredibly effective way to cash in on potentially lost sales, so give it a try. If you’re already using retargeting (sometimes called remarketing), let us know how it works for you in the comments below.

Everything changes, especially in business. Even if your focus is a niche industry or market segment, you still have to be ready to change course to ensure you have a viable market and can remain competitive.

Sprouter: Twitter Clone to Startup Q&A

Sprouter was originally a microblogging service specifically aimed at entrepreneurs and startup founders. With largely the same functionality as Twitter, however, they likely found it difficult to compete. Last year they introduced a new question-and-answer feature and personally invited experts participate, yielding fewer but trustworthy and more targeted answers. The feature became very popular and revealed a potential market not originally considered.

Sprouter recently announced a complete reorganization of their website, dissolving the social networking components and emphasizing the question-and-answer feature as the primary focus of the service.

Performable: From Site Testing to Analytics

Performable started as a website testing tool that analyzed which design elements, copy, colors, and the like were most appealing to visitors. That industry has become increasingly competitive, with a number of startups vying for market share. Performable decided to redirect their focus, and now seeks to provide analytics on the entire customer life cycle.

Here are some tips from Performable that I’d like to share, to help you stay nimble and ready for change:

Be Agile

The more agile and flexible your business, the better your chances in an ever-changing industry climate.

Keep an Eye on the Competition

If you consistently see new competitors entering your space, it could be a sign that you need to further narrow your focus or change direction altogether. This is increasingly becoming the case with low-cost web design. There are so many competing services and service providers, and the market is over-saturated.

Listen to Your Customers

Are customers asking for services outside of your core focus? Are you getting requests to bid on projects outside your area of expertise? Listen to your customers, and try to determine how you can solve their problems.

Change Often

By changing a little, often, you can avoid having to completely change direction. By constantly testing new markets, services, products, and tactics, you can continuously evolve.

It seems like every time I open my feed reader I see an article about personalizing (or segmenting) marketing messages. Highly targeted marketing is far more effective, and less expensive, than simply blasting generic marketing messages out to all your customers.

I recently purchased a new pair of headphones from Amazon.com. A few days later, I received an email from Amazon listing its bestselling headphones of the particular brand I bought. The same thing happened shortly after I purchased a digital SLR camera. I received several emails advertising “Bestselling DSLRs,” and even one featuring the actual camera acquired.

Does Amazon really think I’ll buy two pairs of headphones in a month, or two brand -new cameras back to back? No, these emails were simply a product of behavior targeting gone awry. Amazon’s email targeting has no clue I purchased these products. Their systems must simply be looking at my browsing history.

Amazon would be far more effective if they instead, suggested bestselling accessories for my new camera, or products purchased with studio headphones (such as microphones or headphone amplifiers, for example).

Here are my tips for better segmenting:

Account for Conversions

Don’t simply look at visitor information; pay attention to conversions as well. After a conversion takes place, your marketing should shift from trying to close the sale on a product to selling accessories or complimentary products.

Take Care with Personalizing Emails

I’ve received emails from some online retailers stating, “We noticed you placed this item in your shopping cart, but didn’t complete your order.” While I understand the technical possibilities of targeting users’ behavior, the average website visitor does not. It can make some visitors uncomfortable that you track so much information about them.

Use Segmentation Across Multiple Channels

Amazon does this well—its website and emails are highly targeted. Apart from the occasional glitch (like the one mentioned above), Amazon is very good at suggesting items I like. These suggestions are based on my browsing habits and past purchases, and are made on its website and in the many emails I receive.

Allow Opt-out

Allow your customers to opt-out of highly personalized marketing, on both a global and per-product (or service) level. I may have purchased an item as a gift, so in this instance, it would be ineffective to target additional products based on that purchase.

Last week, I let you know about our exciting new public speaking course. This is a highly interactive course where you’ll record and upload your own video presentations, so you really put what you learn into practice.

The course has just started, but you can still sign up or find out further information about it.

The ability to communicate effectively and give a great PowerPoint presentation are two key weapons in just about any professional’s arsenal. This course will not only give you the relevant theory and technique, it will allow you the opportunity to put that technique into practice in your own recorded presentations.  Course presenter Greg Ferenstein will then give a critique on your presentations. That’s the most comprehensive learning experience you could ask for, and because it’s all online, you can complete the course without having to leave home—your couch is your campus!

Greg Ferenstein is himself a sought-after public speaker, author, and educator. As an author, he writes in the areas of technology, business, and politics. As an educator, he designs college curricula that helps improve teamwork, communication, and technological skills. He holds a Master’s Degree in Mathematical Behavioral Sciences, and has made past contributions to CNN, Mashable, Fast Company, and The Huffington Post.

So, to the course details:

• Fearless Public Speaking and Compelling PowerPoint with Greg Ferenstein
  Sessions: 12 structured lessons, with 3 live webinars
  Cost: $29.95
  Sign up for Fearless Public Speaking and Compelling PowerPoint here

Full details of the course—including a video of Greg sharing more information on what to expect and a lesson plan—are now available.

Here’s a more in-depth look at the structure of the course:

First Week: Presentation Basics

• Lesson 1: Introduction and modern PowerPoint
• Lesson 2: Watch Greg’s critiques of your videos
• Lesson 3: Pictures
• Lesson 4: Watch Greg’s critiques of your videos
• Lesson 5: Live Q&A

Second Week: PowerPoint

• Lesson 1: Organization
• Lesson 2: Watch Greg’s critiques of your videos
• Lesson 3: Evidence
• Lesson 4: Watch Greg’s critiques of your videos
• Lesson 5: Live Q&A

Third Week: Practical Communications

• Lesson 1: Brevity
• Lesson 2: Watch Greg’s critiques of your videos
• Lesson 3: Spice: style, humor, and memorization
• Lesson 4: Watch Greg’s critiques of your videos
• Lesson 5: Live Q&A

The course has now begun, but as with all our courses it will remain online indefinitely, and you’ll receive at least 12 months’ notice if it’s ever removed. Even so, it’s worth your while to sign up right now, in order to benefit from the personal attention and critique that Greg is offering to students who participate in this debut run of the course.

We’re proud of all of our SitePoint courses, and judging from the positive student response we’ve had, you guys are pretty happy with these online education resources, as well. We’ve been fortunate enough to work with some incredibly talented and accomplished teachers, so the bar has been set pretty high when it comes to sourcing topics for new courses.

With that in mind, we’re especially excited to bring you our latest course, which aims to address the greatest fear that’s common to us all:

Fearless Public Speaking and Compelling PowerPoint with Greg Ferenstein

It’s a well-worn cliche that when asked to rank their greatest fears, many people put the fear of public speaking ahead of the fear of death. The liberal use of this finding doesn’t take anything away from its core truth: we’re all scared to death of getting up in front of a group of people and giving a speech or making a presentation!

If you’re in the web development and design industry, you might be content to get by on your dev or design skills alone. However, whether you’re a JavaScript genius, a PHP pro, or a WordPress wizard, sooner or later you’re going to need some PR skills. Whether it’s giving a presentation as a freelancer to secure that big client contract, presenting to hundreds (or thousands) of people at a conference, or simply addressing a small group of your peers, you need to develop some basic public speaking skills.

So why should you choose to learn this key skill set through our online course? Well, Greg Ferenstein is himself a sought-after public speaker, author, and educator. As an author, he writes in the areas of technology, business, and politics. As an educator, he designs college curricula which help improve teamwork, communication, and technological skills. He holds a Master’s Degree in Mathematical Behavioral Sciences, and has made past contributions to CNN, Mashable, Fast Company, and The Huffington Post.

So, to the course details:

• Fearless Public Speaking and Compelling PowerPoint with Greg Ferenstein
  Starts: 31st January 2011
  Sessions: twelve structured lessons, with three live webinars
  Cost: $29.95
  Sign up for Fearless Public Speaking and Compelling PowerPoint here

Full details of the course—including a video of Greg sharing more information on what to expect and a lesson plan—are now available.

No matter what line of work you’re in, or what your personal passion happens to be, the ability to communicate effectively in front of an audience is a highly desirable skill. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not about being an extrovert, being “good with words,” or being a natural entertainer. Greg will show you that, with a combination of good technique and a lot of practice, anyone can do it!

The course will cover:

• communication skills
• an introduction to modern PowerPoint
• using pictures in presentations
• organization
• evidence
• brevity
• making your first presentation
• PowerPoint tips
• adding some spice: style, humor, and memorization

It all kicks off on Monday January 31, so sign up now because with the across-the-board appeal this course has, we are expecting to have to close enrollment early to keep the class size reasonable!

Last week, we announced our new ProBlogger course, Boost Your Blog Traffic. With less than a week to go before the course begins (Monday, January 24—sign up now!), I thought I’d give you more detail on the proven strategies for attracting visitors to your site that Darren and Chris will share.

If you have a blog up and running, and you’re keeping it filled with polished, engaging content, you may feel as though all the hard work is done. But if you want to gain the maximum readership for your blog, you can’t sit back and assume that “If I build it, they will come.” You need to have a plan that will help you reach the kind of audience your content deserves. This course will show you how to create that plan, and no one else is better qualified to teach it. Darren’s ProBlogger site is one of the most influential and linked-to blogs on the Web, and with ten years blogging experience, Chris was perfecting his technique before the rest of us even knew what a blog was!

Here are the details:

Here’s a more in-depth look at what Boost Your Blog Traffic will cover:

Lesson 1: Where to begin

• Starting with the visitors you have
• Build loyalty
• Engagement
• Subscriptions

Lesson 2: Get off your blog

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Forums
• LinkedIn
• Blogs

Lesson 3: Gain more Google traffic

• Keywords and key phrases
• Keyword research
• Landing pages
• Links
• Other ranking influences

Lesson 4: Advertising and syndication

• AdWords
• Facebook
• RSS, aggregators, and syndication
• Repurposing
• Guest posting

Lesson 5: Live webinar

• Live chat with Darren and Chris

Not only do you receive four structured lessons that will set you up with a traffic-boosting formula to guide you through your entire blogging life, but you’ll also have the opportunity to ask Darren and Chris anything that’s on your mind in the live webinar.

If you have a blog with consistent quality content, but can’t seem to bypass the “only my friends and family read it” hump, you don’t want to miss this course. Boost Your Blog Traffic begins on Monday, January 24, so sign up now for just $29.95 to secure your place!

Here at SitePoint we’re kicking off 2011 with the launch of a hotly anticipated online course from blog superstars Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. Presenting the second of their four Pillars of ProBlogging courses:

Boost Your Blog Traffic with Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett

So you’ve got a blog up and running?  Check.  You’ve put a content plan together and are consistently posting quality written and multimedia content?  Check.  Now what?

If that’s the crossroads you find yourself at, you need to sign up to this course.

World renowned ProBlogger authors Darren and Chris have both been in the blog game for the better part of a decade, and they pack their courses full of all the tips and insights they’ve amassed during their illustrious careers. When you sign up for Boost Your Blog Traffic, you’re getting the inside track on how to drive traffic to your blog and effectively target all the people out there on the web who will love that killer content you’ve worked so hard to publish.

So, to the details:

• Boost Your Blog Traffic with Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
  Starts: 24th January 2011
  Sessions: four structured lessons, with a live webinar
  Cost: $29.95 for the individual course (including all four lessons and the webinar), or $99 for the entire four-course Pillars of ProBlogging series
  Sign up for Boost Your Blog Traffic here.

Full details of the Boost Your Blog Traffic course—including a video of Darren sharing more information on what to expect and a lesson plan—are now available. If you’ve been getting a lot of satisfaction from blogging, and are loving the creative aspect of it but struggling with how to get people to come and visit your blog, then now is the time act. With this course you’ll learn:

• How to build loyalty and maintain engagement with the readers you have
• How to plan your networking, build out profiles, and audit your network
• How to get off your blog and into Facebook, Twitter, forums and other blogs
• How to understand Google Traffic, keyword research, and other ranking influences
• How to syndicate your content through RSS, aggregators, repurposing and more
• How to advertise effectively via email, blogs, Adwords, Facebook, and StumbleUpon
• How to understand Analytics and implement subscriptions and sharing

If you’re serious about being a professional blogger then the four-part ProBlogger Academy suite of courses, The Pillars of ProBlogging, is for you.

The Pillars of Problogging are:

• Creating Killer Content — Available Now!
• Boost Your Blog Traffic — Available Now!
• Building a Blog Community — Coming Soon
• Monetizing Your Blog — Coming Soon

You can sign up for Boost Your Blog Traffic for $29.95, or you can save $20 when you purchase all four courses for just $99.

Last week, SitePoint blogger and author Brandon Eley predicted that the future will be mobile, and I totally agree. Another area that I believe will blossom in the next twelve months is the localization of the Web.

With the rapid adoption of services such as foursquare, Google Places, Facebook Places, and the like, there is a growing emphasis on geolocation with the Web. Add to this the plethora of mobile applications that use built-in GPS to locate nearby contacts, landmarks, and other places, and you can see why I predict there’ll be an increase in local awareness by websites and web applications.

Businesses that have a predominantly local focus are the ones that will gain the most from a business sense. We should also see more and more marketing through foursquare and similar services.

The advent of mobile web, along with the widespread adoption of social media, means that people are already used to the idea of a completely transportable internet connection in their pockets; they can connect with contacts on the road, down the street, or across the world.

While local Bluetooth and SMS marketing failed to gain the groundswell everyone expected a few years ago, I believe that 2011 will see both consumers and businesses adopting a more local approach to their efforts.

We’ll wait and see. In the meantime, you should start looking at your own business now, and see how you could benefit from such a shift.

Every year for the past three years (at least), I’ve heard, “This year is the year of Mobile!” Every year, Mobile marketing becomes bigger and bigger, but it has still yet to explode. Well, 2011 will be the year.

The reason why Mobile marketing hasn’t taken off in a significant way is because of one really simple reason: Mobile internet usage. Only a small percentage of users accessed the Internet on their cell phones. Most feature phones can access the Internet, but it’s slow and tedious.

To really be able to use the Internet to its full potential, you need a smartphone; yet smartphones have been too expensive for a large portion of the population. Now with the explosion of Android phones, smartphones can be had for less than $50, which is less than the price of some feature phones.

According to the Nielsen Group, sales of smartphones will surpass feature phones in Q3 2011, as this graphic indicates:

This is the year we’ll see an explosion in Mobile advertising and marketing—from apps to location-based services to the Mobile web. If you are yet to take a look at Mobile, now is the time to start. Whether you need a Mobile-optimized website, application, or listing on Foursquare will depend on your individual business … but one thing is for sure—you need to do something!

If you’ve been paying attention to ecommerce trends over the last 12 months, there’s a good chance you’ve taken a look at websites such as Groupon. It’s the ecommerce organization that Forbes magazine dubbed “the fastest growing company ever” in the cover story of their August 2010 edition.
Similar sites have been cropping up across the globe. Another interesting model is that of Australian company, CatchOfTheDay.com. It sells certain discounted items for 24 hours, and replaces them daily with more deals.

SitePoint have even got in on the action with 24 daily deals leading up to Christmas in the SitePoint Christmas Countdown. Other ecommerce sellers have been doing the time-honored coupon code, which is valid for a relatively short time.

The reason these models work so well, is that ecommerce, unlike traditional bricks and mortar stores, has often suffered from an abundance of convenience. You can visit an online store and buy the product any time, so there’s no motivation to get in quick. There are no queues outside stores, nor mass media coverage of heavily discounted sales like the larger department stores.

These time-based sales change that landscape, giving consumers a limited time to place their orders. They create a sense of excitement and urgency, similar to leading auction websites such as eBay, which is why they do so well.

Another interesting catch with many of these sites is that a minimum amount of orders need to be placed before the sale will occur. This enables the product distributor or service provider to calculate the profits and costs of running the sale well before it actually starts.

It also promotes the social media element of telling your friends. If you’re keen on a bargain, but know that many others need to express an interest in it before the deal goes ahead, you’re motivated to hop onto Facebook or Twitter—or resort to emailing—to tell all your contacts about the deal.

Look at your own business model. Is there a way you could offer a discounted product or service if people buy within a certain time period? Make the period shorter, rather than longer, and encourage visitors to utilize social media to spread the word.

Good luck with it, and here’s hoping 2011 means more sales and profit for you and your business.

Posting articles, videos, photographs, music, podcasts, code or any other content to the web can be hard work. It’s great to be rewarded for your efforts, but the financial options remain limited:

• Advertising. That won’t be suitable in every situation and could be tricky if you’re hosting content on a third-party website. There’s no guarantee anyone will click your banners either.
• Donation buttons. Small payments are possible using systems such as PayPal but, realistically, the donor must send a few dollars to make it worthwhile and it takes a few minutes of their time.

Wouldn’t it be better if hundreds of people decided to pay a few cents each?

Flattr is an alternative “social micropayments” system from Sweden. Here’s how it works:

1. Sign-up for a user account at Flattr.com
2. Choose to pay a monthly amount to Flattr via PayPal or Moneybookers — a minimum of €2 per month is required to remain registered.
3. Click the Flattr button whenever you see it on content you like.

At the end of each month, 10% of your donation is taken by fees and the remainder is split between everyone you’ve Flattr-ed. If you’re paying €2.00 and clicked 18 Flattr buttons, Flattr will take €0.20 and every author will receive €0.10. Your funds are donated to charity if you don’t Flattr anything.

Authors are free to add Flattr buttons to any content. Popular items appear at the top of Flattr’s directory and, as such, are likely to receive more viewers and increased revenue. However, you must be willing to give before you can receive: it’s not possible to join the network unless you donate and Flattr others.

Flattr is an interesting idea. It makes micro-payment donations quick, easy and practical without having to resort to advertising. The big question is: will it work? The system can only be a success when membership achieves critical mass.

Will you sign-up?

Last week, I wrote a blog post about our upcoming new course Facebook Ads 101 with FB Ads Lab owner Jennifer Sheahan. The course goes live tomorrow, but you still have time to sign up (although it’s filling up fast).

Here’s why you need to understand Facebook marketing if you have a website, product, or service to promote:

Casual Browsing Versus Specific Searching

A University of Missouri researcher has recently identified two types of Facebook users: those who are content to browse around the Facebook network with no particular target in mind, and those who are searching for specific information (about friends, news, events, products, services, and so on).

Participants tended to spend much more time on social searching than social browsing. Not only did participants spend more time on social searching, but they seemed to enjoy it more as well.

What does this mean? Well, if you have a product or service to sell, chances are someone somewhere on Facebook is looking for it. Even if you’re running ad campaigns in other areas of the Web, you’re missing out on a huge piece of the pie if you’re not advertising on the social networking leviathan. If your competitors know how to effectively market on Facebook, they’re seeing a boost in traffic that you’re without access to.

Target the People Who Are Looking for You

Jennifer’s course leverages the fact that people are actively seeking out your type of product, service, or website by showing you how to use customized, specific targeting parameters that allow you to home in on:

• country, city, or state of residence
• gender
• marital status
• age
• education background
• employment industry
• keywords used to describe themselves
• keywords used to chat with friends

If you have a business that relies on your technical expertise, whether it be web design or development, or anything else, you may not be inclined to invest much time in mastering Facebook advertising.  You might prefer to jump straight into the PPC maze yourself and work it out as you go along.  Learning what works and what doesn’t can be a costly exercise though, and you’ll find that this course is more than worth the signup price, as Jennifer gives you a blueprint for creating great Facebook ads that work.

Course Details

• Starts: December 16, 2010
• Duration: 2 weeks (with a short break for the festive season in between)
• Format: 8 structured lessons with 2 live webinars
• Cost: Only $47.00
• Sign up now!