Kingdom Keys Bookmarking Blog

The age of website directories has long gone. People now just type a clever combination of words and somehow manage to drill down rather quickly to what they are looking for. Miss out on showing up in this kind of search and you are out of existence in cyberspace.

Time is the essence and convenience is king.

So how does a smart web surfer can cut to the chase and land only the results they are after? In a nutshell the answer is: by being specific enough.

Let's try it. You want to shop around for a computer in your area. So you type two words "cheap computer". That will return who knows what so you decide to be a bit more specific. You don't like the cheap connotation so you say low price instead. Then you don't say computer you say laptop. Now you've typed "low price laptop".

Again you find that some of the vendors are on the other side of the world so you add your location. Now we have "low priced laptop in Sydney"

The long tail label stems from the field of statistics where a distribution tapers off in a bell curve shape. A simple tool to try is http://google.com/sktool if you search "long tail keyword research tool" you are bound to return scores of services that will help you keep ahead of the pack.

So where do marketers and consumers meet? The answer: wherever new buzzwords arise. Think of all the lingo that would be unintelligible to someone who was transported in time from say 10 years ago. What would they make of social media, web 2.0, global warming, political correctness, green gas emission, stimulus package, raft of measures, ecommerce, iphone, gforce, handheld device, smartphone, etc...

For search engine advertising, each of these words combinations had become an auction where you bid against whoever wants to show up there as well.

For the savvy internet boffin which we are all becoming, the name of the game is to uncover quickly enough the results that will address our problem, appeal to our senses or just entertain us about our areas of interest.

For marketers the challenge is to pre-empt what tomorrow's jargon will be and to position yourself in from of those people before everyone else catches on.

If you have the mind of an investigator and read the leading blogs and reviews you might pick up what is hot. If you yield enough influence you might start a new trend and see if it takes off.

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When you see how fast the technology in appliances like computers and smartphones improves in leaps and bounds you are left wondering why the promised electric car is still around the corner. Why local authorities interfering with more and more regulation do not require power points in new car parks or provide tax breaks as an incentive for getting us to leave our gas guzzlers behind?

Is there a conspiracy to delay such a strategic technological move? In the days of horse and buggy there was obviously no oil lobby, the Suez canal was not a strategic landmark and there was free fertilizer on the road for whoever wanted (or was paid) to pick it up...

You would think this is a prime opportunity for companies to show case their technology, for financiers to raise capital for a worthwhile project, for investors to bankroll a life changing technology, for politicians to earn (much needed) kudos for improving our daily lives, for governments to restore our trade imbalances and cancel our dependence on oil...

Obviously someone benefits from the current status quo. In 2006 a film documentary "Who killed the electric car" exposed some of those issues and now 4 years later we are no closer to see those silent wheels grace our streets...

Electric cars are available to those yuppies prepared to pay for them. There does not seem to be any plans to make it a vehicle for the masses, a remake of the "Volkwagen", "the car of the people". There is a fast electric sports car the Tesla Roadster and Toyota has been leading the charge (pun intended) with the Prius. Unfortunately the quality control scandal has left that carmaker with egg on their face.

An interesting development though is a crowd called Better Place who aims to launch some large scale projects in Israel and elsewhere. Obviously oil dependency for the Jewish nation in the heart of the Middle East has something to do with it and it should be seen as a strategic (military?) move.

The two drawbacks of the electric car are of course the time to recharge the batteries and its lack of noise. Those working in a warehouse environment know how dangerously an electric forklift can sneak up on you. That really is an easy problem to fix. Just have a loudspeaker play something like a creative ringtone - let your imagination go wild... in a car park pedestrians need to know that a vehicle is creeping up behind them. An appropriate noise is the answer.

The time taken to recharge the battery is addressed for city commuters. The car charges overnight in the garage. As the technology gains acceptance, shopping centres, office and residential buildings should offer power points with credit card swiping facility (someone has to pay for the energy used). For the long haul travellers there is no easy fix unless a network of outlets offers battery swapping on the go.

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When people use their mobile phone as a remote control you know it has become indispensable. In fact couch potatoes use it to check their email during a TV commercial break.

I have heard all sorts of fancy ringtones in the restrooms and you wonder why people are so long in there...

We used to have the Blackberry which could sync its clock by itself the night of daylight saving. The undisputed king of course is the iPhone but it has now reached saturation and people concerned about Apple's marketing dominance are looking for alternatives.

The android has come of age with most applications being ported to that platform. At least it is an open standard but Google is lurking around.

Useful applications are a voice recorder to tape your telephone conversations (for quality and training purposes of course...) If government departments and call centers want to play silly fools you can now return the compliment. What about taping a convivial conversation with your ex and play it back at the family court?

For hypochondriacs there is an app to monitor your heart beat. For people who love pets there is an animated fish tank.

For astute shoppers there is an app to scan barcodes and lookup competitive prices, reviews etc... before you go through the checkout and feel sorry you bought a dud.

If you felt romantic one summer night under the stars and your mate is asleep you can point your smart phone at the sky to be told the names of the galaxies you're looking at.

There is a strange download mechanism involved. People would search on a laptop or standard PC with a comfortable sized screen and mouse/keyboard. A 2D barcode is displayed. You aim your smart phone camera at the barcode and it logs on to that url with the phone's web browser to download the actual app.

Cloud computing is another converging technology and some websites can recognize when they are being viewed on a small screen and simplify the page layout accordingly.

The flipside is that there is no place you can hide from big brother. Wherever you are email, text messages and whatever else can find you and disturb your peace.

For an online accounting service suitable for a smart phone click here

For an online goal tracking tool click here

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Are you a bit mouse shy when it comes to social media? You'll be surprise the big uptake now on facebook are people 45 and over...

Different people use facebook for different things. But by and large there are some common rules to get involved without drowning into some selfish monologue.

The obvious way to grow your network of contacts is through friends of friends. Just like being introduced at a party you broaden your horizon by the intermediary of someone who knows both parties and acts as a go-between.

There the analogy stops. If you don't post straight away on the wall or your new friend but merely let them read your stuff we don't have a conversation going - simply someone thrusting a brochure into someone else's lap...

One of the telltale signs of a marketer in guise of a cyber friend is the number of posts versus the number of comments. If there are lots of the former and none of the latter this is a lone self-promoting account. (Some of them are just automated RSS feeds publishing blog articles from other sources.)

Another thing to watch for is the number of friends your new contact has. If it is above a few hundred chances are it is impossible to keep up on a personal basis with so many people. This could be another self marketer in disguise or simply a celebrity in arts or entertainment.

Another approach is to look for fan pages or interest groups that share your values. The page itself might not be that crash hot but the people who "like" it might be worth talking to. You will have to step out of your shell and introduce yourself.

Some people use facebook to keep up with relatives overseas and share photos. Others use facebook to play silly games and you get invite to find a lost goat in Farmville...

Facebook has more than 500 million active users, which is about one person for every fourteen in the world. You would be considered a dork if you didn't want to be on it!

It's a great way to spy on your teenage daughter or find out what your ex is up to. It's so easy to open a fake account. The police and the FBI are on facebook to stamp out teenage stalkers trying to groom an unsuspecting soul into meeting them at a public location. That's definitively not what you would call a quality connection. School pupils are not innocent either. They have used facebook to defame teachers who have no avenue of redress. In French Canada facebook is referred to as fessebook (fesse = buttocks) and the website shows the hind part of a cow. Some of us have seem the movie The SocialNetwork which gives some insight as to its sleazy start on campus.

So facebook is here to stay whether you like it or not - you might as well make the best use of it.

For information about the affiliators facebook application click here

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In recent months I have seen some frantic email activity from articles websites such as ezinearticles, goarticles, hubpages, etc... to shore up their authors contributions.

What is going on? I have a sneaking suspicion that their business model is coming to an end. Soliciting content from as many so-called authors as possible and living off the proceeds of PPC advertising may be running out of steam.

Just like in the good old days of banner advertising people have developed a blindness to PPC ads. The only people to avidly click on them could be your competitors and the issue of click fraud is becoming a big concern.

Authors are starting to realize that the precious links planted in those articles hold little sway in the eyes of search engines. Indeed it is getting harder and harder to sprinkle inbound links for your site after the wave of no-follow links to stamp-out the spamming of blog comments.

Further you have no control on what happens to your dear content. It is often republished without your link on some duplicate content sites. So you get penalized even if you are the original source!

Last but not least you want to be seen in the right neighbourhood. If you are surrounded by score of affiliate marketing sites who are peddling innovative variations of the old get-rich-scheme you get tarnished by their stench.

As Seth Godin puts it you want to be remarkable by going to the edge.

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