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e_Marketing Blog 2009 Will Be Pivotal for Microsoft 2008 has not been the greatest year for Microsoft, but they have still done surprisingly well in spite of the economic slowdown around the world. In an article from PCWorld called Microsoft's Top Three 2008 Mistakes, Shane O'Neill of CIO.com discusses some of the things that went well for MS, and some that clearly did not. In spite of aggressive marketing by Apple, Mac sales fell 1 percent over the year and Windows PC sales were up 7 percent. Microsoft's grip on the PC market remained firm - with 90% of users running Windows, and 70% of internet browsers using Internet Explorer. One has to think that the bad press MS keeps getting will have to impact these market shares eventually. Although it sure seems like both Apple and Firefox do not understand that their elitist attitude ("we're so much better and smarter than the other 90% of you") is an implicit criticism of the very customer they are trying to reach. 2009 will be a pivotal year for MS as they continue to try to beat off Apple, Google and Mozilla (Firefox). According to the PC Word article Microsoft's biggest mistakes for 2008 were: 1. Poor marketing of Windows Vista - They've been letting Apple get away with bashing Vista for years now. It's just not as bas as the critics say it is, and MS's own lack of promotion reinforces the idea that the critics are right. 2. Letting Apple Build Anti-Vista Momentum - Even though the sales figures may not yet show it in a convincing way, Apple has taken the marketing game away from MS with their constant Vista-bashing. MS has not shown that it can adequately respond. Expensive ads featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld missed the mark. Just recently I saw an ad touting the unique features of Vista in a straight-ahead way. It's about time. 3. The Failed Yahoo Bid - Early in 08 the bid for Yahoo looked like it might be a case of two search losers getting together. The failure of the bid did nothing for MS's image as a "winner" or a company forging into the future. As it turned out it was probably good for MS that Yahoo rejected their offer. Now Yahoo is worth a fraction of what MS offered, Jerry Yang, the big Yahoo opponent of the bid is gone, and new Yahoo investors are now courting MS. MS is still interested in Yahoo's search business, and may very well end up with it in 2009. WiMAX for Portland WiMAX service will soon be available in Portland, Oregon. What is WiMAX? It is a wireless alternative to cable or DSL. For a number of years this technology has promised to revolutionize the delivery of "last mile" service connecting homes and offices to internet access points. But these days the focus is more on mobile applications that make it a viable alternative to standard cell phone services. The provider of this service in Portland will be Clearwire, a company formed through joint cooperation of Sprint, Clearwire, Google, Intel, Comcast, and Time Warner. WiMAX will not be significantly cheaper than the alternatives, but it does promise to offer greater potential for merging disparate services such as internet, cell phone, Voip and cable tv. Upgrading to Wordpress 2.7 Just finished upgrading one of my many Wordpress blogs to v 2.7 - the newest upgrade which was released on Dec. 10 makes several attractive improvements to the interface. This upgrade is not so concerned with functionality as it is with improving the user interface. I was able to upgrade my Article Marketing blog in about 15 minutes when all was said and done. There were no suprises and no hitches along the way. I'm sure subsequent upgrades on other sites will go faster. |
Linknet-News.com features news articles and news items in various categories including Health News, Real Estate News, Finance News, Marketing News, Business News, Entertainment News, Travel News, and more... Mar 29, 2006 - Linknet Internet News No Matr How Goud The Infomation... Mar 29, 2006 - Linknet Internet - by JoMarie Thomson, Crucible DesignsTypos, misspellings, hideous grammar, exclamation overkill and run-on sentences all undermine a Web site's message. Your reader will have to work too hard, and you won't have that reader long. Grabbing a reader's attention is a key point in getting your message out, but there is such a thing as too much grabbing--and the wrong kind of attention. Negative attention can lose a great many visitors and potential clients. == Earn up to 75% of PPC Revenue - Premierad.com pays webmasters up to 75% of advertising revenues to place contextual ads on their websites or blogs. == Clean content and neat appearance are not merely a matter of aesthetics. It goes to the core of establishing trust and reliability between a Web site and visitor. Relate it to a deli. A potential customer heard about you through an ad. Cool ad, got his/her attention, so he/she stops by on the way home. On the outside everything looks nice, meets expectations, so the visitor walks in, looking for tonight's sandwich goodies. Once inside it only takes a few seconds to notice the dust on the shelves, the dirty footprints, the unidentifiable smudges on the glass counter-fronts. No matter how good the food smells, if the counterperson has dirty hands or there are papers littering the floor, how many people are going to feel comfortable reaching over a crumb-covered counter to pay for their dinner? == Cheap web hosting - low cost reliable web hosting == That may sound like a silly comparison to Web content, but really, it's not so far off. The principle stands: clean, neat, appealing content builds comfort and trust. Sloppy, haphazard or distracting content repels, and breaks down credibility. And the principle is very easy to apply to all Web content. Just remember the acronym, "Get It All" G- et another set of eyes to take an objective look I- talics, bold and all caps are rough on the eyes, use sparingly A- lways do one last look-see after it's finished Whether your content is a one-line ad or five-page report, taking that little extra time and effort will improve your site, build customer confidence and add respectability. Saving time now and risking poor content quality can end up costing you more later. After all, the object is to get and keep customers at your site; to keep them reading. How long would you have kept reading this article if it had all been written like that first paragraph? Cherie' Davidson is a freelance writer and Web content developer who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her toy poodle, Auggie Dog, her "energy muse." She has her own freelance writing business, Suitable Words Publications (http://www.suitablewords.com), where she writes and promotes Website content, designs and develops e-books, hires out as a copywriter and writes a wide variety of articles and essays. She has started a blog at http://suitablewords.blogspot.com and a free article site at http://www.writerscontent.com Republished from Web-Design-101.info
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