Rules of conversation…

Translation is always considered the panacea for all the multilingual marketing pains and many global marketing big hats have fallen prey to this misconception. Every industry has its own language of the trade and a grasp of the local flavor is vital to enhance the acceptability of the online business in either Beijing or in Tokyo – and the same business will be governed by a different set of localization rules. Targeting the sentiments and values of a foreign traveler is followed by an increased number of bookings. A right localization technique has enabled remote lodges in Smokey Mountain, USA to attract visitors from UK and China – The website could speak the right language in the right place.

With new regions being added under the internet umbrella with every passing moment, the percentage non-English web pages have gone up to almost 90% – Is it not a sign of a new multilingual era, where marketing and business success is hinged on the number of foreign brand ambassadors that your company has. It is a known fact that even the users proficient in English are loyal to websites offering services in their native language – alignment of our thoughts is always in the mother tongue.

The marketing pitch…

Even the graphics have a different connotation for Europeans, Americans and Asians and this fact dictates a different marketing copy to be crafted for different localization needs. So, if you are marketing your site through…

• Multilingual Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Search Engine marketing (SEM) or Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
• Affiliate marketing
• Content marketing
• Video / Picture marketing
• Social Media marketing

….the multilingual aspect brings the psychological and cultural factor into the whole marketing scheme.  No wonder that even the best translators and copywriters fail to achieve conversions for a multilingual site.

In order to find out if a blog could be good for your business, answer the following question:
• Do the vendors, targeted customers spend good amount of time on internet?
• Do people research about product or any information related to your business online?
• Do you have some instances in your experience or specific business related information which you can share with customers?
• Can the information you share add value or educate people regarding your business?
If you have answered affirmative to most of the above question, you can be sure that your business and your website can be benefited by integrating a blog.

The “why” of corporate blog
The concept of corporate blogging has been around since early 2000’s, and now we can certainly come of age today. The importance of business blogging was not highlighted initially, but today, a blog is considered as a tool for public relations, marketing, brand promotion as well as communication with customers and other business. From an internet and web presence perspective a business blog has obvious SEO advantages.

SEO Advantages of the blogs
When a blog is a part of your main website, it increases the chances to get quicker attention of search engines. Blogs basically work by pinging mechanism. A correctly set up blog quickly ping the search engines indicating that there is new content to index.

• When posts of your blogs are linked to some pages of website with appropriate anchor text, those pages also gets indexed quickly.
• Frequently written good quality blogs attract many eyeballs. You are also credited for sharing the industry specific knowledge with people.
• You can target more number of industry related key words with your blogs.
• Having a blog written by a person adds a feel aspect to the business. This also increases the trust factor among the customers.

Preparing to blog
Before you begin to blog, spend some time in the realm of the blogosphere to get an idea about what is going on and what are the hottest topics being discussed about your niche area. You would obviously benefit by reading the blogs form the leading personalities in your field. The general frequency you can maintain is about one post a week. This shows that your website is updated with relevant content at a decent frequency. Ideally a post between 300 to 600 words is good enough.

Tips for blog content
The key points that indicate a good business blog are
• Relevant topics: Ensure that the content on your blog is relevant to the industry. Be sure that the subjects you write are recent and add value to the subject matter.
• Accuracy of the content: Being accurate about whatever you write adds to your brand value and gives the impression that you as an individual and as a company are reliable.
• Being concise: People come to your page to read blog not a book, so be concise. If a particular post is longer you could consider making two posts out of it.
• Respond to the comments: It is imperative that you respond graciously and appropriately to people who comment on your blog. This is one of the best ways to connect with people on a personal level. This also engages the customer s and creates positive image about your business.

As your blog goes popular, it will attract more eyeballs and would mean better publicity for your business.

If the content on your website needs to be altered frequently, then you would perhaps need access and control of your site rather than request updates through your web developer. This is when a CMS comes into the picture.

So when you have decided that you need a CMS, the following suggestions can help you choose the most appropriate one for your projects.

Budget: The first step is to determine the amount you can spend on a CMS. While determining your budget, don’t forget about the implementation and support costs.

Review the volume of content and consider scalability: Determine the volume of content you have today, and will have tomorrow. Your system should be able to support your maximum projected users at least for the next five years. Once you have evaluated your needs, match the volume with real life case studies to know what your intended Content Management System can handle.

Format Flexibility: Evaluate the format flexibility of your CMS. If you will be publishing in several formats (social, web, mobile, video, audio, XML, etc.) then ensure that the content can be re-formatted easily.

Printing Flexibility: Websites and web technology flourish on change. So make sure that your web content or site design is twisted or totally changed at least every 12 months. Go for a CMS that does not limit your ability to make changes.

Some of the recommended content management systems are:

Wordpress: This CMS system is best for websites that have four or five static pages, like “About us”, “Contact us”, etc. and pages that change frequently, like the blogs.

ExpressionEngine: This CMS system allows for more dynamic content, and also allows easy multiple changes at once.

Drupal: When a website grows, it becomes difficult to manage information. Drupal CMS is specifically designed for large sites that feature several pages of individualized content.

Make an informed decision about the right content management system and see your business soar to new heights.

This is a promising New Year, and we have it for real. There are going to be many new surprises that will follow, The Bloom Box is just the beginning. Our long awaited revolutionary energy breakthrough is finally here. A little power plant in a small box giving you inexpensive and clean energy with no emissions at all, and this is no more a pipe dream. With the help of this box, we will be able to generate our own electricity, and, which will be wireless. This is like having your own ‘Sun,’ our source of energy in the backyard.

The big power plants and transmission line grids, can now be replaced, and expected to be a thing from the past. We sure are good enough to make this world a better place to live in, just give us a little freedom and lots of time.

Bloom-Bloom energy – Bloom time

Dr. K. R. Sridhar is the CEO, and principal co-founder of Bloom Energy, KPCB’s first green-tech investment; a company engaged in the making of these tiny fuel cells called “Bloom Boxes”, that are able to create massive amounts of power. These flexible fuel cell systems produce clean, reliable and affordable energy using a wide range of fuels. This enables the consumers to be able to generate our own cheaper electricity. This will also help us cut carbon emissions by 50-100% per kW, depending upon the fuel consumed.

Fortune magazine has cited Dr. Sridhar as “one of the top five futurists that are inventing tomorrow today.”  Dr. Sridhar had earlier led a team developing technologies for sustaining life on Mars for NASA, and also worked as a professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, as well as Director of the renowned Space Technologies Laboratory (STL) at the University of Arizona, before founding his brainchild ‘Bloom Energy.’

Green-tech solution – a milestone

He is also a sought after speaker and adviser on energy and environmental issues. We are closing on to realizing his dreams, like he says “we can solve our current energy problems through a combination of technology, innovation and conservation.” May his words, as they are, come true.

Start With SEO Basics

This is true, “If content can be searched on, then it can be optimized for better performance in search.” However, the definition of the SEO is and will mostly be changing by the day. As for the moment you can make the most  of the resources and optimize your videos, images and even audios. This can only be made possible through relevant meaningful content and links. They are of immense help and will enable you make better use of SEO tactics in your online presence.

Some More SEO Tips

• After compiling your keyword glossary, you could make use of a keyword tool in order to target your audience efficiently.
• Do not get carried away, optimize your content for the readers first. Now, go back and make adjustments to make this search engine friendly without damaging the script.
• Never overlook and make sure to the use of keywords in the title, sub-heading and the text body. The title is the most important place where the presence of the keyword makes ultimate sense. However, do not stuff keywords just for the sake of them being there. Logical and relevant presence will alone make sense, so that your piece is visually appealing and easy to digest.

Normally, keywords appearing for about 2/4 times, in a 400/500 word release is just fine.

Making Press Releases Work

Traditionally a press release is just another type of announcement. However, an online press release, like all online content, is so much different that you can do more than just pitching a message or an event. You could even inspire calls to action, add you onto Facebook, or even make a call. You could even take the reader to a landing page for optimization analysis. Look at these as more than a one time thing, what with your links in place, a press release is your very valuable investment and asset.

“Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.” This is the Wikimedia commitment.

Wikimedia, owned and operated by the Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit foundation devoted and dedicated to bring free content to the world through the internet. The stated goals of the Wikimedia Foundation is to develop and maintain open content on Wiki based Projects, and to provide these to the general public free of any charges. This acquired name “Wikimedia” was first coined by the American author Sheldon Rampton in a post to the English mailing list in March, 2003.

The Wikimedia Foundation relies heavily on the generous support offered by the users themselves. The Foundation is incorporated as a 501©(3) non-profit organization in the United States, where donations from US citizens are tax deductible. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. is presently headquartered at San Francisco, USA.

Following is the list of Content Projects relating to Wikimedia –

• Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia with multilingual content
• Wiktionary – A Wiki-based Open Content dictionary
• Wikiquote – A Free Online Compendium of Sourced Quotations
• Wikibooks – A Free Library of Educational Text Books
• Wikisource – The Free Online Library of Free Content Publication
• Wikinews – The Free News Source Where You Can Write articles
• Wikiversity – Open Learning Community
• Wikispecies – Free Species Directory
• Wikimedia – Incubator
• Wikimedia – Commons
• Wikimedia – Meta Wiki
• MediaWiki – Free Software Wiki Packages

Helping to contribute and collaborate makes it simple and easy. The idea behind the basic Wiki concept is just this. It is willing to provide us with an online platform where we can pool in our resources and build something which all of us in the future can make use of. Wiki will only check the genuineness and authenticity of the subject and help preserve and maintain the database. Terrific idea, and terrific work combined with some non-profiting motives are spelling out some online wonders, which shall be very difficult to duplicate. The entire global community using and building Wiki’s resources sincerely hope that Wiki, some day will come out of the red and make some money without compromising.

Globalizing Collective Online Resources

The best part of Wiki products and packages is that they come in many languages, so that a truly global community can benefit using Wiki’s services. Then, the content is always open to editing, which again makes the material more substantial and truly updated. It is no wonder that most Wiki’s sites are in the best lists and highly rank on all search engines. Wiki products, as time goes by are turning to be the most popular and most frequented websites.

Display – As clear as the content

With a perfect large screen displaying in vibrant colors, iPad enables you see the web pages like they actually are meant to be seen. Easy readability and navigation make the iPad one of the most wonderful devices ever made by man. When our finger, the most natural pointing instrument is going to be the boss, just imagine the kind of pleasure this can generate.

This will also make a huge difference to the internet and the world-wide-web. Imagine the convenience and the clarity with which you could conference, or watch videos, music videos and movies while relaxing in bed. With some crisp, vibrant displays and unique software features, this is also an extraordinary way to share pictures as well. You could sync these with your computer, download from email, or import the photos directly from the camera using the optional Apple Camera Connection kit.

Effective Content Management

You Tube, iPod, iTunes, iBooks and most of the other apps will make this device well appreciated and consumed for a long time to come. This is amazingly compatible and has been designed keeping all these factors in mind. There is hardly a thing that you will not be able to do with your iPad. This toy, like it fits around you, only weighs 680 grams, so you could conveniently tuck around. Your grand fiesta is finally here, so grab one as soon as you can.