Category Archives: social network

My Personal Review of Dukeo.com

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dukeo logo

Here is my review of Dukeo.com.

Blog and content

Dukeo.com offers some pretty interesting and very informative posts on a lot of things.  Blogging, SEO, making money online and other topics.

These are real-life tips that everyone would appreciate, from beginners to advanced users. I found almost all content very informative and practical. Most of the blog posts were very detailed. Visitor engagement is also top-notch.

But, as with the overall navigation of the site, it is easy to get lost in all these information.

There is no easy way to see all these topics or categories that the blog covers.  You would be able to see a sampling of these topics by looking at the meta data after each blog post’s title.  But what if the site owner writes 20 different posts about blogging, this would effectively make you think that all blog posts only talk about blogging.  Also, what if you are not interested in blogging topics and are looking for SEO-related how-tos?

Oh wait, there is.  But you would have to find that link.  Guess where?  By clicking on the archives link found on the footer.

Further, looking at the Web page and other first level pages, it would be difficult to understand what the site is actually offering.  On the home page, you are asked to enter your details to get three guides, but you are not told what these guides are and how it will help you generate traffic, convert leads, and make money online as the headline boldly claims.  This very important explanation is found in the About page, which is one click away from the home page.

And oh by the way, the home page offers you the three guides (How to Make Money Online, SEO for Blogs and How to Generate Traffic from Pinterest), but on the succeeding pages, the offer is cut to two (How to Make Money Online and How to Make Money Online). This setup, again, is really confusing to many.

Because of the way the site is laid out, you will probably scroll down trying to look for that explanation and see the blog posts instead.  So by the time you get to the About page, you would have forgotten all about those guides mentioned in the home page (which by the way are not mentioned in the About page.)

Navigation

Probably, the biggest problem users would have with Dukeo.com is finding their way around the site.  The site does not have a sensible navigation system and you would find that you would be using the back button often.  That is if you do not have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find navigational links.

When you create landing pages, it makes sense that you do not confuse your potential customers by putting up a lot of links that would take them away from your offer.  The only clickable link on a landing page should be the call to action.  But this does not hold true for Dukeo.  Not everybody will be entering the site via its home page.  Some will enter the site through its newsletter sign up page, and those who do will not know that this site has a blog, for instance.

The site does not offer an easy way to see what it has to offer except for scattered links here and there and the aforementioned navigational bar at the bottom of the pages that would take a few Page Downs to see.  On some pages, the header and the footer are not even found.

But what aggravates things further is the lack of a search function.  If you have read something on this site before and you would want to look for that particular blog you have read, you will still need to go through the archives because there is no way for you to search for it.

The Low Down

Judging from the quality of the blog posts and the information we got from the blogs, it is very apparent that this site was set up to help people make money online.  But because of the poor navigation, lack of planning and lack of focus, people would find it difficult to understand just how this site works, what the products are and how you could benefit from it.  What’s more, reusing landing pages as part of the website makes you feel that you are visiting two different sites: one with header and footer and the other with a slightly different look.

Dukeo.com would benefit by taking a look at similar sites to see what they are doing right.  For example, ZZZProfits.com has a clear navigational bar that you could readily see without scrolling down.  This bar gives users an idea of the different sections of the site.  They also offer a free guide in exchange for your name and e-mail address, but they made it clear what you are going to learn from this guide.  A little planning would go a long way into making Dukeo.com a lot less painful and confusing.

The Hazards of Changing Domains and URLS

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 domain name and URL
You can cite plenty of reasons why you want to change the domain name of your website. It could be that the domain name contains a more generic keyword, and you hope to make it more personal by using the business name. It is also possible you want to institute a total makeover, and you begin by doing something into your URLs. Another plausible reason is you simply do not appreciate the domain anymore.

Changing URLs and domains is actually easier said than done. In fact, it carries several issues that you need to seriously consider before you try to do something about them.

The Downsides
Search engines, most especially Google, prefer aged domains. The fact that they have been around for years only means that the owner is a serious online businessman, is real, and has proven himself relevant to the keywords he has chosen. Old domain names also signify that the website is helpful and / or is applicable to several Internet users.

Old domains find it much easier to penetrate search engines, especially if there are new URLs created. They also tend to appear at the first, second, and third SERPs (search engine result page).

When you change your domain, there is a huge possibility you will no longer enjoy this privilege. Search engines are very blunt. If your domain is new, your website will be treated as a beginner entrant to the World Wide Web. It will take some time to have newer pages indexed. Most of the time, you may not even find your business URL in the top five page-search results.

If you are trying to increase your global reach, you know that this is going to be bad for you.

Another potential problem will be the links. Considering your old domain has been around for years, there could be multitudes of inbound links, which, unfortunately, you cannot carry over to your new URL. This can have a profound effect to your search engine rankings as links going to your website are significant to getting a good page rank.

Creating redirects is also not easy. You may have to rely on the expertise of people who are into HTML coding and PHP programming. The most common remedial steps when applying redirects include the following:

  • First, you need to send special instructions to the search engines, which are called 301. This means when someone clicks on your old URL, he or she will be redirected to the new one.
  • Second, you have to manually inform your visitors to delete the old URLs in their bookmarks and use the newer ones.

These processes can be such a hassle. If the redirects are not done right, this can result to search engine and user issues. The latter may find themselves opening a page that reads “Content Not Found.” They may be forced to look for the information they need elsewhere, such as to your competitors. Dead links can also pull down the value of your webpages in search engines. Unless you can correct these inactive links, it will be difficult for you to gain a better page rank for your new domain.

If branding is your main reason of why you are changing your domain, you are better off with creating a blog and have it included among your webpages.

Who Says SEO Is Dead?

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Who Says SEO Is Dead

When it comes to search engine optimization, or SEO, you may have heard the criticism that any Web site could be number one if you pick a keyword that is obscure enough. There are also a lot of criticisms that say that SEO is not effective in putting your Web site in a higher search engine ranking and in bringing in sales and customers to your site; that everything is just based on pure luck.

What adds to the confusion are companies and services that claim to be able to put your site on the first page or top spot of any search engine for any keyword you specify and then they use black hat techniques composed of deceitful and underhanded tactics to put you on top only as long as you keep paying them. Once you have stopped paying, your rankings fall, sometimes it becomes worse off than when you started. What is more, these black hat techniques can prove to be a bane to your ranking because search engines are very dynamic and are constantly updated and be able to detect these sooner or later. There is always the possibility that your site would be banned for using these techniques.

Over the years, people have come out with pronouncements that SEO is dead. They claim that you cannot influence how your sites would be ranked by search engines with its algorithms being constantly updated. Additionally, they say that SEO companies are just guessing at how search engines rank sites because these algorithms are closely guarded secrets in the first place.

The truth of the matter is that SEO works. It is not dead. It is not an art, but a science. SEO companies and experts have made educated guesses and made changes to Web sites that have seen better rankings than when left alone. The process is very much like how scientists and academics have their own theories and they do experiments to test it out. SEO experts and scientists strive to prove causality between one process and its results.

Done right, SEO can help your site get good rankings on keywords that are used by your customers and potential buyers. What this entails is that, like other marketing initiatives, you should know who your customers are in order to find the keywords that would give you the most benefits. More than this, you should also know the various techniques of SEO and how to execute them. This includes learning how to implement white hat techniques like on page optimization, off-page SEO, link building, creating better content that is both SEO-friendly and natural sounding. Over and again, companies that implement these techniques have reaped rewards after rewards.

Critics could easily dismiss it as fluff and nothing but putting in a good word for a dying man. A look at how real world companies approach their SEO, however, proves another point. In June 2009, Forbes Magazine released its study of Ad Effectiveness. The Magazine found that:

  • SEO, along with e-mail and newsletter marketing remains to be the most popular form of e-marketing among senior marketing executives.
  • 48% of these executives said that SEO was most effective in generating sales and conversions.
  • 92% of marketing executives will keep their existing SEO budgets or increase it within the succeeding six months.

What these marketers are saying is that SEO is effecting at not only putting your site where your customers are, but it works so well that they are willing to bet their money and keep on spending for it.

The Basics of Protecting Your Brand Online

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brand logos

Your brand can be a strong factor in whether you succeed online or not. One search at your company name or brand and a potential customer can make a decision whether to push through with buying from you or look at some other company.

Your brand is your identity. Your brand tells your customers why they should buy from you. It is what your brand connotes that makes you successful. Take a look at the world’s most successful brands and you will get an idea of why branding and protecting your brand is very important.

Brands are not just about the company logo, it is the emotional connection between your products and your customers. It is what your products are associated with. For example, Coke has been working hard to associate its beverages with fun and refreshment, while others like Louis Vuitton likes to make you think of luxury when thinking of their brands. McDonald’s, on the other hand, goes for inexpensive yet pleasant experience, while Nintendo goes for family friendly and can be suitable for the home.

The best brands are associated with great value and durability, value for money and reliability, great customer service along with a superior product.

Yet, with the advent of the Internet, your brand’s image can easily be tarnished. It could be a customer warning other people not to buy your products, or some wrong move by your company. Mattel’s Barbie has long been known to be a safe toy for children, and its image was severely tarnished when it was found that its Chinese partner used toxic chemicals, causing it to issue a toy recall involving more than 9.5 million dolls. More than this, parents all over the world avoided buying Barbie dolls until the issue died down and only after Mattel assured the public of more stringent processes to avoid the same incident in the future.

What ways can you take to make sure that you protect your brand online?

  • Use Twitter or Facebook and other social networking sites to connect to your public.
    One of the best examples of a Twitter-savvy company is JetBlue that monitors Twitter for any mention of the company. They then inform anybody via e-mail that they do indeed have a Twitter account and that you could forward any complaints, questions or suggestions to them via Twitter. But that does not stop there. JetBlue quickly responds to any such requests or inquiries, making their customers feel well-attended to.
  • Do not create a Wikipedia listing.
    If you have a sterling record or a good image, a Wikipedia entry might bring you some good hits and conversions. However, remember that a Wikipedia entry is easily modified by other people, and people can add a section where other people can post criticisms about your company.
  • Think twice before threatening a lawsuit.
    If there are some negative comments on the blogosphere about your products, then think twice and wait until you are calm enough before you reply. If you do decide to reply, make sure that you do so with tact. Remember that your replies can either damage your reputation further with the wrong words or pacify the complainant so that you could do some damage control. Using harsh words or threatening to file a lawsuit will only inflame the people further, causing more harm than good.

2009′s Top 10 Moneymakers (USA Edition)

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Google's Founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Google Founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brin

The year 2009 underscored an enormous economic meltdown that brought many United States businesses to their knees. But for some of America’s most famous moneymakers, the year brought enormous luck and vast gains. America’s top 25 stock gainers — composed of large stakeholders in publicly traded companies — made a combined $81.5 billion in 2009, Forbes.com reports.

Check out Forbes’ esteemed list of the ten biggest gainers in 2009:

  1. The founder of Google, Inc., Larry Page raked in a whooping $8.4 billion between January and mid-December 2009. At 36, Mr. Page is ranked as the 26th billionaire in the world and the 11th wealthiest person in the United States. Technology stocks are enjoying broad boost with the economic rebooting, according to Forbes. As such, Google made a rise of 90% since January 2009.

  2. Sergey Brin, the Russian-born American co-founder of Google, Inc. gained $8.2 billion in 2009. The 36-year old Internet titan gets a rebound after losing $11.7 billion in 2008 amid the collapse of Internet companies’ shares.

  3. Oracle Corporation and NetSuite gave 65-year-old founder Larry Ellison a $7.9 billion gain in 2009. He made it to fourth spot of Forbes’ list of richest persons as of September 30, 2009.

  4. Microsoft magnate Bill Gates generated $7.6 billion in 2009. The computer software company he founded with Paul Allen consistently places him on the list of the world’s richest. Over half of Mr. Gates’ fortune, however, is held outside of Microsoft. At 54, Mr. Gates grabbed the top spot overall as the wealthiest person in 2009.

  5. At barely 46 years old, Jeffrey Bezos has made Amazon a household name. The online retail company gained $7.3 billion in 2009 amid a 175% surge during the past 12 months. Amazon’s shares hit an all-time high in early December 2009.

    Microsoft's CEO - Steve Ballmer

    Microsoft’s CEO – Steve Ballmer

  6. In 2009, Steven Ballmer had $4.4 billion in gains based on stock options as Microsoft shares rose 55%. The 54-year-old billionaire derived his fortune as CEO of Microsoft, of which he was neither a founder nor a relative of a founder. In 2008, Mr. Ballmer was 43rd richest person in the world, with an estimated wealth of $11 billion.

  7. With shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. climbing 1000% since March 2009, CEO Sheldon Adelson raked in $3.9 billion. Mr. Adelson’s stake plunged $24 billion in 2008 amid the recession that battered gaming industry, which made him the biggest loser in 2008. Las Vegas Sands is parent company to Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Sands Expo and Convention Center and The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.

  8. Enterprise Products Partners and Enterprise GP Holdings co-founder, chairman and majority shareholder Dan Duncan gained $3.9 billion in 2009. At 76, the energy mogul became the wealthiest person in Houston and the 3rd richest person in Texas as of 2007.

  9. Another Google, Inc. titan, Eric Schmidt, made $2.7 billion, with his shares soaring 90% since January 2009. Like Microsoft’s Ballmer, 54-year-old Schmidt’s wealth is generated from stock options he received as chairman and CEO of Google, and not as its founder or its founder’s relative. In 2006, Mr. Schmidt was ranked 129th in Forbes’ "World’s Richest People" list, with an estimated fortune valued at $6.2 billion.

  10. Sixty three-year-old Harold Hamm gained $2.7 billion in 2009, thanks to Continental Resources’ 100% surge amid a recovery in energy prices. The energy company’s earnings, however, are still at a 50% low, compared to its overall income in July 2008.

    Is Online Dating Exciting?!!!

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    The Online Dating Scene

    The Online Dating Scene

    The online dating scene is very much alive, proof positive that the Internet is really mirroring real life.

    If you are trying to find love online, you are certainly not alone. According to statistics published by Jupiter Research, around three million people used and paid online dating sites and services in 2003, spending more than $200 million in the first half of that year alone. Meanwhile, Online Dating Magazine says that 120,000 couples who met online are married each year. That is how the online dating scene improved the way people connect.

    Online dating may be an exciting forum to meet new people for both friendship and love. It takes the traditional personals to the Web, making it a lot easier for one person to find someone. What is more, you do not have to go through a lot of useless ads to find the one you are looking for. Using the site’s search function, one can easily look for a mate by filtering out various choices on the basis of their gender, age, educational attainment, the color of their eyes, and even their income among other factors.

    There are also some specialized dating services now that cater to people belonging in similar groups. People of the same religion, homosexuals, singles, teens, among other groups have their own specialized dating sites, while there are also a site that explicitly advertises meeting up for sex.

    Once a searcher gets his or her shortlist of matches, the communication begins. Depending on the dating site, this usually means an exchange of messages, or if both are online, an online chat. From there, it is up to both parties how long they want to correspond and if they want to meet up.

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    How to Protect Your Privacy Online

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    How to Protect Your Privacy Online

    A lot has been said about your privacy online. More and more people are getting victims of phishers, scammers, and identity thieves in a range of privacy violations  – from getting embarrassing status updates put up on their social networking sites, to downright criminal acts like unauthorized use of credit cards and money stolen from the victims’ Paypal or online bank accounts.

    Here are the top 5 ways to protect your privacy online.

    1. It is not limited to social media networks.
    When talking about online privacy, social media sites like Facebook and MySpace immediately come to mind. While they are the most prevalent sites that identity thefts and other cyber criminals use to carry out their crimes, they are not the ONLY sites. You could get in trouble using e-mail, backing up your files online, or even through searching.

    This is not to say that you should go lax with your privacy on social media sites, it is just the opposite: you should safeguard the personal information you have on your social media sites because they could be used for other sites as well.

    To do this, you should use the site’s privacy option, which effectively makes your profiles invisible to people who are outside your contacts list. You be careful on adding people to your contacts list as well. If a stranger asks you to add him or her to your contacts list, think very carefully before you click that approve button.

    Further, you should not post private information online, or information that would tell people where you would be at a particular day and time. Nor should you post pictures, blogs, and other content that may be deemed offensive, racist or reveals too much about you or your life that it could be used against you at some later time.

    Lastly, do not share personal information online. This includes that of your friends. There may be sites that ask you to refer a page to a friend, and if you like their page, chances are you will input not only your name and contact details, but your friends’ as well. When asked to sign up with your e-mail address, you might want to create a new one for use on these sites, protecting your primary e-mail address.

    2. E-mail is not secure.
    A lot of people think that they can pour out their most private thoughts on an e-mail to their friends, but remember, e-mails are not secure. Aside from the rare mishaps of sending your e-mail to the wrong person, or –horrors!– to the general office address that carbon copies every single person you work with, there are also other people who can eavesdrop on the contents of your e-mails and even have the access to change its contents.

    Remember that an e-mail message goes through several servers before getting delivered to your recipient. At each stop, there are people who could view your e-mails and read what you wrote.

    To ensure that your sensitive e-mails are protected, encode it with an e-mail privacy program like Pretty Good Privacy or PGP. There are other similar software for you to use.

    3. Everything you do on the Internet is being recorded… and USED.
    If you have ever made a search online, you would notice that suggestions are made when you start typing out your search keywords. Upon closer inspection, you would see that some of these suggestions are for sites that you have visited recently.

    The same goes for searches using the search engine’s own Web site. If you have noticed the ads coming out on the search results, they are likely to be related to what you have searched for.

    Remember that everything you do online is recorded. A desktop search tool like Google Desktop, for example, will record all your searches while a Web-based e-mail provider like Google Mail will chronicle every e-mail you have sent or received. The information they gather would be used for marketing products and services to you.

    4. Beware of browser cookies.
    Browser cookies are like the bread crumbs that Hanzel and Gretel used to find their way back home. These cookies form the body of evidence of your activities online right down to where on the site you visited and how much time you spent on each page. You might want to turn off your browser’s option to accept all cookies and manually approve or deny cookies as necessary and always delete browser cookies after every session.

    You can also use third-party cookie management applications and software like Internet Junkbuster Proxy or interMute.

    5. Your IP is visible.
    Remember that a numeric footprint would identify you everywhere online. By using your IP address, people could track where you are and what ISP you are using. If you use Internet broadband at home, your ISP could also associate your address with your IP.

    If you do not want to be located, for some reason, then go use a different computer in a different location, where you have a different IP or you could use an anonymizer that hides your IP.

    4 Ways to Enjoy a Risk-free Online Social Networking Experience

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    4 Ways to enjoy a risk-free online social networking experience

    4 Ways to enjoy a risk-free online social networking experience

    Perpetrators of phishing, scamming and identity theft have found a veritable gold mine in social networking sites. All too often, users of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter inadvertently make themselves easy targets for these kinds of activities.

    Here are four ways to protect yourself and your information online.

    1. Always check your privacy settings.
    While Facebook sets your privacy setting to your contacts by default, other social networking sites do not. In fact, some display your profile to the general public. Make sure that you make use of a site’s privacy settings to allow only your friends, family, loved ones and contacts to view your profile.

    In line with this, do not add just anybody as your contact. If you are keeping a personal profile, then make sure that you only have people you personally know in your contact list. If you are on social networking sites to play online games, or to market your brand, it might help to create a separate account for this purpose. You can limit the amount of personal information you have on these accounts.

    2. Think twice before you post something.
    For one, do not post your hometown if this has been set as your secret password question. Make sure that your post does not have personal information in it, or other identifiers like a landmark near where you work.

    In no circumstances should you announce where you would be at a particular time. This way, lurkers would not be able to pinpoint where you are at any time.

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