About Mary Joan

Posts by Mary Joan:

Domain Renewal Scam or Just Doing Business?

Domain Renewal Scam or Just Doing Business?Domain Renewal Scam or Just Doing Business?

I got an official-looking document via snail mail today from IDNS – Internet Domain Name Services. The registration for one of my domains, MitzvahStudio.com, is scheduled to expire July 10.

If I “Act Today!” I can re-register MitzvahStudio.com for just $45/per year, $80/2 years (Recommended), or $180/5 years (Best Value).

IDNS is telling me this as “A courtesy…switch today…take advantage of our best savings.” They tell you upfront what the pricing is and for how long, when your domain expires, and if “you accept this offer” you’ll be switching your domain name registration to IDNS. The language is so friendly and helpful, the document is so official, they even offer suggested companion names with .net and other extensions.

Is This a Domain Renewal Scam or Just Doing Business?

So is this a domain renewal scam, or is ISDN just getting new business in guerrilla marketing fashion? Technically, they aren’t offering anything they won’t provide. But if you get a letter like this don’t fall for it. ISDN will lock you in at exorbitant prices and make it difficult for you to leave. ISDN is all over the Internet and with a little searching I found many mentions of them.

Because I’m in the web business I happen to know that those “best savings” are far above what you’d normally pay, 3-4 times above going market rate. The expiration of my domain isn’t imminent and I prefer to register, and keep, my domains where they are currently registered. Plus my current registrar frequently sends me emails with discounts.

If you look closely on the document under Domain Name Expiration Notice, their domain name is www.idns.ag ~ I never heard of .ag so I looked it up. It’s an extension for the country Antigua. When I went to the IDNS site after clicking around on a few pages I realized it had changed to www.ins.to. I never heard of that extension either, so I looked it up ~ it stands for the country Tonga.

ISDN also leads you to believe that “Privatization of Domain Registration and Renewals now allows the consumer the choice of Registrars when initially registering and also when renewing a domain name.”  You’ve always had the right to register and renew your domain name anywhere you want.

If you get a letter like this from IDNS, or any other company you don’t know, offering friendly and helpful service don’t send any payments or credit card info. Contact us ~ or your web design company or website host ~ in case you are not sure about a reminder email or snail mail you receive.

 

 

 

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Email or E-Mail? Word Usage for SEO

Email or E-Mail? Word Usage for SEOYou say tomato, I say tomahto. Not a big deal. What about email or e-mail? Now a big deal.

Online search has many tricky word and phrase usages. The difference could cost you traffic, business and money.

Keywords are critical for your website. Is it email or e-mail? You should spell based on how people are searching for the word.

Style guidelines might have a different opinion, but at the end of the day, it’s about the customers and not the grammar professionals.

The bottom line is, it’s important for your business when optimizing word usage for SEO.

Or is that search engine optimization?

According to Google AdWords Keyword Planner, the keyword SEO averaged 673,000 monthly searches versus 74,000 for search engine optimization in the last 12 months.

I compared the following search terms in the keyword planner for the last 12 months and here are the results.

Email or E-mail?

Some people speculate that nobody under 30 uses “e-mail” anymore. The New York Times still does, but they’re also using “web site”. The Associated Press Stylebook has been recommending email since 2011, according to the AP Style book.

Then which is it, email or e-mail?

An important thing to consider is how people are typing the word on their mobile devices. People type email rather than e-mail because it’s easier; they don’t want to search on their keyboards for the hyphen, so email is the way to go. The difference in the monthly search is staggering: email 11,100,000 versus e-mail 1,220,000, an almost 10 to 1 ratio.

Smartphone or Smart Phone

This is one of the big ones. And if you guessed smartphone you’d be right. In the last year smartphone averaged 1,000,000 monthly searches versus 60,000 for smart phone. People have a tendency to go for the one word choice because it’s easier to type, so smartphone wins. Dictionaries also now have it as one word.

Website or Web site

Publications like The New York Times still use the phrase “web site” according to Grammarist. But we’re focused on optimizing word usage. If you look at other words using the root word web, webcam and webmaster are all one words, so website should be, too, right? Yes; monthly search stats over the last 12 months have it averaging  246,000 monthly versus 27,100 for web site.

 

 

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What’s Branded Video and Why It’s Important

Starting A YouTube Channel? Consider Doing This FirstWe’ve written before about the importance of video in business, and that YouTube is the number 2 search engine and dominant video channel.

But remember that branding is still the key to making your company stand out. Branding involves creating a name and image for a product in the consumer’s mind.

Branded Video Views Soar

A study done by Reelseo determined that in the past year branded video views have gone up 73%; that’s over 2.9 billion views since September 2014.

Branded videos are the visuals used to create a connection or relationship between the consumer and whatever product or service your business is offering.

This can mean everything from a Webinar explaining how to use or build your product, to testimonials of clients sharing their experience with your company, to a video of a company event. Either way you are creating your brand’s image in the viewers mind and letting them know why and how your business or product is the best choice out there.

At NuZoo, we know that creating a vision of your product or service in the public’s mind is the trickiest part of marketing today.

Your videos should create awareness, affinity and purchase intent for your brand. That’s the best way branded videos can help your business.

Branded Video Research

Research done by ShutterStock on branded videos says:

  • When someone looks for something online they are more likely to click on a video

  • 96% of people are more likely to open an email with a video link

  • 60% of all the data in the world is videos

  • As of 2014 36% of all videos watched are advertisements

Theses statistics aren’t hard to believe, with social media portals and instant messaging being as popular as they are. Not having a brand video to send out in these portals sounds almost crazy.

In addition, Single Grain Analytics found that 52% of shoppers admit that watching versus reading makes them more confident when purchasing a product or service.

Originality and creativity are your best friends when looking for connectivity with your audience.

At NuZoo our main goal is to get you the best results by having innovative ideas and using them to increase the engagement with your target audience.

We work to give you innovative videos that stay true to your brand, are goal-oriented and give you a strong, memorable visual of your company, products and services.

Contact NuZoo Media and let us produce your branded video!

 

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