Netconcepts

Alternative Discovery and SEO - Feeds, PDFs, and Blog SEO

Stephan Spencer — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:41:18 +0000

Learn the best tips, tools, and techniques for non-traditional optimization for both indexing as well as ranking support. This includes files such as PDFs, docs, podcasts and RSS feeds.

Speakers:
Rick Klau, Strategic Partner Development, Google
Stephan Spencer, Founder & President, Netconcepts
George Aspland, Founder & President, eVision, LLC
Lee Odden, President, TopRank Online Marketing

Blog Monetization: From Soup to Nuts

Stephan Spencer — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:08:03 +0000

Get the nuts-and-bolts of how to turn a blog into a “profit center” - generating wildly positive ROI by making sales, attracting leads, and generating ad and affiliate revenue. Our panel of expert money-making bloggers will share step-by-step advice, most profitable tricks of the trade, pitfalls, hazards, resources required.

Learn…

Learn how to diversify and supercharge your blog’s revenue streams
Leverage others’ blogs for your own gain
Maximize your blog’s search visibility and traffic

Moderator:
Stephan Spencer, President, Netconcepts

Panelists:
Jeremy Schoemaker, Founder, ShoeMoney Media
Duane Forrester, Senior Program Manager (SEO), Microsoft, and author of How to Make Money with Your Blog
Steve Spangler, CEO, Steve Spangler Science
Chloe Spencer, Blogger, Neopets Fanatic.com

Search Engine Optimization, SEM & New Media

Stephan Spencer — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:00:44 +0000

Panelists:
Brian Clark, Copyblogger
Michael Gray, Atlas Web Service
Lee Odden, TopRank
Stephan Spencer, Netconcepts

Link Building Basics

Patricia Fusco — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:28:39 +0000

Discover how search engines rely on link analysis as an important component for rank web pages. Learn also how to increase traffic to your site by building quality links in an appropriate manner.

Moderator:
Mike Grehan, Global KDM Officer, Acronym Media

Speakers:
Michael Gray, President, Atlas Web Service
Jeff Quipp, President & CEO, Search Engine People
PJ Fusco, Natural Search Director, Netconcepts
Jody Farmer, VP, Strategic Marketing, CreditCards.com

Social Media Tips and Tricks

Netconcepts — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:03:15 +0000

Interviewed by Jim Hedger of Metamend, Stephan Spencer, founder & president of Netconcepts, recaps a few tips, and tricks from his session at SES Toronto 2008. If you missed this powerful session at SES, learn some nuggets of useful link building tricks from one of the masters.

View the full video interview here.

Link Building Strategies for Internet Retailers

Netconcepts — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:06:12 +0000

In this video Stephan Spencer, Netconcepts President & Founder is interviewed at the Internet Retailer conference by Get Elastic about Link Building strategies for online retailers. How can your organization increase PageRank to interior pages? Does a link building initiative mean building links only to your home page? What is ‘PageRank sculpting‘, and how can it impact a website?

To view the video interview and learn more on this topic, go here.

SEO: How Creative Link Building Can Multiply Site Traffic

Patricia Fusco — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:13:09 +0000

The right links are fuel for a retail web site’s search engine rankings. But building the right links is among the most difficult, misunderstood and poorly executed aspects of search engine optimization. There are two kinds of links that retailers should focus on to improve such rankings. Links from an e-retailer’s product page to other relevant product pages within the site—with relevant, as judged by the search engine spider, being the keyword—is one type. But a retailer can’t just put a bunch of links on a site to achieve a higher rank without taking into account whether the links achieve business goals. Such links must make merchandising and business sense, otherwise they will interfere with the shopper’s experience and possibly have a deleterious effect on a retail site. The second kind of link is links coming into a site from external sources, which retailers have a lot less control over. A link from a hunting magazine to an outdoor retail site is a link from an authoritative external site and those kinds of links can boost a retailer’s search rankings. But they are much harder to achieve because they require persuading the outside site to link to the retailer’s site, a mostly manual process. This session will examine criteria for evaluating a link’s value, creative link building strategies, link building dos and don’ts, and how to leverage affiliates and social media content. It will tell attendees how seemingly innocent practices can undermine a search engine optimization program and how best practices in search marketing are likely to change in the near future.

Workshop Presenters:
P.J. Fusco, Senior Consultant, NetConcepts
Mark Kaufman, Associate Vice President, CNet Findability, CNet

Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques

Stephan Spencer — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:24:29 +0000

Want to learn how to build a database of high-value link acquisition targets? Want to know how to get on the radar of nonprofits, government and university departments and compel them to give you some of that sweet, authoritative link love? Want to learn the most coveted secrets to “buying” the links the engines would never consider a “paid link?” This, along with non-traditional link sources, linking strategies and nofollow PageRank “scuplting” or “siloing” are covered in the session.

Moderator:
Greg Boser, President/CEO, 3 Dog Media

Speakers:
Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, Netconcepts
Jay Young, Owner, Link Fish Media, Inc.

Tuesday, June 3rd - Day 1
10:45am - 12:00pm

Secrets for Getting More & Better Links for Higher Search Rankings

Stephan Spencer — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:42:32 +0000

Keyword-rich contextually relevant text links are like fuel for your web site’s search engine rankings. Without good links, you are relegated to the bottom of the search results heap. Link building is arguably the most difficult; the most misunderstood and poorly executed aspect to SEO. In this session, you will learn criteria for evaluating a link’s value, creative link building strategies, link buying do’s and don’ts, how to approach webmasters, how to leverage your affiliates, how social media can be leveraged to build links, dangerous tactics, and more!

Moderator: Stephan Spencer, Founder & President, Netconcepts

Panelists:
Neil Patel, Chief Technology Officer, Advantage Consulting Services
Seth Besmertnik, CEO, LinkExperts
Rhea Drysdale, Online Marketing Director, Less Everything

Integrated Email Marketing and Online Communications

Jacqui Jones — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:00:24 +0000

Is your email marketing right on target?
Do you want to improve open rates and conversion rates?
Do your customers view your email communications as spam?
Do you know how to use RSS and blogging to complement your email marketing and online communication efforts?

The value of email marketing in New Zealand has been growing steadily over the years. Not surprisingly email marketing and online communications are the most popular media of choice now, particularly email marketing.

Email is a powerful marketing tool and it integrates well with traditional media. It spurs immediate action, thus generating direct sales, registrations, growth of database and more. It is also more cost effective than paper-based direct mail and achieves greater ROI. However, it is wrought with challenges. And with the passing of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act, it’s important for organisations to ensure compliance whilst developing their marketing plans.

Integrated Email Marketing and Online Communications takes a practical approach to ensure continued acquisition, growth and retention of customers through targeted, robust, tried and tested strategies to help lift your email marketing strategies. To help you gain the upper hand over your competition, the course also covers some popular online communications tools that you could implement to supplement your email marketing strategy.

DAY ONE
Digital Communications — Email Marketing, Online and Offline Media
Customers today have more choice available than ever before of how they are communicated with. Customers ultimately want to control the frequency, the content and how they receive their communications. This session covers how email fits within the full marketing mix and how it integrates with other online and offline media.

What are digital communications?
How do digital communications fit within the full marketing mix?
Marketing through email, RSS, blogging, txt, websites
Platforms – desktop computers, mobile devices
Integration with other online media
Integration with offline direct marketing

Developing an Email Strategy
Many companies spend a lot of time, effort and budget acquiring email addresses, but neglect to develop an effective communication strategy once they have them. You’ll learn to develop strategic communication plans to maximise the potential for robust marketing strategies through this session.

Developing the digital communication strategic plan
Objectives, strategies and tactical elements
Understanding the email marketing and digital communications
process
How to integrate email marketing into other online and offline media

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act: Your Legal Obligations
Understand and ensure that your organisation meets the requirements of the Electronic Messages Act 2007.

Definition of spam
Definition of permission levels
Permission vs. memorable permission
Industry guidelines and best practices
How will the Act affect your marketing plans?
What are the penalties and costs associated with breaches?
How tight is the current legislation – what are the ways around it?
How to ensure compliance
International spam laws – do they apply to companies in NZ?

Data Management: Building and Maintaining a List
Data is at the heart of any form of direct marketing including “email”. It pays to identify the data that you need to collect in order to personalise communications and provide effective reporting.

Structuring your database – what type of data do you need?
What are the reporting data requirements?
“Quantity” vs. “Quality” – retaining the active subscriber
Cleaning and maintaining data – changes, adds, deletes, fixing misspellings
What is “provable permission” – recording and time stamping of permission received
“Offline permission” – how to record permission granted through the call centre, trade shows, network meeting and face-to-face sales activity
Managing permission across an organisation

In-House or Outsource – Assessing Email Service Providers
Finding the right email service provider is a critical choice for any company. You will explore and learn ways to find the right vendor and technology to manage your campaigns now and into the future through this session.

How to assess your needs
Questions you should be asking
Assessing email service providers in NZ and overseas
Liaising with your email service provider

DAY TWO
Winning Creative Strategies & Execution for Email
Create email messages that stand out, get read and get the response you plan for.

“Memorable permission” – planning content your subscribers actually want to read
Exploring the 19 creative elements (the from line – email brand value, the subject line, the preview pane, position of logo, ratio of text to images, design layout, number and type of links, navigation bar, inclusion of photography, feature offers, location of call-to-action, the words you use and personalisation etc.)
Email mandatories
What are the technical specifications?
Designing effective landing pages and forms
Use of rich media – video and audio
Eyetracking and multivariate testing

Increasing Conversion Rates
This session covers how to use data to improve conversions such as open rates, click rates, inquiries and sales.

Reporting data
Behavioural targeting
Event triggered campaigns

Deliverability, Filters and Rendering
Learn techniques to avoid the dreaded “spam” folder and “report spam” button.

Data collection and tracking
Filters and list management
Deliverability reporting codes – messages sent back from ISPs
About false positives
Whitelisting – how to get your message delivered every single time
Image suppression – what’s getting delivered?
Authentication and reputation
Rendering your message in email readers

RSS – Spam Free Communications
Is RSS the holy grail of online communications? Lean how to send communications that are completely spam free.

What is RSS and why use it?
What are some of the popular RSS readers available?
iRSS – individualized RSS, sending personalised communications just like email
Content distribution and syndication

Blogging – Participating in the Ongoing Conversation

The New Zealand and international blogospheres
Starting a blog - how to choose a theme
Posting content – what, how, when
Dealing with comments
Making friends – increase your presence in the blogosphere
Integrating your blog with email and RSS
Use of video (vlogging) and audio (podcasting)
Reporting on performance