History of April Fools Day - Video Blog

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhVCTkpVX2Y?rel=0]
Video Produced By: Jeremiah Warren

April Fools' Day is celebrated in many countries on April 1 every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, April 1 is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when people play practical jokes and hoaxes on each other. In Italy, France and Belgium, children and adults traditionally tack paper fishes on each other's back as a trick and shout "April fish!" in their local languages (pesce d'aprile!, poisson d'avril! and aprilvis! in Italian, French and Flemish, respectively). Such fish feature prominently on many French late 19th to early 20th century April Fools' Day postcards.The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness is an ambiguous reference in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392). Many writers suggest that the restoration of January 1 by Pope Gregory XIII as New Year's Day of the Gregorian Calendar in the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, sometimes questioned for earlier references. Origins Precursors of April Fools' Day include the Roman festival of Hilaria, held March 25, and the Medieval Feast of Fools, held December 28, still a day on which pranks are played in Spanish-speaking countries. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392), the "Nun's Priest's Tale" is set Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two. Modern scholars believe that there is a copying error in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote, Syn March was gon.[5] Thus, the passage originally meant 32 days after April, i.e. May 2, the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, which took place in 1381. Readers apparently misunderstood this line to mean "March 32", i.e. April 1. In Chaucer's tale, the vain cock Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox. In 1508, French poet Eloy d'Amerval referred to a poisson d’avril (April fool, literally "April fish"), a possible reference to the holiday. In 1539, Flemish poet Eduard de Dene wrote of a nobleman who sent his servants on foolish errands on April 1. In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the holiday as "Fooles holy day", the first British reference. On April 1, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to "see the Lions washed". In the Middle Ages, up until the late 18th century, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25 (Feast of the Annunciation) in most European towns. In some areas of France, New Year's was a week-long holiday ending on April 1. Many writers suggest that April Fools originated because those who celebrated on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates. The use of January 1 as New Year's Day was common in France by the mid-16th century,[6] and this date was adopted officially in 1564 by the Edict of Roussillon. A study in the 1950s, by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie, found that in the UK and those countries whose traditions derived from there, the joking ceased at midday. But this practice appears to have lapsed in more recent years.

 Source: Wikipedia
Compiled By: Josh Martin

Digital Video Advertising is Set to Take A Bite Out of TV

Digital video advertising in the US is increasing at an eye-popping rate, but TV ad spending will still outpace digital video in dollar growth in 2014, according to new figures from eMarketer. Digital video ad spending will increase 41.9% this year, reaching $5.96 billion, while TV advertising in the US will grow 3.3% to hit $68.54 billion.

Due to the two media’s varied stages of maturity, growth rates between TV, a well-established market, and digital video—more recent on the scene, but becoming increasingly prominent—will trend in different directions. The uptick in usage on digital devices is an important contributor to growth in ad spending for these sectors, but by no means will carry enough momentum to overtake the TV market in the near future.

A more comparable statistic for the two markets is the amount of ad dollars each platform will add each year. Despite digital video’s astronomical rise percentagewise, eMarketer projects that TV will add more new dollars this year—$2.19 billion more than 2013, compared with a $1.76 billion increase in digital video ad spending. In addition, we estimate that TV will continue to outpace digital video in dollar growth through 2018. In 2016, for example, our projections show TV almost doubling the amount of new dollars going to digital video channels, due chiefly to advertising surrounding the upcoming US presidential election that year.

“The digital video audience is spread more thinly than a mass television audience, and that segmentation makes digital video ad buys more complex and less reliable than TV advertising,” said David Hallerman, principal analyst at eMarketer. “Time spent with digital video is growing significantly, and it’s taking away some TV time, but given the diversity of placements and platforms, digital video viewers are more difficult for advertisers to target.”

Furthermore, Hallerman added, “much of the time audiences spend with digital video is not useful for advertisers. Some of that is when they view clips that are either too short or not brand friendly. But it’s also because more and more digital video content is streamed through subscription services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video—neither of which supports advertising.”

Similar to the reasons that TV is still outpacing digital video ad spending, online video remains well ahead of ad investments in video programming on smartphones and tablets—for the time being. Overall, eMarketer estimates that online video ad spending—that is, ad spending primarily on desktop-based ads—will total $4.52 billion in 2014, or 75.8% of digital video ad spending, vs. $1.44 billion for video ad spending on tablets and smartphones. By 2018, those figures will draw more closely together, when online will still slightly outspend mobile video—$6.64 billion to $6.07 billion.

Video ad spending on connected TVs—devices such as set-top boxes, smart TVs and gaming consoles, for example—is accounted for in the “online” portion of video ad spending in eMarketer’s definition, which partially accounts for the growth there in contrast to our mobile category. As desktop advertising declines in favor of tablet and smartphone advertising, connected TVs will help pick up slack in the “online” category. According to eMarketer’s latest forecast, 113.2 million US consumers, or nearly 60% of digital video viewers, will use connected TVs in 2014. By 2018, that figure is projected to reach 90.0% of digital video viewers.

“As audiences find it easier and easier to watch internet-sourced content on their TVs, and as more and more content compels them to watch, the connected TV universe will offer marketers a unique blend of digital interactivity and TV’s big-screen power,” said Hallerman.

eMarketer bases all of its forecasts on a multipronged approach that focuses on both worldwide and local trends in the economy, technology and population, along with company-, product-, country- and demographic-specific trends, and trends in specific consumer behaviors. We analyze quantitative and qualitative data from a variety of research firms, government agencies, media outlets and company reports, weighting each piece of information based on methodology and soundness.

In addition, every element of each eMarketer forecast fits within the larger matrix of all of its forecasts, with the same assumptions and general framework used to project figures in a wide variety of areas. Regular re-evaluation of each forecast means those assumptions and framework are constantly updated to reflect new market developments and other trends.

Data Sources:
emarketer.com

8 Things Your Doing Wrong In Google Adwords

1.  Choosing the Wrong Keywords

Many advertisers think there's no harm in having countless keywords in their campaigns just to cover their bases, but this is false logic. First of all, having too many non-performing keywords in your campaign can actually bring your overall campaign down, which in turn can lead to increased expenses to generate the same results.

Second of all, if you focus on only choosing keywords that generate clicks but no conversions, you're helping Google make a tidy sum off of you without helping yourself.

Lastly, certain words with multiple meanings might also bring down your campaign performance if the ad is served a lot but not clicked or could lead to wasted expense. Take for example the word "windows." In the example below, an ad for Microsoft Windows (software) appears among all other ads for glass windows for a building. Perhaps this ad is appropriately located (and if you have the advertising budget of Microsoft, you probably don't care), but also considering that Microsoft Windows has the No. 1 free organic search ranking on Google, perhaps it's an unnecessary placement.

2. Writing Bad or Boring Ad Copy

You might be surprised at how artful writing only 95 characters of ad copy can be. Unlike the below example, make sure you give the searcher a compelling reason to click your ad.

Some AdWords copywriting tips include:

• a headline with specific content, messaging or an offer
• use of your keyword somewhere in the ad copy
• a persuasive call to action like "Save now," "Buy our..." or "Register here"

3. Not Fully Understanding or Using All Campaign Set-up Options

Google makes basic campaign set-up easy, but they don't necessarily expose all the different ways you can configure and manipulate your campaign to help improve results. Educate yourself on the use of these features to get more results for the same or less money:

• AdGroups--the grouping of like or objective-related keywords into a group so you can impose campaign controls at the Group level
• Ad targeting--there are so many fabulous ways to target better through AdWords--by keyword (of course), by geography, by time of day ("day-parting"), by content, by mobile users--take time to become familiar with all of the targeting methods so you can optimize your campaign and maximize your budget
• Match types--match types tell Google under what conditions of a search query to serve your ad. There are five main types of match types: Broad, Broad Modifier, Phrase, Exact, and Negative. Get familiar with how each type works to improve your campaign.
• Keyword insertion--with keyword insertion, Google inserts your select keyword into your ad text on-the-fly to try to make it more relevant for the user. You typically see this with big box retailer ads, for example:

• Ad Extensions--Don't be limited by 95 characters any longer! With Ad Extensions you can get more links and expose more about your advertised product or service to your prospective buyer.

4. Not Implementing Conversion Tracking

 Without conversion tracking, you probably don't have a clear sense of which keywords are generating desired actions for campaign success. Google provides conversion tracking code for free. 

5. Not Tying Your Conversion Tracking Into Your Google Analytics

 Speaking of free, Google Analytics is one of the most powerful marketing tools out there, and it too is free. As a bonus, if you connect your AdWords conversion tracking to your Google Analytics, you can see all kinds of data your campaign is generating.

6. Unnecessarily Over-paying for Positioning

Most Google advertisers understand that AdWords is a live, 24/7 auction by keyword--the cost of your click is influenced by what all advertisers bidding on it are willing to pay. When you have a well-optimized campaign, chances are you don't have to pay top dollar to capture the first ad position...and nor does the number one position always suit you, the advertiser, best. You need to understand how the entire AdWords marketplace works, including Google's Quality Score, and how to best manage your campaign by keyword or goal.

7. Sending All the Traffic to Your Website's Homepage

Most campaigns benefit from driving traffic to unique "landing pages" where the searcher can more easily connect with the information they seek, rather than dumping them onto the homepage of your website and hoping they find what they came to your site for.

8. Not Conducting A/B Split Tests

Split testing allows you to serve two different versions of ad copy for the same keyword, or to take visitors to two different landing pages, all so you can test if one version of ad copy or landing page clearly outperforms another.

If you're managing your AdWords campaign yourself, it will be easier for you to tackle these fixes one at a time than all at once. Along the way, see how they improve your campaign performance...but don't forget to capture baseline performance metrics so you have something to judge against!

History of Wrapping Paper - How to Wrap Video

Video Produced By: Real Simple How To

History of Wrapping Paper: Before gifts were thought of being wrapped and put under a tree for children, kids would get a stocking (sock) of theirs, (the biggest they had) and find it filled on Christmas morning with fruit, candy, and perhaps a small toy.
In the early Victorian years gifts were wrapped in white tissue paper. Bows were made from snippets of ribbon and lace that could be found lying around the house. Sometimes paper pictures from a greeting card were added as extra decorations for wrapping. Even a piece of outside greenery was added to the gift box. By 1903 gift wrapping was quite popular and in fashion, so the first printed wrapping paper was made which had green holly printed on it. Printed Christmas wrapping paper was actually developed by accident. Stores were selling white, red, and green tissue paper and selling out very quickly. The Hall brothers began to print their own and soon sales were as high as their greeting card business, hence, Hallmark card company. By the 1920's DuPont was making cellophane for decorative gift wrap and packaging material for food. Today gifts under your Christmas tree can be found wrapped in many different ways, styles, and kinds of paper. Papers and bows of all kinds of material are used, and toppings for the gifts can be anything like; another gift, Christmas tree ornaments, bows, flowers, candy, or greenery. Today neatly wrapped Christmas gifts can be seen in all corners of a room, some under the tree, on a sofa, on a mantel, stacked up high, or in a neat and decorative pile on the floor.

Perhaps You would Enjoy: The History of The Christmas Tree
Source: Love To Sew
Compiled By: Josh Martin

K900 Ushers In An Era Of Luxury And Affordability

The 2015 Kia K900 sedan gives you much of the spaciousness, luxury and technology of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Kia does it for $66,000, fully equipped, when the S-Class starts at $95,000. Kia provides the industry’s slickest and most useful blind spot detection by placing additional indicators in the head-up display. You can get ventilated, reclining rear seats. This is a car to watch.

Not all of the $15K-30K difference in price between the K900 and a full-size Audi, BMW or Mercedes is the markup possible — “gouging” is such a blunt term — from building a high-status car. Germany’s big three build cars that handle as well at the extreme. They've been building cockpit controllers for a decade and still have no handle on what works. The K900 cockpit fit and finish goes the extra distance.

 The K900 is the sister ship to Hyundai’s Equus, the K900 is a rear-drive, 420-hp V-8–powered luxury barge that indicates its maker’s ambitions. Expanding on established Kia styling themes, it’s a muscular four-door stuffed with leather, wood trim, and electronic amusements. The steering is responsive and the suspension is on point. The K900 is a value compared with its more-expensive competitors in full-size luxury, we’d rather spend less for a car that is better...

 Compiled By:
Josh Martin

 Sources:
extremetech.com 
caranddrive.com

Social Media Contest - Tips And Tricks

Social media contests can be very successful for your business if your goal is to increase your fan base, increase engagement or increase your email subscribers. Since email conversions are much higher than social media conversions, smart marketers like to create contests that capture people’s email addresses. This way, they can follow up with them later on and inform them about news and specials.

I had the opportunity to work with Out And About Marketing and help them execute their #SochiDailyGiveaway contest. Winning a pair of skis or snowboards during the Olympics sounds like a great hook for passionate skiers and boarders – exactly the audience Squaw Valley wants to attract.

It’s no secret snow has not been great in Lake Tahoe this year. Despite the lack of snow, interest and participation in the contest has been through the roof. After all, this ski resort did everything right with the social media contest. The incentive, the prize, the urgency, the timing and the viral sharing were all put into place with the contest. The social media vendor used for the contest was Heyo, a very affordable yet solid solution and one that I consistently recommend to my partners.

The results of the contest so far have been outstanding:
In summary, here are 7 tips to make a social media contest successful:

- 6,975 new likes

- 30% email conversion rate

1. Make it relevant to your audience

2. Timing is everything

3. Keep it simple for people to enter

4. Make sure it’s mobile optimized

5. Come up with incentives guaranteed to get people to act

6. Capture their email addresses

7. Make it shareable to increase reach

Market Note: Social media is playing a major role in accelerating the decision cycle of consumers who patronize ski resorts. As a result, one of the country's largest such companies -- Vail Resorts -- has abandoned its long-time advertising strategies and practices. In their place, the billion-dollar-a-year corporation, which operates five major resorts and twenty hotels, has built a new in-house marketing operation that uses social media and other digital venues to constantly engage skiing enthusiasts in real time. CEO Rob Katz explains the dramatic changes.

Simple Tips To Set The Stage For Local SEO In 2015

After Google's most recent local algorithm update, the rules have changed for local SEO. Columnist Greg Gifford discusses how you can do well in local search in 2015.

The year is almost over, and many businesses are starting to look forward to 2015 and discuss their marketing plans. Luckily, David Mihm, the local search guru at Moz, just released his annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey, which helps give us local marketers more insight into which ranking factors matter the most.
The survey shows a definite shift toward more traditional web ranking factors. Last year’s Local Search Ranking Factors survey had Google Places and Citations weighted heavily, but this year’s study shows that on-site signals and links are the most powerful factors.
This shift is consistent with Google’s recent local ranking algorithm update, Pigeon. Many Local SEOs claimed they weren’t hit by Pigeon – but it’s more likely that, because they took a more wholesome approach to local SEO, their sites simply had more authority to begin with.
The most important point we try to hammer home to potential clients is that you can’t fool the nerds at Google. Everything you do, both on and off your site, should be working toward the end goal of making your user experience awesome… not trying to fool Google into placing you higher on search results pages.

So, taking what we’ve been able to figure out about the Pigeon update and adding in the results from the 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors survey, here are two simple tips to help you set the stage for Local Search success in 2015:

1. Be Awesome
2. Earn Awesome Links

Yes, it’s really that simple… but at the same time, it’s really not that easy for local businesses. Take a look at your competitors in your vertical – nearly every website has the same or similar content, and most sites don’t have that many inbound links.

Okay, So How Are You Supposed To Be Awesome?

The best thing you can do for Local Search success in 2015 is to take all the energy you put into trying to fool Google and instead use that energy to make your site better.
Take a long, hard look at your site and look at your competitors’ sites. What can you do to be better? You know that your potential customers will be looking at multiple sites, so make your site the best in your vertical.
Make sure you’re avoiding these common pitfalls – they’re all basic, but we still see far too many sites tripping up on these:

1. No Home Page Content. Your customers (and search engines) need to know what you’re all about. If your home page has a slider/banner and just a few sentences, you need to add more useful content there immediately.
2. Only A Few Sentences On A Page. Your customers (and search engines) are checking your website for useful, relevant information. If you offer a product or service, don’t just say, “We sell X, call us for more information!” Today’s shoppers want immediate information, so you need to pack every page with useful content.
3. Spamming Keywords. Far too many websites rely on this outdated tactic. You’re not going to rank well everywhere in your state simply because you listed out 100 cities separated by commas on your home page. Does that huge list of cities provide useful information for customers? No. Does it help you rank in Google? Definitely not. Get rid of the junk and populate your site with relevant, informative content instead.
4. Awful Title Tags. You’ve got about 500 pixels of width for your title tags; anything longer will be truncated when it’s displayed in search results. The title tag should summarize the page – it shouldn’t be a huge chunk of keywords you’re trying to rank for. Put your primary keyword phrase at the beginning and your business name at the end. If you’ve got 100 keywords stuffed into your title tag, you just look desperate.

Don’t Forget Your Local Optimization

With on-site signals now carrying so much weight, it’s more important than ever to have your local optimization ducks in a row. It won’t do you any good to bang out a ton of citations if your site doesn’t include the local signals that Google expects it to have.
Again, these are old-school basics, but we hardly see any websites correctly optimizing for local areas:

1. Include City/ST in your title tag. Remember, the title tag is incredibly important for optimization, and including your city and state is an important signal for local relevancy.
2. Include City/ST in your H1 heading. It doesn’t have to be the entire heading in and of itself — what’s important here is to include your city and state in the page heading to further show local relevancy.
3. Include City/ST in your content. Far too many sites forget to include City/ST information inside the site content. Optimizing for local search won’t work unless you’re talking about your local area in your content.
4. Include City/ST in your alt text on images. It’s amazing how many times we see sites that don’t include alt text. Remember, Google can’t see what’s in your images, so alt text helps provide a better understanding of your page content. Including City/ST information can really help boost local relevancy.
5. Include City/ST in your URL. If you’ve got the ability to edit your URL structure, try to include your city and state information in your URLs. Again, this can go a long way toward providing a stronger local signal to both customers and Google. Important Note: if you’re going to update your URLs, don’t forget to set up 301 redirects so that the old address is permanently pointed to the new one.

These are all just specific tactics to help with the main goal: to make your site more awesome. Stop thinking about how to make your site rank, and start thinking about how to make your site the best in your niche. That’s how you’re going to get your site to rank better and convert more visitors.

soucre:
SearchEngineLand.com
Greg Gifford