inter:digital strategies

This blog receives very little comment spam. This has a lot to do, I’m sure, with the fact that all comments are moderated. There’s very little motivation to spam a blog which is using comment moderation - after all, it’s not terribly likely that your cialis/viagra spam post will be making it through my very-human filter.

Every once in a while, however, I do receive some kind of comment which is very suggestive of spam - in the form of blatant marketing.

Today, for example, I received the following comment on a follow-up post I wrote about Dumbfind’s advertising program:

I think DumbFind is great, Congrads guys. Check out our recent web portal. Sprinko.com is a Fun way to search the web for news, images, articles, encyclopedia, dictionary and videos. Displays mini site images on all search results for better efficiency and site decision. Sprinko Note is a fast and easy way to paste content and send to an email with one click, no log-in required. Double click on any word and instant definition will pop-up

Now, does this read like sincere commentary? Not especially. It’s certainly not timely - since the original post was written in April of 2006. No, it reads like what I’m going to choose to call marketing spam.

Comment spam seems to be divided into a couple of categories - complete garbage (nonsense words pasted together) and publicity-raising. There’s a whole spectrum between the two, transitioning all the way into some very sincere and well-worded comments which are possibly made purely to get the person’s name or website better known. The challenge can be in identifying that middle-ground where a comment transitions from useful to spam.

This comment I received falls directly into the spam category. Why? Because it doesn’t even make more than a half-hearted effort to reference the post. The 7 word statement which relates to Dumbfind hardly manages to indicate any relationship to my thoughts. There’s no transition of any kind before the author breaks straight into marketing spiel, and no "real person" is associated with the comments.

Interestingly enough, this spam comment is not apparently for links. The comments contained no links; and the url supplied was for the profile of the Sprinko Blogspot account. Overall, a three-click trace to actual reach the Sprinko web portal.

So what has this comment accomplished?

Well, it’s made me aware of the Sprinko.com web portal. I did, in fact, go to the site. It was about what I expected; a fairly generic web portal with a couple uninspiring extra features. I’m not going to take the time to review it in any serious way for two reasons. First, my first impressions are that the site is pretty amateurish. Everything I see is fairly average. Second, I’m not willing to spend a lot of time on a site which uses this kind of marketing technique. My intent, originally, was to write a vitriolic review - but the site doesn’t actually merit that. It’s nothing special, either in a positive or a negative light.

Ultimately, what’s the worse review - a passionate complaint, or a shrug of the shoulders and dismissal?

It’s pretty cool. The sad thing is that I was unable to find myself in any recent news. Of course, given that it appears I was murdered in the late 19th century (according to the Olean Democrat on Tuesday, May 2, 1893,) this is hardly surprising.

Moved and carried that the attorney be instructed to look after the interests of ths city as pertains to the inquest about be held to inquire into the cause of death of Joseph Dolson in the sewer ditch on Laurens street April 28th, 1893.

Yuck! In the sewer ditch? Not too happy about that.

But, my death aside, the whole service is really pretty neat. You can view results in a timeline format, defaulting to sort from oldest to newest. If you’re trying to research, for example, the first mention of a particular technology or first use of a phrase, this could be a fantastic way to delve into the records. If you want to see an overview of a topic and how it was treated differently over time, this is a great resource.

It’s not perfect yet. The biggest hole, which is applicable to any news archive query, is completeness. Although the search is performed across a wide range of historical archives, it’s still missing a lot of information. This is undoubtedly a licensing issue - despite the fact that Google is providing easy access to purchasable content (not giving it away for free; an important distinction), I’m sure many companies see this service as a challenge to their control of information.

That is undoubtedly the reason I didn’t find myself in any recent archives. I know that I appeared in the newspaper in Missoula, Montana, where I grew up, in the 1990’s. No references, however, were in the results to be found. It would appear that my home town paper is not indexed.

This isn’t exactly a surprise. Small Montana papers are hardly one of the first sources Google would be likely to get involved, and, similarly, are a source which it’s unlikely that many of the major newspaper archive indexes they’re searching would have necessarily contracted with. Nonetheless, this leaves a big hole in the archives for small-town history. Local search is left in the lurch, for now.

Of course, your paper might very well be included - there’s no list of sources available, so it’s a bit of a crap shoot.

There are, perhaps, some duplicate content issues to be worked out. The results for this search are a little bit strange. Since these results could well change, I’m providing a screen capture as well so I can point out the fact that the 10 results on this page are all exactly the same.

Thanks to Phillip Lenssen and Barry Schwartz.

Language is an important aspect of optimizing a website. In many cases, the way you pitch your sale is far more important than what you’re saying. You can’t avoid the issue - making certain your visitors understand and remember your site is absolutely critical.

Kevin Potts, of GraphicPush, wrote the other day about making a prospective client remember your pitch. In it, he points out that you can use fancy words, politically savvy speech, and all your business expertise to make your point - but, when it comes right down to it, the most memorable statement might be:

I make your shit look good so it sells more stuff.

Short, to the point, and says what you do.

Your website needs to consider memorability in addition to any other sales pitch. Granted, cursing at your visitors is possibly not the best tack to take. However, grabbing their attention and seizing the opportunity to make certain they’ve noticed you can be the best thing for your business.

So, what about your site can really seize attention? Obviously, there are "better methods" and "not-so-good methods". You could fill your site with pictures of scantily clad bikini vixens. (Ooh, I’m going to catch some "unique traffic" now.) Of course, this may not be the most appropriate way to move custom-designed office furniture. On the other hand, it may be very effective for selling surfing supplies. Considering your market is pretty critical.

It’s an unfortunate truth that being obnoxious is a great way to catch somebody’s attention. Using pop-up ads or slide-in ads, animated ads - any of these will grab the attention of your visitor. They may be very obnoxious, but they can serve the purpose you need. There are good ways and bad ways to implement them all, however. If you are so obnoxious that you chase your visitor away, you’ve lost your market. But, if you give them an easy way to stop what’s bothering them (close advertisements or stop animations), then they’re more likely to let it pass - and you’re one step closer to making a sale.

Remembering your site is one of the reasons a good domain name is critical. If people are struggling to remember your site’s address (What was that url…digitalstrategy.com? Internetstrategies? Digitalinternetstrategies? Hmmmm…) then they’re less likely to come back. A big part of what makes a site successful is being remembered.

But the core of catching attention and keeping it needs to be in the content of your site. Writing text filled with industry buzzwords and technical terms is a great way to make your site disappear from my memory in 30 seconds. A text laced with unfamiliar terms is keyed to be forgotten. Copy which features well-known, common terminology to explain a task will be much more easily remembered.

Getting visitors to your site is a pretty minor part of effective internet marketing - keeping them there and bringing them back are also important challenges.