It’s a common question: what is difference in Websites and Web Applications.
There’s an often misunderstood distinction in the IT world between Web sites and Web applications:
» A Web site is typically designed for casual or infrequent usage by individuals who often do not know, or do not even want to know, too much about the deeper mission of your organization.
»A Web application, such as an HR Intranet or portal that a company provides to its employees, is a very different system that must be optimized for a different use case.
Tim McLaughlin (computerworld.com) has written a good description on what is the difference in Websites and Web Applications.
It’s important to make a clear distinction between Web sites and Web applications for three reasons:
To define what the site or system is optimized to do
To identify how the user is going to approach the features that are being made available
To pinpoint which specific use cases your designers and developers must create and test
For Web sites, consider that most users are coming through a search engine or by browsing the Web. If they are not able to quickly and easily find what they’re looking for, they usually take off. The most common example would be a marketing focused, “brochure” Web site. Casual site visitors like to ease into getting to know your company and will rarely take the time to learn all of your products in their first interaction with your site.
Designing an interface that is easy to browse and navigate should be a high priority. Marketing Web sites that are difficult to navigate, or those that have poor search interfaces, experience high abandon rates, poor pull-through and fail to meet marketing goals.
Web applications are different in that their users are likely coming with a very specific goal in mind. Taking the HR portal example a bit further, consider that some of your HR staff believes that employees like to browse the HR resources available to them. Based on that assumption, they design a content-rich Web site that offers company information, articles of interests, special employee discounts, etc. In fact, the more likely scenario is that employees only tap the HR Intranet when they have to fill out a vacation request, or to update their benefits information, etc. Because these activities are performed less frequently, it’s important that they be optimized for usability.
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It’s a common question for Internet marketers that- Where should I place Google ads on my pages?
The answer lies in “Heat Map”. The concept is based on -identifying the place on the webpage where visitors click most as their eye sight concentrate on those locations. A map is generated based on the data of user clicks. This is called Heat Map. This heat map suggests which are the most clickable regions on a particular web page.
Read a good article on “Google Help” to know -Where should I place Google ads on my pages?
To Analyze your pages, what are the hot & click-able zone on your page, you can use some free and open-source solutions. On of them is ClickHeat from labsmedia.com
Mobile payment methods are becoming more and more popular these days. During last 1 year online games and social networking platforms like facebook have promoted mobile payment methods.
On facebook you can purchase virtual goods paying from your mobile phones.
According to to a research by Justin Smith (Founder, Inside Network) the market on alone virtual goods on the internet was over $1 billion in the year 2009. Different gaming website let you pay through your mobile phones
Mobile payment is becoming more popular due to its fast transaction speed. Over 70% of the global online audience does not have a credit card, but most all of them have a mobile phone. All your user needs is a mobile phone to make a payment.
Its more secured (till now, as no major security breach has been reported ) and more faster than credit card payment system.
The process of mobile payment is as easy as:
1. Enter your mobile number and click on Payment button on any mobile payment enabled site
2. A message pops up in your mobile with the secret pin
3. Enter that pin back to the Text box provided on the same website and you are done
-You will be charged in your next mobile phone bill.
There are different companies emerging these days who provide software and infrastructure for mobile payment to websites and other businesses.
According to Zong :
Zong is the leading mobile payment service used for monetizing Web audiences in the social media and gaming industries. Zong gives you a new way to expand your customer base by providing an easier way to pay. Zong provides frictionless payment service in leading social networking applications, virtual worlds and in online games.
This video will help you understand how fast and easy is mobile payment system-
Zong’s frictionless user experience gets real results. Our customers have seen conversion rates skyrocket after adding Zong as a payment option. No billing address, no expiration date, no 16-digit card number to type. Just type something you know by heart: your mobile number.
Currently Zong is providing services in 26 countries partnering with the mobile service providers of those countries.
Wikipedia has a good article on Mobile Payment that can be read here
According to Paymate:
PayMate lets you link your mobile to an existing bank account, credit card or pre-paid voucher and use your mobile to make secure payments anywhere, anytime!
Features of paymate include
Convenient - Pay online, offline, or from just about anywhere. Secure - 2-factor PIN authentication keeps you in control. Easy - Works on any basic mobile handset or operator. Free – PayMate’s services are free with no hidden costs!
MCheck [http://www.mchek.com] is another Mobile payment system provider in India.
These are few other mobile payment and allied service providers:
The online media has huge potential and can take your business to greater heights. With the right mix of latest online marketing trends, quality resources, expertise and a well-drafted marketing road map, you can turn the Internet into a highly efficient medium.
We, at Nirvana Canada, understand the importance of the Internet and what power internet marketing can do for your business. It can only expand your business to remotest of areas but also bring you instant feedback.
We offer a wide range of online marketing services – SE0 (Search Engine Optimization), SEM (Search Engine Marketing), Keyword Research, E-mail marketing, Social Media, Pay per Click and much more to provide you with best solution to match your needs for brand promotion.
The advantage of online marketing for a business is the ability to track, measure, monitor, test and improve the results of your campaigns in real time as frequently as you want..Even if you are only interested in local sales, your customers are on the web, and they will expect to see you there. There are many ways to market your business; the key is to find what is right for your target audience. As a business owner or entrepreneur you are always looking for opportunities to capture your audience. If you are a small business with limited budget internet marketing offers an affordable price and great platforms such as Google Analytics to measure the efficiency of results.
Nirvana Canada can help you decide which online medium or strategy is best for your business with our expert consultation. We want to share our time with you to learn about your business so we can help you find the best solution for your internet marketing approach.
Your website is one of the most integral parts of marketing and promoting your organization. Consumers expect to be able to find information about your organization and/or product online. Website design and layout can and will significantly impact the impression these potential customers have of your business. A strategically-designed, customer-oriented website can reach a global market and introduce your business to consumers who were once way beyond your reach.
With the consumer base shifting to the virtual medium, businesses have found a more expansive market and wider reach in the form of Internet. The online medium is slowly getting stalwart importance in comparison to the other forms of advertising.
Today, internet is not confined to the nerds or to the younger generation. From kids to grown ups to the experienced lot, everyone is online! Unlike the puritan times, people not only surf online for information, emailing or chatting but also for buying. There has been a steady increase in the buying behavior of online surfers.
The staggering current trends of online marketing reveal that there are nearly 90% online surfers who use search engines on daily basis. Out of these, there are as many as 60% who surf online for product information, product reviews and even for booking online. Hence, going online is always a beneficial move!
In addition, today online businesses are using the Web 2.0 platform for enhancing user interactivity on the business sites. This results in a direct increase of relevant traffic to their sites. Hence, there has been an increase in user interactive features like Online Video-Voice Chat, Question and Answers, Blogs, Forums, User Reviews, Product Articles, Product Photo and Video Sharing and much more.
With the expansion of social networks and inclusion of business profiles and open online business promotion through social media and B2B listings, more and more businesses are eying the local as well as global market as per their niche market and demands.
Hence, the next time you plan to get more eyes and ears for your product or service and also manage instant feedback, get a quick website or start promoting your business using your favorite online social networks. Good Luck!
The increasing number of social networks has resulted in ‘more options than solutions’ for the online businesses. The businesses looking to explore the many facets of online marketing find themselves entangled in some irrelevant social networking site or the other.
With the overcrowding of the social media zone, it is important that we understand the relevance of each social network with respect to our business. Each social network is unique in its offering and has certain significance in terms of networking and grouping of like-minded and dependent groups online.
The relevance of social media can be understood by the following socialnomics video:
Following is a brief analysis of 5 major social networking sites on the Internet:
Twitter
Twitter is the least time-consuming and easiest of all current social networks. It not only has a staggering followership but everyone on the planet wants to be on Twitter and wants to be followed too! All you have are 140 characters to tell your story, talk about your last minute or even sell your product! Now, that’s new age micro-blogging for you!
Facebook
Facebook is a more sophisticated social network with older social networking players hooting for the best e-social applications in the form of FarmVille, Mafia Wars and what not! With popularization of Facebook, there are not just grown-ups and students using it but kids, middle aged and practically everyone wants to be part of Facebook.
YouTube
Business! Business! Business! Social Networking seems to be a misfit on You! Tube. You! Tube is a more category-oriented platform and hence networking can go take a walk while businesses enjoy promoting their corporate videos, product videos, advertisements, viral ads and commercials on You! Tube.
Linked In
After the huge ongoing success of social networking; professional networking hits a bull’s eye with Liked In. The first of its kind professional networking site brings together young and established professionals, businesses, business owners, service providers and entrepreneurs on the same platform. to share knowledge, showcase skills and experience, network for professional interest, for job posting and job hunting as well.
My Space
My Space is for a younger generation. Therefore, businesses whose products or services target the younger audience extensively use MySpace.
Here’s an additional video to help you get a better insight into why and how social media can help your business ride the ROI acceleration graph. It’s also an introduction to Dan Zarella’s latest social media book. Here’s a look:
Therefore, it is important to make an appropriate selection of social media network which compliments both your target audience as well as target region. We will discuss about the regional importance of social networks in our coming posts.
Today, internet is not confined to the nerds or to the younger generation. From kids to grown ups to the experienced lot, everyone is online! Unlike the puritan times, people not only surf online for information, emailing or chatting but also for buying. There has been a steady increase in the buying behavior of online surfers.
