in the meantime, on other blogs....

The fact that I didn't write here for a while doesn't mean that I'm not online anymore - I've been a little busy with other projects, among which are:

• Stefanm link collection - see the cool projects section - maybe you can suggest some interesting nice projects that are either start-ups or simply nice&cool!
• Blog Sparksdirect - for my work, I write almost every day! Recently we had the Lutron Breakfast Morning, or the wireless doorphone / intercom for homes, or the WiseDIM - pretty cool wireless dimming control over the lights!
  
• About Things - things to be said about things, little opinions here and there - like: about the crazy world we live in, examples of online and offline spam, about the google sidewiki, or even - my sister's keeper + this is life/live!
• A normal Believer - interesting stuff about the meaning of our Christian life, living a life together with Christ, actually: not imitating Christ, but living Christ!
• Blog Sparksdirect on Wordpress: about lights - one of a kind! Introducing the Illuma Lights for walls/ceiling, and: not just dimming, but creating the mood....
• Facebook - a big time-eater, also: twitter - follow me for lots of interesting stuff - or at least to know what's going on with me... ;)
  

Uhm.... yeah, something like that. Writing a little every day. I realized that the articles about the web developing, etc are so many - and my time is so limited, so I just scan-read them, and then apply them.... maybe at another time I'll keep compiling them and posting the main points on this blog....

effective article writing tips - article reviews

Via SiteSketch101 I found this interesting article - 10 Elements of Highly Effective Articles, in which there are 10 principles of the good and well written articles out on the internet and not only.
Here’s the bottom line: If you want to keep a majority of your visitors then you have to be able to produce amazing articles. Period.

10 Elements of Highly Effective Articles

1. They Use Proper Grammar
2. They Don’t Contain Jargon
3. They Relate Personal Experiences
4. They Demonstrate Humor
5. They Use Stories to Convey Truths
6. They Can Be Read in One Sitting
7. They Call Readers to Act
8. They Call Readers to Interact
9. They Provide Vital Information
10. They Are Organized
    

Read the entire article online - more details about some of the elements of highly effective articles.

use twitter for employment branding - tips - article reviews

Interesting article: Using Twitter for Employment Branding? 15 Things Recruiters Can Tweet About... via afistfulloftalent.

Using Twitter will only work if you've got a kicking brand already - you can't buy this stuff and you can't make any of it up. If you think you're ready to jump in though, here are some simple ideas to get you going:

• Employee programs.
• Link to blog posts, articles and other thought leadership pieces written by your staff.
• Post photos from your corporate events
• Company press releases...
• Link to your job postings.
• Interview/selection process.
• Bad candidates.
• Good candidates.
• Events + appearances. Recruiting events, conferences, other speaking engagements.
• Offers and new hires.
• Career advice.
• Did someone else mention your company in a tweet?
• Non-work activities.
• Other digital networking tools.
• Other employees on Twitter

Of course, some of these ideas apply to other companies or small business besides the employment ones.... so they may help you...

how to improve (reduce) the bounce rate and increase the conversion rate - article reviews

Nowadays lowering bounce rates and increasing conversion rates are two or rather one (as both are closely tied together) of the main tasks that modern SEO is about. The bounce rate is the rate that the visitors on the site leave the site, either by closing the page or just by leaving it inactive and eventually losing it. The Conversion rate is the rate of converting visitors into customers/friends/users/registered users.

30 Simple Ways of Improving Bounce Rate and Conversion Rate

1. 1. traffic (Get “targeted” traffic, Optimize for one main keyword or phrase, Use Twitter to gain a following, etc)
2. 2. visitor intent(informational, commercial, social - identify, split, create funnel, ask people, conversion attribution)
3. 3. usability (the topic of the page in the title, call to action visible buttons, allow white spaces, etc)
4. 4. landing page optimization (create specific landing pages for organic traffic, add signs of trust, divide the page in steps, remove pitfalls, etc)
5. 5. a/b split testing (test versions of the landing pages / call to action wordings, test colours / text sizes, test at different times, etc)
   

All these are just "the tip of the iceberg" - so you have to read this article online via seoptimise website - 30 Simple Ways of Improving Bounce Rate and Conversion Rate.

Learn SEO from your competition, analyze them! Article reviews

Understanding what your competitors are doing online is a must and absolute priority when launching a new website that is entering a competitive space and also when established websites want to keep an eye on their competition. In this article via searchenginejournal, there are some interesting tips on how to learn even from your competition:

SEO Competitive Intelligence: learn from your SEO rivals

• Identifying the Competition
  - Affiliate sites are your competition
  - Offline competitors
• On-Site Competitive Intelligence
  - Site URL Structure
  - Site Development and Coding Structure
  - Use of Analytics
  - The directory files and URL structures of listings pages
  - Page Title and META Title Review
  - META Tag Review (Description / Keywords)
  - Navigational System Review
  - Broken Links
  - HTML Code Validity
  - Design & SEO Integration
• Offsite Competitive SEO Elements
  - Local Listings
  - Number of Inbound Links
  - Linkbait or Viral Marketing
  - Social Media
  - Blogging
  - Paid Link Research
  - Site visits and Traffic
  - Page Rank and other Metrics
  - Competitive Rankings
  

These bullet points are just the titles/ideas - read more in this thorough article via sej about some SEO Competitive Intelligence: learn from your SEO rivals

give your blog the quality it deserves - wordpress tips - article reviews

Though it was written almost a week ago, this article is quite helpful and interesting, so I was thinking to at least mention it here:

10 WordPress ‘HOW-TO’ to Give Your Blog the Quality it Deserves

1. 1. How to disable scripts and styles
2. 2. Display Thumbnails For Related Posts in Wordpress
3. 3. A Custom Read More
4. 4. Get the first image from the post automatically and display it
5. 5. How to Highlight Search Terms with jQuery
6. 6. Display Latest Posts by Category Archive
7. 7. Only Show Posts With a Specific Custom Field
8. 8. Find Page’s Top Level Parent ID
9. 9. List latest posts from certain category
10. 10. Add Breadcrumbs to WordPress Without a Plugin
    

There are so many interesting yet simple tips to help you bring more quality to the wordpress blog - in this article from noupe there are 10 of them listed.

About the corporate blog designs, trends and principles - article reviews

I put aside this article for too long - now when I went thru it, though I didn't go thru all the list of corporate websites with blogs, I still enjoyed reading it, seeing some principles and some trends of the corporate blogs. Guess what: I'm also working on such a blog and, as it is specified in the purpose of the corporate blogs, there are more than 1 goal for the corporate blogging. Anyways, let's read more about

Corporate Blog Design: Trends And Examples

Purposes of Corporate Blogs

1. 1. Communication with customers and the public
2. 2. Demonstration of corporate responsibility
3. 3. Reputation management
4. 4. Promotion of products and services
5. 5. Provide executives and/or employees the chance to communicate openly
   

Potential Issues for Corporate Blogs

1. 1. Negative comments
2. 2. Consistent and frequent posting
3. 3. Usefulness of posts
4. 4. Who is going to write the content?
5. 5. Promoting open communication without damaging the company
6. 6. Lack of focus
7. 7. Converting traffic into something useful
   

Trends in Corporate Blogs

1. 1. Simple layout, with a lack of visual appeal; Going against the trend.
2. 2. Branding
3. 3. Multiple authors
4. 4. Networks of blogs
5. 5. Few comments
6. 6. No ads except for internal ads
7. 7. Links to the company’s home page as well as products and services
8. 8. Separate domains
   

And last, but not the least - actually it is the longest section of this article - view a Gallery of Corporate Blogs. Very impressive collection of corporate blogs of well-known companies, and very useful article - Corporate Blog Design: Trends And Examples - via smashingmagazine.