SEO Werkt!

Een webwinkel exploiteren is geen hobby’tje, maar een serieuze zakelijke onderneming met keiharde verplichtingen naar de consument. De Consumentenautoriteit gaat starters dat duidelijker inpeperen.

Facebook’s mobile risk has turned into an opportunity for application developers. Today, the social network has unveiled a mobile ad unit designed specifically for application makers looking to promote their creations to the 543 million people who access Facebook on mobile each month.

Still currently in testing, the units are called “mobile ads for apps,” and they allow application makers to buy prominent exposure for their apps in the mobile News Feed.

The promoted applications appear alongside organically surfaced app recommendations in a suggested applications box. A click directs people to Google Play or the Apple App Store for download. The units run on a CPC model, so app developers can set a daily budget and bid for clicks through to Apple’s App Store or Google Play. App makers can also specify ad targeting preferences such as region, gender, and age.

Once the new unit is more widely released, it can help Facebook tackle its stock-crumbling problems; shares closed down Tuesday at $20.72. For starters, mobile ads for apps make Facebook far less constrained on the mobile ad front.

The company, which can pretty much only place ads in the mobile News Feed, now has a mobile ad unit that looks nothing like a Sponsored Story — or an ad, for that matter. In fact, the units, sandwiched next to suggested apps, are partially disguised as app recommendations, which means users might not process them like ads and may be more open to seeing them more frequently than Sponsored Stories.

Plus, Facebook is targeting a completely different buyer, which greatly expands the audience who might be interested in paying for exposure on the social network.

The net effect may be that Facebook can serve double or triple the number of ads it shows to each mobile user, and that’s a pretty big deal. In the theory, the social network could jump from making roughly $500,000 a day from mobile ads to making $1 million a day or more by the end of the third quarter. While the additional mobile revenue won’t be enough to magically return the company to a valuation of $100 billion or more, it should provide investors with some proof that Facebook can still make a buck or two from members that skip the web version.

Photo credit: Cienpies Design/Shutterstock

Filed under: social

There are plenty of great Starbucks hacks, but most involve ordering a coffee. If your preference is tea, barista Josh Whittington has posted a few helpful tips over on Quora. For starters, if you actually enjoy the flavor of tea you’ll want to ask Starbucks to avoid watering it down: More »

If you’re interested in starting a new tree from seeds, like a citrus tree or an apple tree, you can always dig a nice hole, drop the seeds in, and hope for good fortune, or you can get creative with a seed starter to help the germination process take hold. This method uses a few old sandwich bags and some napkins to get the seeds started quickly and easily so you can plant them and nurture them later. More »

We wisten het misschien al wel toen we de laatste social media statistieken van Newcom binnenkregen, maar onderzoek onder 1200 Nederlandse studenten en starters bevestigt dat zij het afgelopen jaar massaal Hyves aan de kant hebben geschoven. Gaf in 2011 nog 41% aan actief op Hyves te zitten, nu is dit percentage geslonken naar een schamele 10%. Met deze keldering behoren studenten en starters voorgoed niet langer tot de doelgroep van Hyves. 82% van de respondenten beschikt over een Facebook account. Het aantal gebruikers van dit medium groeide 12% ten opzichte van 2011. Ook LinkedIn maakt een duidelijke groei door, met een stijging van 8% is het percentage actieve gebruikers uitgekomen op 23%. Deze groei wordt voornamelijk veroorzaakt door een toename van gemiddeld 300% onder het aantal 20- en 21-jarigen ten opzichte van 2011. Het Twittergebruik van de studenten is met 27% nagenoeg gelijk gebleven. Lees meer over: Studenten trekken massaal weg bij Hyves.

Tien starters die werden klaargestoomd via de groeiversneller Startupbootcamp presenteerden zich gisteren bij ABN Amro aan een zaal vol gretige investeerders. En daar zaten verrassende ideeën tussen. Maar gaan ze het redden?

Yes, I know, us copywriters are always banging on about the important of proofreading.

And no, I’m not going to claim to be whiter than white in that area. I am human, I make mistakes, but I do my utmost to stop any typos slipping through.

You may have seen this on Facebook recently (it’s appeared in my timeline several times):

Go on, admit it. You had to read it twice, didn’t you?

See how easy it is to let a mistake slip through?

So how can you make sure your typos are spotted before it’s too late?

Two pairs of eyes are better than one

One of the best ways of proofing your work is to get a trusted colleague to read it through for you.

By trusted I mean someone you know who will actually read every word rather than skimming it.

Because they haven’t written it, they are more likely to spot any errors you’ve made.

That’s great if you work with other people, but what happens if you’re a freelancer working on your own?

Going solo

Proofing your own work is tricky.

You wrote it, you know what you wanted to say, so your brain has the tendency to trick you into thinking what you thought you wrote is actually what is on the page.

Of course, you could hire in a proofreader to check your work for you. But that adds an additional cost to your work that you’ll either have to absorb or pass on to your clients.

The other option is the one I use. Yes, it’s time consuming, but it does pick up your errors.

First, once you’ve written your copy put it to one side – preferably for at least 24 hours – and go and do something else.

Then, print it out.

OK, I know, that’s not very environmentally friendly, but reading off a screen is horrible and you can’t easily mark-up errors when you find them.

Next, start from the last word on the last page and read it backwards, right to left.

Why?

For starters it won’t make sense so you’ll concentrate on each word, meaning you’re more likely to spot any typos.

Once you’ve read through the whole document like that, start from the beginning and read it out loud. This will not only highlight any grammatical errors and incorrect word usage, it will also draw your attention to any repetitions and the rhythm of your writing.

Then, go back through and make the changes you marked-up and go through the whole process again.

It might sound long winded, but it will save a lot of embarrassment in the long run.

Over to you  

Do you have a different technique for proofing your work? If so leave a comment below and tell us about it.

Startupbootcamp Amsterdam heeft bekend gemaakt dat twee tech starters die meedoen aan het accelerator-programma hun eerste investering binnen hebben.

You are a marketer. You’re in sales. Or perhaps you are the CMO or CEO of your company. You’ve done everything you thought you needed in creating a social presence. You are on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for starters, and you’ve even set up shop on Google+. You’re posting content about your brand that you feel is relevant, but there’s a problem — you’re present, you’re trying, yet nothing is happening.

People are not following you, and therefore no one is engaging with you. You have the one or two sympathy “likes,” but all your efforts just don’t make sense anymore. Sound familiar? Let’s find a solution to maximize your productivity to ensure your efforts are paying off and benefiting the business.

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Accerelatorprogramma Startupbootcamp Amsterdam gaat samenwerken met Microsoft BizSpark. Het softwarebedrijf levert expertise, software en hardware.