Mongoosemetrics did not work for us. We were forwarding the number from Mongoosemetrics to a VOIP US number, located in India. The call forwarding did not work.
Sad to say that I cannot give a review here after using the software.
Author: Nancy
The sales people wanted to put a phone number on the website so that customers can call us directly instead of filling in a contact form. But there are problems:
1. How can you be sure how many people called?
2. How can you be sure that the number the sales person gives you is accurate?
3. How can you get a local number, when you are in India and your website is targeting US customers?
That is how we came across Mongoosemetrics: the tool that helps you to easily put a local US number or a toll-free number on your site, and get a record of calls received on that number. There is a free trial available with 245 mts of free calling. After that they charges are $.16/mt. Normal charges are $39/month + $9 for a toll-free number or $10 for a local number.
The top features are:
1. They give you a trackable number. Toll free numbers would be available immediately whereas local numbers would take 1-2 business days.
2. Mongoosemetrics keeps a record of the number of calls received on that number. Any call to that number is routed through a page on your website where we have to put a code. That gives you a record of the number of calls.
3. The calls can be mapped to a local number.
4. Email alerts with incoming caller’s phone number, duration, time of call can be activated.
I am still in the research stage. Not started using it yet. Will write a better review after using it for sometime. Hope this helps you in your online marketing.
I have been doing keyword analysis for PPC campaigns or generally for websites for the past 3-4 years as part of Online Marketing. Can’t say I have perfected the technique, but I can say that there is more complication to keyword analysis than what meets the eye!
I have been using Wordtracker, Overture, Google keyword tool and other tools offered by different PPC engines. But now zeroed in on Google keyword tool, since Google brings most of the traffic to the website I work on. Google keyword tool used to show monthly search volume and average quarterly search volume earlier. Now they have modified the headings to “Local search volume: April” and “Global Monthly Search volume”. Advertiser competition is still given as a scale and not an actual number.
Just giving some interesting facts here.
1. Did you know that there were 110,000 searches (approximate average monthly searches, over past 12 months) performed globally for the keyword “3d modeling”, whereas “3d modelling” had 40,500 searches? So your page on 3d modeling should have just one “l” and not two, if you have done good keyword analysis. Some terms like this are easy and straight forward. But there are few others that are more complicated.
2. The term “clipping” has 201,000 searches, whereas the term “image clipping” has just 1600 searches. So do you call you service clipping? That could mean so many different things. If I call a service image clipping, will I be targeting the wrong keyword. This would need some more research and discussion with the sales team to find the right keyword. One dilemma I am on now.
So do you keyword analysis right and you would reap better rewards in your online marketing. Don’t trust your instincts and go wrong, when there is such a great tool telling you what exactly your customers could be searching for.
I am an Indian. And like all true-blooded Indians, I like cricket.
Felt sad that this time, IPL is being played in South Africa because of some terrorist threats in India. The spirit might be dampened, but I was there in front of TV watching the first ball of the series. Wow! Sanath Jayasurya of Srilanka and Sachin Tendulkar (need I say where he is from) on the crease. I could cheer for both of them. Unlike normal India vs Srilanka matches where I would not be very happy if Jayasurya scored a 4 or 6.
But all the same, I wasn’t very happy when Jayasurya scored the first boundary and not Tendulkar. And overjoyed when Jayasurya got out, and Tendulkar didn’t. As I said, I am a true-blooded Indian.
Didn’t get to watch many matches after that. I have a 5-year old, pogo-and-nick-loving son at home.
Inspite of thinking that all this is such a huge waste of money, what with movie-stars spending millions, bidding for players of their choice…..and the slump in viewership since IPL is being played in South Africa…. I still like cricket and all the buzz around it:)
But Twitter is said to be the next big thing after Google, or maybe even overtaking Google. Today I read about this device called Kickbee, a band that can be worn on the wrist by pregnant moms. Each time the baby in the womb kicks, this band with some sensor would detect that and put a post on Twitter saying ” I kicked mommy at so-and-so date and time”. Ain’t that funny. Let alone hearing about what others had for their breakfasts, I can also hear when babies of expectant mothers kicked them! Maybe those extra kicks were for being so silly!
All said and done, Twitter is growing in userbase and uses. Just watch out for the new developments!!
Congratulations to Google, it was done in style and with sincerity. They did not try to sell any product, or paid product. They did not give us brochures of extremely high-priced software (No offence to Adobe). They listened to the innumerable questions that the webmasters had about google algorithms, and why this was happening or why that was not happening.
Adam Lasnik and Rajat Mukherjee came down from Google HQ, and “the” MATT CUTTS spoke to us over a pre-recorded video. Some of the sessions were a bit too technical and I could see webmasters with laptops (wireless key for Google office given at the beginning of the meeting, ain’t that nice) browsing and social-media-networking away to glory. Those of us who did not have laptops doodled on authentic Google scribbling sheets.
The general sessions had nothing new to offer. The things that we talked about were things that everybody new. The best part was the questions. Most of the doubts were covered, a lot of things that even Google didn’t know of. Their time and schedule management was also extremely commendable. Sessions got over on the dot, and there was tons of food too:) What more to satisfy hungry, eager webmasters!!!
Cheers, Google. We would love to see more of this.
I recently bought this F1 racing car for my son, for Rs.45/-. Though the car is not worth the money paid, the instructions at the back of the pack provided quite an entertainment. Read it here. And see the scanned version too (in case you doubt me)
This is small parts . To avoid stuffiness ,Do not put into mouth.
Some parts may sharp , please pay attention when you play .
This article are very easy to be swallowed .not suitable for children under 3 years .
Don’t play it on road & etc .
Pay attention: don’t put the finger , hair or clothes & etc in the wheel .
Don’t close your face when playing the F1 . Because of scathing hazard .
This merchandise must play it indoor . please not outdoor . because dust and rubbish may damage it .
Don’t play it on desk or floor , because danger of damage .
This plastic package is packing material , please throw away after open it .
I have been using Dreamweaver as an online marketing tool for about 5 years now, and like it a lot. One of the best HTML editors (the name is an understatement) available now, it combines a fool-proof “wysiwyg” interface with a hard-core coders area.
Dreamweaver has adapted beautifully to CSS(cascading style sheets) over time, and makes creating pages in complete table-less design, much easier.
Dreamweaver offers FTP upload, though this is not the most reliable part of the software. But there are many other FTP clients that would do the work perfectly well, like Filezilla, and so let’s not burden Dreamweaver with this task as well.
For the hard-core coders, the expand and collapse view in code, gives flexibility in viewing more code, and also in checking to make sure that beginning and closing tags are correct everywhere.
Features like the zoom-in option for page content (upto 3600%), ability to seach for a particular line of code in the “entire current site” or folder or source code or text, Paste Special feature which helps in keeping the formatting exact while pasting content from other programs, multi browser testing… all these and more, make Dreamweaver a pleasure to work with. Dreamweaver is a must-learn for any person interested in Online Marketing.
One recent solution for which I used Dreamweaver:
I had to put a table with 60 rows by 5 columns into a blog. I copied the table from excel, opened a new HTML file in Dreamweaver, pasted the table in the wysiwyg area, made border = 1. So the coding area got the HTML code for the entire table.
Opened the HTML view of the blog, and pasted the code there. Lo and behold, in less than a minute, I had the table up on the blog. No rocket science! But I was proud of this solution!!
Be it online marketing, or any other field you are in; In all likelihood, you would be using emails and lots of it. I always wish I could write perfect emails, with the right subject line, right tone and the right amount of words. Working towards that, I am compiling here a list of things I should watch out for while writing emails.
Why is Email Etiquette important?
Studies have shown that 88% of Internet users use email, and 90% of working people use Internet to access email. Now that is a huge number of people sending and accessing emails left and right. We use emails to keep in touch with friends, to assign work, to know about work that has been assigned to you, to advise/scold people, so that you can avoid a face-to-face confrontation with somebody, to diplomatically put across your requirements and so on and so forth. The list is unending.
Sometimes mails make you feel good, sometimes they get on your nerves and sometimes they are just there without making any impression.
So what is included in email etiquette?
1. Subject lines – Use subject lines all the time. Period.
Use sensible subject lines that convey and summarize your content. This makes it easy for the person receiving your email to get an idea about your email quickly. It also makes searching for emails easy. So use good subject lines, and please do change subject lines when your subject of conversation changes.
2. Manners – Use ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ even if you don’t feel like using it. It could become a habit before you even notice it. Don’t write in all CAPITAL LETTERS or all small letters. ALL CAPITALS LOOK LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING. and all small letters look like you are mumbling. So be careful to use the right tone.
When in doubt on how to address a person, use Mr., Ms. or Dr. and then their last name. Like “Dear Mr. Peter”. When a person has already addressed you using your first name, it is safe to do the same and use the other person’s first name too.
3. Language – Job requests with glaring spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes would be trashed by any employer. You can be sure of that. So enable spelling and grammar check on your emails. Read through your content once before hitting the ‘Send’ button.
And please please don’t use short forms like “ur”, “thot” etc. on emails. It is ok to send a text message to your friend that way, but let a formal email please be kept formal.
4. Content of your email – Be concise, but not curt. Don’t ramble on and on trying to convince a point. Just be systematic and the point would be driven home faster than you think.
Use clearly separated paragraphs, bulleted point or numbered list if you can. And sign off properly with a good signature having your full name, designation, address, phone number on it. (depending on how much you would like the recipient to know)
5. Few extra points – Don’t use the “Reply all” option unless you really really have to. If you have to congratulate a colleague, email only him and not 25 other people also in your office.
Acknowledge mails fast, if you are not in a position to give an answer immediately. I would be nice to add when you would be able to give an answer.
Use CC and BCC fields carefully.
Don’t forward mails unnecessarily, especially if you are not sure of the facts mentioned in the email. Lot of people trust you. Don’t take their trust lightly.
Use a decent format without too many color and font combinations, something that looks jarring to the eye.
That’s it with email etiquette for now. More rules for me and you… later.
If you do not live in Bangalore, you might not be familiar with this phenomenon. Women come begging near cars in traffic signals, carrrying babies and also an empty feeding bottle. I have never understood why they carry the feeding bottle, which is empty and so dirty too. The women also have unkempt hair, dirty dresses and a perpetual look of self-pity, on-the-verge-of-tears look.
What makes me write this post is, I have noticed something very strange. The babies that they are carrying never cry!!! The babies would either be sleeping or staring ahead with a dazed look. I am sure that these babies don’t belong to the ladies; the way they carry the babies is proof enough for that. I am also thinking if they drug the babies before bringing them, or borrowing them from somewhere.
Someday, I have to go after one of these ladies and see where they go, and what they do with the babies at the end of the day. My heart-felt request to everybody is – Please don’t give anything to these people. Let them not make their kids, or somebody else’s kids as means to earn money. PLEASE DON’T ENCOURAGE THIS PRACTISE.
Love for Gardening 