The Significance of the DVD Advertising Scorecard
The DVD advertising scorecard is a measure for determining the efficiency of using the DVD as a primary marketing tool for promotion.DVD advertising can be seen as an innovative alternative to CD advertising. Both of these media advertising techniques are tools containing catalogues with more advanced features containing images in audio and video qualities. DVD advertising, though somewhat similar to CD advertising, has been regarded to be more astute probably because of the popularity of DVDs among home theatre consumers and markets. But regardless of their distinct qualities, both of the advertising tools would have similar indicators to determine their efficacy in bringing awareness to the target audience.Unlike other forms of advertising, DVD advertising is characterized by having high cost per contact. Promo-DVDs are considered to be expensive largely because of the advancement of technology used. Because of the involvement of exquisite cost, it is only proper to determine the effectiveness of the adverting tool.DVDs are mostly used as advertising tools in the entertainment business. Because of its classification as cinema advertising, this form of advertising has been used by advertisers in targeting audience and markets. In this case, there is a good targeting approach making DVD advertising a viable tool for providing awareness directly to its target market. DVD advertising can be seen as support to advertisers and marketers that use direct marketing approach in advertising campaigns.Advertisers and companies must be aware of the cost in developing this advertising tool. It is vital then to measure the cost prior to and after the stage of the marketing campaign. The cost, budget, and revenues are indicators of DVD advertising belonging to the financial perspective of the DVD advertising scorecard.In the internal business perspective, there should be an involvement of evaluation by the stakeholders. Advertisers and companies must expose the promo material to the management, employees, shareholders, and other internal personnel for evaluation and appreciation before distributing it to the target market. The result of the activity can be used as indicator in the internal business approach of the scorecard.Receiving feedback from stakeholders is as essential as receiving feedback from clients and target audiences. Advertisers and marketers can maintain a record of the number of promo material distributed and a list of potential markets and buyers. From the list, they can conduct inquiry to gain feedback, which is essential in determining the performance and factors for modification and improvement.The customer perspective of the DVD advertising scorecard may include indicators, such as delivery performance to customer by date and volume, customer inquiry rate, and customer feedback. Inquiring the customer about the contents of the DVD advertising can be crucial in determining the quality of feedback and consistency of the advertising campaign.The DVD advertising scorecard includes perspectives to derive the total performance of the marketing campaign. The indicators in DVD advertising are crucial in determining the performance of the perspectives in the scorecard. Using DVD advertising metrics is important to help advertisers determine and plan the contents and features for another DVD advertising campaign.
A Description and History of Accounts Receivable Financing Loans
An accounts receivable financing loan is exactly what it sounds like. Your business can take out a loan against money that is owed to you, so it’s essentially borrowing from yourself. When you need money quickly, it could be that untried option that you’ll actually get approved for. If you find the right bank or lending institution, you might even be able to negotiate reasonable short term repayment and get an affordable interest rate. Some banks right now are offering less than 2% for loans of up to thirty days. That extra month can be a huge boost if you’ve just made a large sale of existing inventory and need cash to purchase additional inventory while you’re waiting for payment on the last sale.The difference between an accounts receivable financing loan and more traditional loans is that banks look at the credit score and payment history of those who owe you money instead of your own history. For those with bad credit or companies just starting out, it may be advantageous to have the bank look at the customers you’re invoicing instead of you when you’re attempting to get your hands on some working capital financing. Traditional loans are always hard to come by, especially in this economic climate, unless you happen to have stellar credit or lots of collateral.What is Factoring?One of the oldest financial practices for merchants having difficulty making ends meet is the sale of accounts receivable for a percentage of what they are worth. This process is known as factoring, because when you sell your accounts receivable, you sell them to a factor. The practice is very common in the debt collection business. That’s why you often hear from multiple collection agencies on the same debt. The first one will attempt collection and then sell it to another agency, one that is actually a factor, for a percentage of the paid value of the debt. They then use the cash to expand their business or purchase debt from other agencies.Your bank may not offer to buy your account receivables outright, since they’re not in the business of purchasing debt, but there are a number of agencies and online sites where you can find someone to take those unpaid invoices off your hands. What you want to do when shopping for this type of loan is to seek out the highest percentage of debt that factors are willing to offer. They won’t pay dollar for dollar, so don’t waste your time asking, but some will give eighty or ninety cents per dollar if they can see a strong likelihood of receiving prompt payment.History of Factoring and Accounts Receivable FinancingThe practice of buying someone’s debt in return for cash goes back to pre-colonial England, when merchants would sell their invoices in return for cash to pay workers and finance trade ventures. Since many of these merchants ran small operations, the credit worthiness of their buyers was evaluated before the money was given. Just as it is today with smaller companies selling goods and services to larger, more credit worthy companies, back then the merchant himself couldn’t get financing unless he had firm commitments from larger distributors and retailers. This early form of accounts receivable financing loan laid the groundwork for what would become an invaluable source of financing in the late 19th and early 20th Century.After the Civil War in the United States, new markets opened up with the development of what was at the time considered advanced technology. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 had actually given merchants the tool they needed to mass produce textiles, but transportation methods were still primitive. By the 1870′s, steam engines and iron clad ships were making the world a smaller place and telegraph lines made communication much simpler. The industrial revolution began and once again small companies and independent merchants were selling goods and services to larger manufacturers and textile mills. Factors became popular again and banks began to issue their own version of accounts receivable loans.Who are the Best Candidates for AR Financing Loans?The small company with little or no credit selling to the large corporation with an established payment history is the best candidate for this type of loan. As more and more people are using the internet to strike out on their own, the banks see an increase in the number of applicants for this type of funding. Think of the independent programmer designing apps for iPhones or Blackberries. The company buying those apps will probably take a while to make payment for them, but their invoice is considered as good as cash by a financial institution because they have top-of-the-line credit. Take out a thirty day loan against those invoices and you’re looking at an interest rate of as little as.69% in some cases and a maximum of 1.59%.Economic Roadblocks and Reasonable AlternativesWhen the nation or the world is experiencing a period of rapid growth and a growing economy, the banks are more likely to lend money using the accounts payable financing loan option. With the situation being what it is today, you’ll have to show growth within your industry and present invoices that are going to established companies in no danger of going under. Many of the big players in the retail industry, once considered untouchable, have gone out of business in the last few years, victims of over-leveraging during a brutal recession. Banks and other lenders took a hit when those companies defaulted and they are being more cautious now as a result.That is not to say that getting a loan is impossible. Look for short term schedules and ask for smaller amounts when you first start seeking this type of financing. If you have clients or customers who have been established for a while, present their invoices to the bank. They count as collateral. If your clients are relatively obscure and have little or no credit worthiness, try using your credit card sales numbers and ask for a merchant account cash advance. You might have better luck with one of those.Copyright (c) 2010 Trey Markel
TOP SEO Mistakes – Top SEO Website Errors
Are you using the right keywords to optimize your website?
In many cases websites are optimized for the wrong SEO keywords. You need to do the research to find out what SEO keyword phrases people actually use to search for businesses in your particular field. In many cases you will discover that SEO keyword phrases that you thought were important are in fact rarely searched for; the opposite is also true.How well does your website show up well in Google, Yahoo, Ask and Bing?
You should test the effect of searching for your SEO keywords on a regular basis in all the major search engines. Your website position in the search engines will fluctuate and needs regular monitoring.Website Title – The single most important onsite SEO factor.
The web page title is very important. It should be relevant, the correct length and different on every page within the website. It is surprising how often we see inappropriate web page titles, no titles at all or a title that says something stupid like “HOME’ or in the case of really lazy website designers ‘TITLE GOES HERE’. Use a different title for each page within your website. Remember that search engines list pages, not websites, so each page is a fresh SEO opportunity.Website Description.
Tell Google what your page is about. As with the web page title, in many cases the Description is missing or incorrectly used.Website SEO Keywords.
While many search engines no longer use Keyword Meta tags, some still do, and they should accurately reflect page content, but you must be careful not to use too many of them.Broken links will harm your SEO efforts.
This is the number one error that we find when auditing websites. You click on a link within the website and you see an error message telling you that the page cannot be found. This delivers a very unprofessional image to people visiting your website. It is likely that Google will also mark you down in the search engine rankings, as Google expects technically perfect websites. There is no excuse for broken links within a website. Broken image links are also a common error found within websites. Instead of a picture being displayed you will see a broken image logo. Again this is easily checked for by professional website designers and there is no reason for a website to have broken image links.Picture only websites are disastrous for SEO.
Sometimes you will visit a website that appears to be displaying the usual mixture of text and pictures, but on closer inspection, even the text is actually contained within a picture. If there is no real text displayed within a website, Google has no clue what the website is about and the website will feature very poorly in the search engine results. There are ways to partly fix this, using what are called ‘Alt’ tags, used in combination with the website title and description, but as a rule your website should contain lots of relevant text. This is what Google likes!No relevant SEO keywords in a page.
If your website content fails to mention your product or service, it is not surprising that your website ranks poorly within Google. There are lots of tricks relating to where you place your keywords on a page and that is what we excel at. Simply stuffing a page with keywords will not achieve the desired result, and may even hurt your listing within Google, as it may interpret too many keywords as an attempt to spam the search engine listings. Google takes a very dim view of attempts to spam it.Number of back links
A very important SEO factor. Do you know how many other websites link to your website? Google does. The more links to your website, the better. Also the quality and source of the links is important to Google. If you suddenly gain hundreds of links overnight, this can trip the spam alert at the search engines and you can end up in a worse position within the search engines than before you started any SEO activities on your website.Google Page Rank.
Do you know what your Google Page Rank number is? In fact do you know what the Google Page Rank means? Google rates all sites using hundreds of different criteria and comes up with a number for your website. 0 is bad while 10 is the highest value. The higher the Page Rank the more likely that your website will show up higher within the Google search engine results. Many websites we audit have a page rank of 0 or 1, which is not good! Install the Google toolbar to view your website’s PageRank.Alt tags.
Great for your website’s SEO. Alt tags (short for Alternative tags) are a way of telling Google what a picture is about. As far as Google is concerned a picture is just a picture. Google does not know what a picture is about, unless you specifically tell Google using an Alt tag. It is amazing how few website designers go to the bother of using alt tags, which is a pity, as proper use of alt tags can have a big influence on your listing within the Google search engine results.Ease of Navigation and menu issues.
Many websites are hard to navigate. This means that it may be difficult to move from page to page, or back to the home page. This is such an important aspect for your website visitors and it is a shame that we see so many poorly constructed menu systems. Google may also find it hard to navigate your website and categorize each webpage which can harm your SEO efforts.Spell checking and grammatical issues.
It is vital that you check the spelling within your website. The correct use of grammar is also important. If your website is full of these types of errors, it gives a poor impression. Your company looks unprofessional. Correct spelling is also important for Google.Flash and java issues.
If your website uses flash or java to enable website navigation, make sure that you use the technology carefully as you may find that some search engines are unable to follow the links and as a result will not list most of your website pages within their search engine listings.Google Analytics.
This is a free tool from Google that allows you to analyze visitors to your website and track how they interact with your website. Has your website been enabled to show Google analytics data? If not you are missing out on a vital source of information about your website.Heading tags.
Proper use of heading tags within your HTML code can play a vital role in onsite keyword SEO. Many websites we audit are completely devoid of any heading tags. Try and use 2 or 3 levels of headers.Open Directory Project.
Did you know that a submission to the Open Directory Project is one of the most valuable links you can get in terms of your website’s SEO? They reject most sites and only accept sites that are technically near perfect and contain high quality information, presented through a professionally designed interface that is easy to navigate.How many pages of your website are indexed in Google?
Do you know how to see exactly how many pages that make up your website are listed within Google? You would expect Google to know about your home page, but the more pages within your website that Google knows about, the better. For example a large website promoted by us, has 10,300 pages listed within Google.W3C validation.
W3C is an organization that sets website standards. Do you know if your website passes W3C validation?File names.
The name of a file can be a valuable clue to Google, as to what the file contains. For instance if you have a picture of a motor car and the picture file is called 0001.JPG this does not tell Google anything. On the other hand if the file was called CARS-FOR-SALE-IN-PERTH.JPG, then this can help considerably with your website SEO. The same principle applies to the naming of all files and folders within your website.PDF file size Issues.
If you use PDF files, there are many ways of reducing the size of the final PDF file. The larger the file size the slower the PDF file will load on the screen or download to a hard disk.Do all the major search engines know about your website?
Remember that apart from Google there are a few other search engines that your website should be listed in, such as Yahoo, Bing and Ask.Flash file sizes.
The larger the size of your flash file, the longer it will take to load. Many sites use flash banners that have enormous file sizes. This can be very frustrating for your visitors.Google Places page.
This is a fantastic way of getting your website listed in the local service or products section within the Google results. The majority of websites do not use this feature at all and many of those that do use it do not take full advantage of the SEO opportunities afforded by the Google Places feature.Flash or graphical intro pages.
How often have you visited a website to be greeted by a meter that tells you a flash introduction screen is loading, which often seem to take forever to load and once they do load actually display little relevant information. If you are lucky you can click on a ‘skip intro’ button. Do not use intro pages as they just annoy website visitors and can harm your website SEO.Text used within links (anchor text).
The correct use of keyword text within a hyperlink can play a significant part in your on-page keyword SEO strategy. In many cases this SEO opportunity is wasted when the hyperlink contains words such as ‘click here’.Home page file size.
Do you know the combined file size of your home page? By combined, I mean not just the HTML page itself, but all the associated graphic, CSS and flash files. The longer a page takes to load, the more likely a visitor will click on the Back button and visit a different website.Java issues.
If a visitor to your website has disabled Java in their local browser, how will this affect your website? Will the menu systems still work? If you must use Java, at least have an alternate menus system that visitors can use. Search engines may have difficulty following some types of Java based menu systems.Do not use hidden text to try and trick the search engines.
Everyone knows that having keywords on your web page is important as far as SEO is concerned. A very old trick is to have lists of your keywords repeated over and over at the bottom of the page, formatted to display in white text on a white background. Google hates this type of spamming and is on the lookout for it. Far from improving your website’s position with the Google Search Engines results, you could find that your website gets severely penalized by Google. Do not try spamming Google, they will find out!