Gasta.com Keywords: 2010

13/11/2010

11/08/2010

Gasta SEO: As good a guide as any from Fathom SEO

Fathom SEO guide (short version)

With online marketing, there is never a shortage of data. At the end of the day, however, it’s not the data that matters. It’s about NEW dollars. To shape and adjust your marketing strategies, you clearly can’t ignore data such as;

How many people visit your website

What keyword consistently ranks well

Who agrees to link from their website to yours

Ultimately though, you’ll want to judge your efforts by leads and sales generated from the site. .
The performance of any online marketing initiative
comes down to three core steps:

Get (traffic)

Convert (visitors)

Measure (revenue drivers)

If you’re going to invest in online marketing – at any level – set your sights on how many leads
and how much revenue the effort drives.
What we’re talking about here is Return on Investment (ROI). In this case, the investment is in
online advertising (e.g. SEO, PPC, Online Video, Email, etc.), so we call it ROA, Return on
Advertising in this context.
Coordinating multiple facets of online advertising to maximize ROA is what we call Multilateral
Online Marketing (MOM), a new industry term coined by Fathom SEO that more accurately
expresses what it takes to succeed online – coordinating multiple programs that can efficiently
reach the right target audience when diverse disciplines work well together.
Each stage – Get, Convert and Measure – requires a great deal of know-how. The following
insights may help your business as you consider each step.
GET
You can’t generate money from your website until you GET
potential customers there. Traditional advertising can help
build awareness for your site, but we’ll focus on the online
opportunities. We’ll look at three of them:
SEO
PPC
Off-site (i.e. link building, online PR, social media)

SEO
In the most basic sense, SEO is about content. Great content improves a site’s ability to rank
well (i.e. GET more quality visitors) and more effectively engage potential customers. Yes, the
website must be technically sound so that search engines can reach the pages. And yes,
websites must be effectively optimized with title tags, page headers, etc. to help pages rank well.
But it’s really the breadth, depth and quality of the content (supported by relevant, strategic
keyword phrases) that helps attract high-quality visitors in the first place.
We liken content to fishing. If you drop one line in the water, you have one shot at catching a big
fish. Smart marketers essentially cast many lines at the same time - by expanding the breadth,
depth and quality of their website content using well-researched and targeted keyword phrases.
Once you have done the exhaustive research to identify and select which keywords are most
likely to GET the highest potential visitors in a reasonable amount of time, you can integrate
these terms into your content using proper SEO tactics. Too often, websites have limited text on
website pages. Sometimes a website simply has too few pages. Marketers should take stock of
their websites and be honest about what is lacking.
A robust content strategy is essential. Here are some ways to expand content:
• Create and promote an informative guide
• Develop and distribute a white paper
• Solicit user-generated content (encourage them to share their experiences or participate
in contests)
• Add a blog and get the word out
• Write articles
• Expand an FAQ section
• Build case studies
• Post employee bios
• Provide product/service details
• Create a glossary
• Review products
• Add a company history
• Develop a Featured Products section
• Add testimonials
• Add content from your newsletter or PDFs
• Develop a resources section
• Create videos and landing pages.

Here are 10 additional tips to help you make the most of your SEO efforts:

1. Know your target market.
Think of the many ways potential clients may be searching for your products or services.
2. Focus on website design.
Make sure your website has clear Calls to Action and navigation that will encourage visitors to
explore, learn and connect with your business.
3. Be realistic about keywords.
You may want to rank for a keyword phrase, but your website may not be poised to dominate the
major search engines for that term or phrase. You gain favor with search engines if you have a
keyword in your domain, your website is older than your competition and/or you have quality
inbound links pointing to your website. Your content and source code also must support the
keywords.
4. Write content – lots of content.
Extra pages can support your most important keywords and inspire many other search terms as
you develop your website.
5. Favor text headers (like the headlines on your Web pages).
Reinforced by H tags, the right combination of keywords in a page header can help with
rankings.
6. Add your blog as a directory, not a sub-domain.
A blog can support keyword themes and build up your core content. A blog also opens up new
opportunities for inbound links. Your blog should be on your domain, and not a disconnected
entity.
7. Write compelling Meta descriptions.
Meta descriptions have lost their influence on rankings, but they still appear within search engine
ranking results. Make sure yours include Calls to Action, company attributes and keywords that
resonate with the keywords used to find your website.
8. Get more links.
Add your website to free and paid directories. Write articles and add your company name and
link, when possible, to your bio. Issue news releases about the expertise you showcase on your
website.
9. Monitor your website analytics (Google is free).
Ongoing traffic analysis is a critical part of any SEO effort. You need to understand what
keywords are driving traffic and converting that traffic into leads or new customers.
10. Watch your rankings.
Sometimes a keyword ranks well on more than one page. Pay close attention so you can
determine what page is best positioned to help you achieve higher rankings.

PPC
Yes, PPC (Pay Per Click) costs money. But paid search marketing can help GET quality traffic
quickly. PPC can also support a coordinated effort by providing accelerated feedback that can
be used to inform the SEO strategy that is inherently more long–term, thus improving long-term
results. Create and test ads, pointing them to compelling content and strong Calls to Action.
Don’t hesitate to make custom landing pages specifically tailored to your ad. New pages may be
better than some of the existing ones on your website (that may lack clear offers or include
distracting navigation options).
Here are some other suggestions to help you make the most of your PPC campaigns:
• Do extensive keyword research
• Leverage geographic, time of day parameters
• Use vital defining options: phrase match (quotes) and exact match (brackets)
• Do A/B testing
• Don’t delay: revise ads
• Offer discounts
• Use clear Calls to Action and incentives (Order Today. Free Trial. Save 20%.)
• Make use of negative keywords
• Make sure conversion tracking is fully in place
• Track conversions, not just the click-thru rate (CTR)
Additionally, you should consider:
1. Plan your ads carefully.
With Google, for example, you want to create ads that are each supported by up to 15 relevant
keywords.
2. Make more than one campaign.
Daily budget caps are based on campaigns. You may want more than one campaign so as to
have freedom with your ads. When all ads share the same budget, they will not appear as often.
3. Bid on branded keywords.
They convert well, but some travel companies avoid the branded keywords because they’re
already ranking well with organic search. Branded keywords often don’t cost much and the paid
search conversions can make for a profitable investment.
4. Don’t get too greedy and miss an opportunity.
Some businesses back away from keywords that aren’t as profitable as others. But you need to
know your numbers. If a keyword is profitable, it may be worth keeping. Don’t just focus on the
exceptional or high-volume performers.
5. Be careful with broad match.
Broad match is often inexpensive and drives a lot of traffic, but the relevancy of the audience
may miss the mark.
6. Content Match in Google can hurt campaigns.
Content Match can work – if you’re careful and watch your spend. The ads appear with relevant
content outside of Google, but the people who click may not be in a buying mode (perhaps
they’re doing research or simply clicking out of curiosity).
7. Share conversion data with your SEO team.
The SEO specialists will want to know what’s performing. But don’t assume that your No. 1
position for a paid ad will be No. 1 in the natural search engine results. Your success will depend
on your content, site age and many other factors.
8. Make custom landing pages.
Often a website design has weaknesses and a custom paid search page can offer compelling,
targeted content with a clear Call to Action.
9. Make paid search pages without all of your navigation.
For e-commerce, some navigation may be necessary to help someone buy what you’re selling.
In many cases, however – if you just want a lead – you can focus on one offer per landing page
and prompt someone to fill out a short form or call your toll-free number.
10. Bid up on profitable keywords.
Do you have a keyword that is profitable for you yet its average position is below 1.5? Raise
your maximum cost per click and you'll almost assuredly see more clicks and conversions.
Another way to get higher rankings is to improve your quality score by writing specific ad copy
for that keyword and putting it into its own ad group. Within a few weeks, if you write your ad
copy well and achieve a good click-thru-rate (CTR), you should see your quality score increase
and your average rankings go up with no additional cost.

A little creativity and the right relationships can help GET visitors from sources beyond your
website. Of course, your website is actually the main draw. A person will link to your website if
you have outstanding content worth someone’s time. Showcase and market your expertise.
Don’t hold back. Here are some best practices to follow:
• Write articles for industry magazines and newsletters
• Post pieces to popular e-zines
• Issue news releases (about your new products, educational guides, studies, trends)
• Produce and distribute videos
• Pay for links from relevant websites
• Get free links from relationships (i.e. you sell men’s jeans and another site sells shoes)
• Participate in online communities
• Join trade groups and other organizations

CONVERT
It’s time to land the fish! Conversion opportunities abound. You simply need to ask visitors to
engage – no matter how they GET to your website. Even if they simply sign up for a newsletter,
that’s a conversion that may ultimately lead to a sale. You still end up with an email that’s
invaluable. Stay in touch with your leads through email campaigns (you can even schedule how
often you’ll follow up).
Some of the most obvious conversion opportunities involve forms and trackable phone numbers.
With phone numbers, you should make sure they’re clearly seen. Too often, websites “hide”
them on a Contact Us page or bury them at the bottom of a page or even after the copyright
notice. Even though a potential customer is on your Internet website, many still prefer to pick up
the phone when they reach out to engage.
Forms should be clear, attractive and as brief as possible. Don’t just say “Contact Us Today.”
Introduce the form with “Make an Appointment Today” or “Download Our XYZ Guide.”
Throughout the content, you should remind the visitor that he or she can get more information by
following linked text or calling a number. Why wait until the end of the page to entice the reader?
Make an appeal high on the page.
Be sure to include a different number solely for the website to avoid confusion with other
marketing efforts. In fact, Fathom SEO offers Call Tracking - a way to record calls and track
potential customers who convert by calling you. Call-in conversions can be tied to natural search
engine visits and paid search activity.
The following graphic illustrates just a few of the many ways you can encourage a potential
customer to connect with your business.
Here are some best practices to use for conversions:
1. Focus on one primary CTA
• Each page of the website should have one primary call to action, not multiples.
If you have another primary call to action, it should have its own page. This is a
great opportunity to up-sell the client.
• Depending on the site, you may want to use a secondary CTA. This might be a
good idea for a home page, but not for a dedicated landing page.
2. Simple, clear and compelling
• Your primary CTA should be simple, clear and compelling. Remember, your
goal is to get the user to complete a certain action. Your primary concern is that
they know what that action is and how to complete it.
• Show them why they want to visit your website, buy your product, get more
information, etc. Show them the benefits to following your CTA immediately.
They’re only concerned with what’s in it for them.
3. Keep it above the fold
• The CTA should be the first thing a person sees when they visit the page. Your
primary CTA should be placed at the top of the page, or just below the header.
Also, be sure that the button, link or form used to complete the action also
completely appears above the fold.

• Above the fold is within the first 650 vertical pixels of the page. 90% of users
have a screen resolution height of 768px or greater. You must also factor in
approximately 100px for the browser.
http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php
4. Make it stand out
• The CTA should stand out from the rest of the page. Whether as a headline,
button or in the copy, make it different. You want to be sure it catches the eye
and does not blend in with the rest of the page. Some studies have shown that
the color of the CTA doesn’t matter as long as it stands out from the rest of the
page. Don’t be afraid to experiment with bright colors and adjust the size of
your CTA.
5. Page Design
• The design of the page should be created with the primary CTA in mind. It
should be done so that it supports this CTA and does not distract the user from
completing the action. In most cases, a simple design will work better than
something complicated and busy.
6. Page Copy
• The CTA should follow and build upon what you’ve already said in the text.
Some readers may want to read your entire page before making a decision;
some will scan or read just a few sentences before deciding if the product or
service is for them. Make sure there are CTAs in different locations to appeal to
these different types of people.
7. Location, Location, Location
• Your primary CTA should be used at the top of the page as well as on the form,
on the submit button, in the headlines and in the supporting copy. It is important
to also include a call to action at the bottom of the page so users don’t have to
scroll back up to the top of the page.
8. Testing
• You will never know if your call to action is effective without testing. No matter
how much traffic your site gets, you can do testing. Even A/B testing simple
things such as headlines and submit buttons can yield valuable results.
Examples:

MEASURE
A business can measure its efforts in many ways, but the most significant ones should boil down
to costs and new revenue. When you are able to measure the results of your online advertising
efforts, you can identify and replicate the most profitable activity.
Marketers should be able to compare search engine advertising (including SEO) to other forms
of advertising. What ROA does the company normally get for direct mail, TV, radio, tradeshows
and the like? For every dollar invested, what kind of sales can be expected? Does $1 invested in
an advertising campaign result in $4, $5, $7, $10 or more in revenue? When you are able to
measure your advertising efforts based on ROA, deciding on how to spend your precious
advertising dollars becomes clearer. ROA brings objective accountability to the forefront of
advertising spend decision-making.
Here are some basic questions to ask about your ROA:
• How do you market apart from SEO and Paid Search?
• How much do you spend to get a lead?
• How many leads do you need to get a sale?
• What is your average sale?
• What is your sales cycle?
• How are your most important products selling?
Understanding your sales cycle is crucial. If you have a sales pipeline, you can anticipate how
many pending deals are likely to convert over time (given historical data).
Before new leads roll in, it’s OK to start with some basic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs),
especially for an SEO program that takes time. If the KPIs are on track, we can anticipate that
the ROA is on its way.
The following GET KPIs reflect a scoring system based on improving organic ranking results.
Visibility, for example, refers to an index that rewards rankings with points – a No. 1 ranking gets
more points than a No. 99 ranking. Visibility trending is a snapshot of ranking progress. As
rankings improve, quality traffic improves, leading to more opportunities to CONVERT quality
visitors into revenue, which drives ROA.

Branding
Sometimes companies don’t sell anything directly as a result of their online advertising efforts.
Their goal is to increase awareness, not necessarily drive direct leads or sales. They attract
traffic for branding purposes and use the website to send visitors to dealers, retailers and more.
It’s possible to track many metrics. The aim should be to define what data is most essential
during different phases of a program. The tactics are the same: GET, CONVERT, MEASURE.
However, some KPIs (vs. ROA) may become the MEASURE focus. Here are just a few of the
possibilities;

Strategic keyword top 1, 5, 20, 30 rankings (per engine)
Search engine traffic
Overall traffic
Search engine traffic as a percentage of overall traffic
Page views
Traffic to a targeted page
PDF downloads
Newsletter sign-ups
Referring traffic (from other sites)
Indexed pages (how many pages/files are recognized by search engines)
Bounce rate (percentage of visitors who quickly leave the website)
Time on the website
Video performance (i.e. views)
Most-searched keyword phrases (branded vs. non-branded)
Call Tracking
Marketers also should leverage
Call Tracking for added insights.
A large portion of potential customers to your site prefer to CONVERT by picking up the phone. To effectively measure the results of your online advertising efforts, the calls must be included as conversions. Phone calls can be recorded and the call frequency can be measured in multiple ways
(including whether the call started with an organic or a paid search):

Automatically route calls based on pre-assigned rules
Place the phone number in PPC search ads and avoid pay-per-click charges.

Cost per Lead – Lower Isn’t Always Better
As you track and analyze results, keep in mind that achieving the lowest cost per lead should not
necessarily be the main objective. Sometimes leads may cost more, but result in more sales. By
measuring ROA, the picture becomes much clearer.

26/04/2010

Gasta Keywords

How to Target your Website’s Visitors for Optimized Traffic
Daniel McDowell is CEO of DLM International LLC
Over the past decade, the web has grown to such a scale that there are websites covering every single topic under the sun. Due to the sheer scale of it, it is near impossible to pin point the exact number of websites which are on the web; however, statistics show that in February 2007 there were an estimated 29.7 billion pages on web. Taking into consideration the speed in which the web has grown since it’s beginnings in the 1990’s, it is safe to say that this number has increased greatly over the past three years. When it comes to using the internet in connection to our business, targeting the right customers can be hard due to the level of competition our website has. There are various methods in which we may attempt to attract the right visitors as a means to increase our traffic, but some of the most effective methods are in actual fact the cheapest and easiest methods.

Increasing your website’s traffic is all about making your presence known on the web. Marketing and advertising strategies are the main way in which to do this, but in terms of traditional business these can be costly and take sometime to be effective. However, the internet is a fast paced business which allows for your campaigns to be made live in a much shorter space of time, as well as lowering your costs to almost nothing. One of the best ways in which to target visitors is through the use of back links. These can be placed on a wide variety of sites which gain high traffic such as social networking websites and blog sites, but can also be placed on other sites which you can partner up with, exchanging links. When using back links, the first thing you must take into consideration is what your website/product is and what your target market is. In doing this, you will have a clearer idea of what the best sites will be for you to target as irrelevant sites or sites which receive a low level of traffic will be of no use to your website. If you are fortunate to have capital to use, you can also use the aid of Pay per Click schemes. Large search engine sites such as Google can offer this to you but before deciding on this as a means to help your traffic, think about how much you can honestly afford as not to risk a loss in profits.

As businesses look for cheap ways in which to promote their websites, there has been a great increase in the amount of blogs and article directory sites on the web. These allow you to promote your product or service, as well as providing a link back to your website all for the simple exchange of your content on the website. This is a great way in which to gain more back links to your website, as well as s great method of advertising and self promotion. Different websites will have their own guidelines in terms of what you may submit to their sites, but in most cases this is one of the easiest ways in which to promote your business for free. The more external websites you use, the more links you will accumulate on the web which will help your overall traffic level. However, ensure you submit content to reputable sites which have some kind of relevance to your website so that you are targeting the right visitors for your market.

Finally there is one of the most beneficial forms of advertisement- word of mouth marketing. This is not necessarily something which you can achieve yourself, but rather a method of marketing which is completed by your current customers and visitors for free. Word of mouth marketing works by users of your site adding their own back links on to websites in the form of link sharing. Many companies and websites have benefited from this increasing their traffic thanks to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The way in which you can help this become possible is by providing a website and service which is worth talking about. By doing your own part in terms of promoting your website and your own marketing strategies on sites such as these, they are more likely to be noticed by visitors who will then be motivated to visit them. If they like what they see, they can then use bookmarking and other back linking methods to share with other web users they know, thus providing you with free marketing.

Generating traffic to your site is simple when you take into consideration what is right for your website. By looking at the way in which other websites are using the web to promote themselves, you too will soon discover the benefits which come from using simple, yet effective marketing techniques and see your traffic levels soar.

Daniel McDowell is CEO of DLM International LLC which operates globally providing products and services to their many clients, operating a variety of websites in many countries. To find out more about getting traffic to a website go to: http://www.trafficgrabsystem.com

23/04/2010

Gasta Keywords

Entrepreneur country

Monitise achieves two major milestones
Developing shareholdings and incentive packages
French 'superangel' network announces €25m first fund close
Join us at the upcoming Entrepreneur Country forum, In A World With No Money... 16 June 2010, London
Entrepreneurs Petition against AIFM Directive - Act by Sunday 25 April !

You'll find interviews with many of the UK and Europe's leading entrepreneurs at www.entrepreneurcountry.net.

Monitise Achieves Two Major Milestones
Leading mobile banking and payments provider Monitise has reached two key milestones over the last week. Firstly the company announced it now has over 2 million registered users in the UK and the US, driven by increased uptake of its smartphone apps, and secondly, it has achieved a market capitalisation of £102m.

Monitise provides its secure Mobile Money Manager platform to over 240 banks and financial institutions in the US and UK, with 100 million transactions processed by the platform every year.

Soren Bested, managing director of Monitise Americas commented: “Activity across the Monitise platform continues to increase, servicing millions of transactions every month as we enable more services by text, mobile app, and browser. Smartphones continue to have a big impact on mobile banking - downloading an app and banking on their handset is becoming second nature to many users.”

In the UK, Monitise has partnerships with major retail banks including HSBC, Lloyds TSB, first direct, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Ulster Bank. In the US, Monitise Americas provides mobile banking and payments services to over 200 financial institutions including banks, credit unions, and prepaid card issuers.

Developing shareholdings and incentive packages

by Andrew Moss, corporate finance partner at Duncan Sheard Glass

Issuing or selling shares can often represent a complex challenge for even the most savvy entrepreneurs to negotiate. Where a business is family-run or has personal ties, such decisions can take on an additional, emotive complication.

Whether considering a partial exit, employee share options or recruiting a non-executive, the decision must be made with the express purpose of improving the business. If the overall value of the business consequently increases, the remainder held by the entrepreneur should exceed the whole had the transaction not happened.

When a business owner has resolved to release shares in their business, a shareholder agreement can provide protection for all parties involved.

When drafting the agreement, entrepreneurs should include clauses that allow them to continue drawing money from the business in dividend form for tax purposes without being hamstrung by paying dividends to other shareholders under present legislation. This can usually be achieved quite easily by using different classes of shares.

Shareholder agreements will generally contain specific clauses to determine what happens upon exit and, perhaps more importantly, protect the majority and minority shareholders by barring one from selling their holding and leaving the other vulnerable. Imagine the consequences of a competitor gaining a shareholding in your business.

Read the article here

French 'superangel' network announces €25m first fund close

France's internet entrepreneurs look set to receive a boost with the announcement last week that ISAI, a 'superangel' fund started by some of France's most experienced internet entrepreneurs, has held a first close of €25m.

The fund, which bills itself as "by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs", plans to invest in round sizes between business angels and traditional VCs. ISAI aims to invest in 12 businesses with strong growth potential over the next 12 years. It will put EUR 500,000 to EUR 1.5 million into internet companies less than five years old that have gone through the proof-of-concept phase.

The fund's founding partners include Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, founder of French e-commerce site PriceMinister.com, Phone House France's Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, Former AOL CEO Stéphane Treppoz, and serial entrepreneur Ouriel Ohayon.

Jean-David Chamboredon, previously the head of 3i's VC arm in France, will lead the fund. His track record as a VC is impressive out of 11 early stage investments, 10 are either profitable, have been acquired or completed IPOs.

The majority of the fund comes from 60 founders who will act as a "brain trust" for ISAI, potentially taking board seats and co-investing personally alongside the ISAI fund.

In A World With No Money...

Entrepreneur Country Forum
16 June 2010
IET London: Savoy Place

We're pleased to announce a superb speaker line-up for our next Entrepreneur Country Forum, In A World With No Money...

The economic landscape today is perhaps the most challenging it has ever been for entrepreneurs looking to start businesses and companies trying to grow and expand. With investment capital scarce, businesses of all sizes are being forced to develop alternative growth strategies which are less reliant on substantial cash injections from external investors.

Founded by BBC Online Dragon and CEO of Ariadne Capital Julie Meyer, this must-attend event brings together entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders involved in the world of high-growth internet and technology businesses.

Top quality speakers will address the challenges of doing business in a world with no money:

Julie Meyer - CEO, Ariadne Capital
Lex Fenwick - Chairperson, Bloomberg LP
Rob Hersov - entrepreneur, catalyst and investor
Dominique Vidal - Partner, Index Ventures, co-founder of Kelkoo
Judy Piatkus - founder, Piatkus Books
Alex Cheatle - founder and CEO, Ten Lifestyle Management
Guy Rigby - Head of Entrepreneurs, Smith & Williamson
The day includes pitching sessions, lively panel debates, a showcase of pioneering digital businesses and workshops focused on specific business challenges.

In recognition of the challenging business environment and the theme of the forum, we are offering News, Views and Issues readers a super discount of £200 off the full delegate rate, bringing it down to a very affordable £95!

This is a limited time offer, available only until 14 May 2010, so register now using the discount code NVI2010 to secure your place.
http://entrepreneurcountry.eventbrite.com

If you have any queries, please contact enquiries@entrepreneurcountry.net

Entrepreneurs Petition against AIFM Directive - Act by Sunday 25 April !

Blog post from Fred Destin, Partner at Atlas Ventures

Euro Entrepreneurs, time to lobby! By this Sunday night, April 25, we need to get a significant number of European entrepreneurs to help the European Venture Capital Association in lobbying the EU and signing a petition against this damaging Directive.

Vote against an extensive Directive that will damage European Venture:

The directive sets out a number of measures ill-suited to venture capital and the financing of innovation. This is because it is designed to be a catch-all regulatory blanket that encompasses everyone from hedge funds to venture firms. The impact on both VC firms and startups is potentially significant:

Discriminatory disclosure requirements and administrative burden affecting startups backed by venture capital
Cost of compliance estimated at €30,000 per year for your companies
Absurd capital requirements imposed on venture firms
Requirement to use outside depositaries (i.e. custodians) and independent valuation agents, adding cost and complexity
There is a detailed review of these measures on EVCA.eu under "AIFM Directive". In a striking survey, the EVCA finds that 2/3 of investors questioned would reduce allocations to venture as a result of proposed regulation.

By emailing EVCA you will become a co-signatory to a letter published below, prepared by a fellow entrepreneur, Tom Van Aken of Avantium:

We represent a slice of the 25,000-plus population of European businesses that currently benefit from private equity and venture capital support. We are therefore increasingly alarmed by proposals within the EU’s draft Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive that would prejudice private equity and venture capital-backed companies such as ours, and ultimately restrict access to finance for Europe’s growth companies.

Act now:

Send an email to replies@evca.eu stating name, company name and HQ location and titled "Entrepreneur Petition against AIFM Directive"

20/04/2010

Gasta Keywords

The SEO industry is still in its infancy stage whether you want to admit it or not. The search engines are very young and sites like Google are just starting to get things right in the sense of really understanding how to catalog and display search data for users. Some websites come and go in short burst of energy and some stick around for the long haul. The same goes with various marketing efforts.

It is important to never avoid a marketing effort simply because you think it will not stick around for long. I still hear people say that Twitter is short winded and it will only be here for just a few years. Even if it is shouldn’t you be there trying to scoop up new business while you can? Everything in life is evolving including the business world. The internet has created a fast moving platform for people to express themselves and to communicate on. Regardless of an efforts life cycle you should always be using it to market yourself. In today’s marketplace there is no time or room for denial. Websites and marketing efforts move in large sweeping motions so it is important to take advantage of any new or existing marketing effort you can incorporate into your business plan.

5 Years ago MySpace was the big dog in the industry. Now the numbers have been steadily declining for about the last 24 months while websites like Facebook and Twitter have seen explosive growth leaping frogging the competition almost overnight. During the height of the MySpace era lots of businesses made a great deal of money and grew their business marketing themselves in that specific online community. Now the demographic has really shifted away as they continue to lose more users but that doesn’t mean that MySpace should have been avoided all together. If nobody used it years ago many of those businesses would not have made the revenues they did if they chose to avoid it all together. The point is many online communication vehicles are always changing so it is important to hop on now than to regret later you didn’t even show up for the party.

07/04/2010

Gasta Ireland Facts

The most northerly point is Inishtrahull Island, situated in the Atlantic Ocean 7 km north of Inishowen Peninsula, county Donegal. It lies at latitude 55.43ºN. Of mainland Ireland, the most northerly point is a headland 2 km northeast of Malin Head, Inishowen Peninsula, county Donegal. It lies at latitude 55.38ºN.
Most easterly point The most easterly point is Big Bow Meel Island, which is a rock situated 900 metres off the Ards Peninsula, county Down, at longitude 5.42ºW. Of mainland Ireland, the most easterly point is Burr Point, Ards Peninsula, county Down at longitude 5.43ºW. It is situated 2 km southeast of the village of Ballyhalbert.
Most southerly point The most southerly point is Fastnet Rock, which lies in the Atlantic Ocean 11.3 km south of mainland county Cork. It lies at latitude 51.37ºN. Of mainland Ireland, the most southerly point is Brow Head, county Cork, which lies 3.8 km east of the marginly more northerly Mizen Head. It lies at latitude 51.43ºN.
Most westerly point* The most westerly point is Tearaght Island, which lies in the Atlantic Ocean 12.5 km west of Dingle Peninsula, county Kerry. It lies at longitude 10.70ºW. Of mainland Ireland, the most westerly point is Garraun Point, Dingle Peninsula, county Kerry which is 2.5 km northwest of Slea Head. It lies at longitude 10.51ºW.
Geographical Centres

* The geographical centre of Ireland is to be found in eastern county Roscommon, at a point 3km (2 miles) south of Athlone town.
* The centre of Ulster is in county Tyrone, at a point 20km (14 miles) east of Omagh town, near the village of Pomeroy.
* The centre of Munster is in the north of county Cork, at a point 9km (6 miles) south-west of the village of Rath Luirc.
* The centre of Leinster is in western county Kildare, at a point 5km (3 miles) south-west of Kildare town.
* The centre of Connaught is in county Mayo, 6km (4 miles) south-east of the pilgrim village of Knock.
* The centre of Northern Ireland is in eastern county Tyrone, at a point 6km (4 miles) south-east of the town of Cookstown.
* The centre of the Republic of Ireland is in south-eastern county Galway, at a point 3km (2 miles) south-west of the village of Eyrecourt.

Highest altitude The summit of Mt Carrantuohill, county Kerry, rises to 1,041 metres (3414 feet) above sea level. The second highest point is the summit of Mt Beenkeragh, county Kerry, which rises to 1,010 metres (3314 feet) above sea level. The highest point in Northern Ireland is the summit of Slieve Donard, county Down, which rises to 852 metres (2796 feet) above sea level, and is the 8th highest peak in Ireland.
Tallest sea cliffs The sea cliffs at Croaghaun, Achill Island off western Ireland fall 668 metres (2,192 feet) into the Atlantic Ocean. Slieve League in county Donegal has a drop of 601 metres (1,972 feet) into the same ocean. Both cliffs are almost twice the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. However, as there is no vantage point to see the cliffs at Achill Island the Donegal cliffs are more famous.
(thanks to Michele of irelandyes.com for this information)
Most populated county The most heavily populated county is county Dublin, with 1,056,666 inhabitants at the last estimate. The next most heavily populated county is Antrim, with 566,400 inhabitants.
Most densely populated county The most densely populated county is county Dublin, with 1147.3 inhabitants per square kilometre at the last estimate. The next most densely populated is county Antrim, with 199.2 inhabitants per square kilometre.
Least populated county The county with the fewest inhabitants is county Leitrim with just 25,032 inhabitants at the last estimate. The next lowest is county Longford with 30,128 inhabitants.
Most sparsely populated county The most sparsely populated county in Ireland is Leitrim, with a mere 15.8 inhabitants per square kilometre at the last estimate. The next most sparsely populated is county Mayo, which has 19.9 inhabitants per square kilometre.
Largest settlements The largest city in Ireland is Dublin, which at 859,976 inhabitants, is home to almost 1 in 5 Irish people, and more than 1 in 4 in the Irish Republic. The next 9 largest settlements are Belfast (counties Down and Antrim, 475,968), Cork (county Cork, 174,400), Limerick (county Limerick, 75,436) Derry (county Londonderry, 72,334), Newtownabbey (county Antrim, 56,811), Dún Laoghaire (county Dublin, 55,540), Bangor (county Down, 52,437), Galway (county Galway, 50,853) and Lisburn (county Antrim, 42,110). More towns.
Largest county In terms of area, the largest county in Ireland is county Cork at 7,457 km². The next largest is county Galway, at 6,148 km². The largest county in Northern Ireland is county Tyrone, at 3,155 km².
Smallest county The smallest county in Ireland is county Louth, which is just 820 km² in area - 9 times smaller than county Cork. The next smallest is county Carlow, which is 896 km². The smallest county in Northern Ireland is county Armagh, at 1,254 km².
Longest river The longest river in Ireland is the river Shannon whose source is Shannon Pot, county Cavan, and which enters the sea between counties Clare and Limerick after a journey of 386 km (240 miles). It is, in fact, the longest river in the British Isles. The longest river within Northern Ireland is the river Bann, whose source is in the Mourne Mountains, county Down and which enters the sea in county Londonderry after 122 km (76 miles).
Largest lake Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland, which is 396 km² (153 miles²) in area. It forms part of counties Tyrone, Londonderry, Antrim, Down and Armagh. It is, in fact, the largest lake in the British Isles.
Closest to Britain The closest point that Ireland comes to Britain is Torr Head, county Antrim, which is just 23 km (14 miles) from the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland. On most days, fields in Scotland can be seen clearly across the North Channel.
Largest island Besides Ireland itself (82,463 km²) the largest offshore island in Irish waters is Achill island, county Mayo, with an area of 148 km² (57 miles²).
Tallest waterfall Ireland's tallest waterfall is Powerscourt Falls, county Wicklow, where the water drops 106 metres (350 feet). It is the third tallest waterfall in the British Isles.
Sunniest town The town in Ireland which enjoys the most sunshine is Rosslare, county Wexford which has over 1600 hours of sunshine per year (4 hrs, 20 mins per day).
Cloudiest town The town in Ireland which receives the least sunshine is Omagh, county Tyrone which has less than 1200 hours of sunshine per year (3 hrs, 20 mins per day).
Wettest place The wettest place in Ireland is the area of the Maumturk and Partry mountains of counties Mayo and Galway, which receive annually over 2400 mm of rain.
Driest place The driest place in Ireland is Dublin city which receives less than 800 mm of rain per year.

*Excludes Rockall Island, which is situated in the north Atlantic 440 km northwest of county Donegal. Although it is merely an uninhabited outcrop of rock a few tens of metres across, it is important in that whoever owns it can claim the fishing and oil rights around it. It is currently in dispute between Iceland, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and Denmark. Rockall Island is at latitude 57.61ºN, longitude 13.70ºW.

22/03/2010

Gasta Search Network - Working to build your promotions

Gasta Search Network - Working to build an honest web:
Gasta Search Network dot com has grown from one of the World's largest blog networks,
www.Gasta Search Network. We provide three simple packages to get your brand some online conversations and buzz. Whether you simply want blog reviews or would like someone
to help and manage your social media presence online, we've got it covered. We have
unique relationships with over 30,000 bloggers and a network growing by the hour.
Blogging & Social Media Conversations:

If you already have a good website, twitter account, facebook page and a blog but need
to get conversations online and buzzing, this is the option for you. We will give you the
following online exposure:
-Newsletter mention and link to your site, sent to over 25,000 blogger subscribers on
Gasta Search Network.
-20 guaranteed quality true online reviews, written by bloggers from the country or
countries you choose. people searching for products like yours or even looking for your

competitors
products will come across the quality blog reviews mentioning and linking to your
product for years to come.

- Twitter mentions per week through-out the campaign to over 12,500 followers
pointing to your twitter account and most bloggers would be either tweeting their blog
post (to their hundreds and thousands of followers) or retweeting our tweets.
-Banner advert on Gasta Search Network for one month.

-A round-up blog post on the Gasta Search Networkblog blog when the campaign is complete.
Blogging & Social Media Starter Pack:

This package is ideal for any businesses aware of the importance of social media and
online marketing but with little time or expertise on how to implement it into their
marketing strategy. Instead of hiring a "social media" member of staff or an expensive
PR company, we can take care of the hard work to get you started online immediately
and provide instant return on your investment.

We also provide help with managing
your online reputation. For additional fees, we can actually manage your blog, twitter
and facebook accounts on an ongoing basis for you.
As part of the service to kick off your online identity it needs a social media campaign of
which we will run using our blogging community of over 30,000 bloggers.
-Newsletter sent to over 25,000 blogger subscribers
-20 reviews of your product/service by targeted bloggers who will link back to your
product page, twitter account and write an honest opinion based on their experience
with your product.

-Banner ad on Gasta Search Network for the duration of the campaign.
-7 tweets per week to over 2,500 highly influential people through our twitter account.
-A round-up blog post on the FMB blog when the campaign is complete.
-Start you up with vital tools and online accounts such as: twitter, flickr, company blog,
facebook page.
-Report on your online buzz during the campaign to help you manage your online
reputation and encourage you to build relationships with potential customers and online
influencers.
-Access to the Gasta Search Networkblog guide on how to optimize your online campaigns

using social
media.
Get Online With Social Media Monthly Ongoing:

Campaigns as above but spread over one year, we'll manage your campaign with a
guaranteed 2 blog reviews per month, totaling 24 reviews, we'll manage your online
feeds and presence, ensuring a minimum of two posts per week with content relevant to
your audience including twitter and facebook feeds. Ongoing training and twitter/
facebook support and help with managing your brand,
1 x Newsletter mention per quarter with link to your site, sent to over 25 000 blogger
subscribers.
24 x guaranteed quality true online reviews, written by bloggers from the country or
countries you choose. We even allow you to target the type of blog for example "work
at home Mom's" Each blogger is physically sent your product or given a code to try your
service out. They will use correct linking methodology (SEO) and ensure their readers
know where to purchase your product or service. Because of the validity of blog
reviews, people searching for products like yours or even looking for your competitors
products will come across the quality blog reviews mentioning and linking to your
product for years to come.
1 x Twitter mentions per month mentioning relevant news to an audience made up of
PR, Journalists and Bloggers.
1 x Rotating banner advert on Gasta Search Network.
1 x Kick-off blog post on the Gasta Search Networkblog blog and round-up when the

campaign is
complete.

11/03/2010

Gasta Tech News: NISP CONNECT

New York City launches a CONNECT after being inspired in Belfast? Yup. Check it out here…

Hot event listings and updates from Digital NI 2020, halo and Normans blog all below…..

Upcoming Events

NISP CONNECT Frameworks workshops present:
“IP Protection for Startups”
Wed 24th April, 2010 @ Northern Ireland Science Park
By Alan Wallace and Mark Earnshaw

Today’s competitive environment has made it increasingly difficult and important to stay ahead of the competition by adapting a coherent approach to Intellectual Property and the exploitation of the advantages IP can provide them with. In order to exploit this in the company's favour, it is essential that the basics of IP is known and identified. The workshop will help to demystify any common concerns with IP and give a broad understanding of the topic.

Click here for further details

NISP CONNECT Frameworks workshops present:
“The Venture Capital Process”
Thurs 15th April 2010, Northern Ireland Science Park

Click here for further details

Halo Investor Forum
28th April 2010, @ Northern Ireland Science Park

Registered angels, guests and pitching companies only

25k Award: Search for the Next Big Thing: Registration Open

The 2010 25k award: the Search for the Next Big Thing is underway. The purpose of the Awards is to identify, qualify, prepare and present the intellectual property from the publicly funded research base in Northern Ireland with the most commercial potential.

The competition is now open for registrations under the following categories: Hitech, Biotech, CleanTech and Digital Media & Software.

Click here for further details

halo News

HALO LAUNCHES NEW FUND

Halo, the NI Business Angel Network, is well known for running ‘Dragon’s Den for NI’. So for example at its February meeting 55 business angels assembled to watch 7 pitches from local start up companies.

However, in a new and radical bid to further increase private investment in NI companies, halo has launched its own business fund. Managed by Javelin Ventures, a London-based FSA regulated fund manager, the Halo Business Angels EIS Fund will provide for co-investment alongside the halo angels. The fund, which is itself only open to business angels to invest in, allows their money to be pooled and spread across a number of NI companies. This, along with EIS tax relief, has significant advantages for the investors while increasing the amount of money available to be invested in companies.

This fund, only the second of its type in Britain, will close for investment in March and should be looking to co-invest in halo companies from April.

The deadline to apply for the second of this year’s 5 halo meetings is 28th March, so if you have a high growth-potential company seeking investment, apply soon on http://www.nisp.co.uk/NISP-Halo-Entrepreneurs.aspx.

Norman's blog: “Choosing your Next steps at school”
Norman Apsley, NISP Chief Executive

I understand that this is about the time of year that each cohort of pupils in each key stage begins to choose the subjects of the next stage. So KS 3 pupils will be selecting their GCSE subjects and KS4 their AS and A-level courses. Now let me say immediately, I’m not for giving advice. These selections are so personal and so significant that only the pupils and their advisors can take on that responsibility.

I will say what happened to me. Science, especially Physics and Mathematics, fell into my lap and especially by the stage of A-level, it couldn’t have been any other way. That doesn’t mean I don’t have some regrets. My inability to choose between the Arts and the Sciences earlier, meant that my O-level [aka GCSE] curriculum couldn’t fit in Biology; without that subject, it closed off some future science avenues and that is the problem – science disciplines especially are layered structures and understanding needs to be piled on brick by brick.

Click here to read further

Sinclair’s Blog: Digital NI 2020 Update
Sinclair Stockman, Lead for Digital NI 2020
The first steering group meeting for Digital NI 2020 was held in February. Establishing and maintaining representative participation from across all business sectors is a critical input to the success of this initiative.

An update on activity over the past two weeks follows. This has involved a series of meetings with different players and building a better understanding of the extent of the IP core platform which acts as the starting point for our exploitation drive.

Click here to read further

Locate your Company at Northern Ireland Science Park

For further information on work space at Northern Ireland Science Park, click here

Events and notifications from our affiliates

IntertraderIreland Investment Pitch Masterclass
Mon 22nd March, Ramada Hotel, Shaws Bridge
This is a fantastic opportunity to improve your investment pitch by receiving dedicated one to one mentoring from a panel of experts. This would normally cost a company €1000 but IntertradeIreland is able to offer this free of charge.

Click here for further details

Smart Grid Virtual Event:
Tues 30th March – Thurs 1st April
Part of the Sustainability Virtual Summit organized with the UN, Telco 2.0 ‘Smart Grids' looks at opportunities at the intersection of energy and ICT in a unique video-based online setting. Free to participate.

Click here for further details

Dragons Den Looking for Entrepreneurs!
Entrepreneurs from across the country once again have a chance to make their business dreams come true by appearing on Dragons’ Den. If you’re genuinely seeking investment for your business idea or invention, contact Richard Ferguson, halo manager for further information and details on Richard.ferguson@nisp.co.uk.

09/03/2010

Google news:

Welcome to the March 2010 AdSense Newsletter. We hope you enjoy the updates about the new AdSense interface and upcoming webinars!
Gasta.com news
Table of Contents:

• New features and fixes in the new AdSense interface
• New webinar schedule announced

New features and fixes in the new AdSense interface

Back in November, we announced a new AdSense interface designed to give you more insight into your performance, more control over the ads that appear on your sites, and more efficient account management. We've been busy working on the new interface and wanted to share some updates, including new features, things we're currently investigating, and fixes.

Over the last few months, we've heard from publishers that the new interface is more intuitive and easier to navigate than the old interface. In particular, we've heard that the new graphs and metrics, including the ability to compare performance over time, are especially useful. If you haven't spent much time in the new interface, we encourage you to try it out. If you're already using it, please keep sending us your feedback. The feedback we receive from you, our beta testers, directly influences what we work on. You can submit feedback to our team by clicking the 'Feedback' link in the top right corner of your screen while signed in to the new AdSense interface.

Thank you so much for beta testing the new AdSense interface. Keep the feedback coming, and stay tuned for future updates on our blog!

What we've added:
• Cents now included in estimated earnings on the Overview page in the new interface.
• Compare two date ranges in your reports to see how your revenue has changed over time.

What we're working on:
• Increasing speed and improving latency to give you greater efficiency in managing your account.
• Increasing row limit throughout the interface (viewing ad units, channels, reporting).
• Reducing (and eventually removing altogether!) the occurrence of generic error messages like the following:
"We apologize for the inconvenience, but we are unable to process your request at this time. Our engineers have been notified of this problem and will work to resolve it."

What we've fixed:
• Corrected an issue with the 'since last payment' calculation. The Estimated Earnings amount on your homepage now accurately shows 'since last payment' amount, calculated from the 1st of whichever month the last payment was made.
• Resolved the problem where some Internet Explorer users saw a security-warning message when using the new AdSense interface.

New webinar schedule announced

We've just announced a new webinar schedule for the next month. In our upcoming webinars, we'll highlight changes you can make to your ad implementation in order to maximize your AdSense revenue. We'll also answer your questions live during each webinar.

To sign up for our webinars, please visit the webinar schedule in our Help Center (https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=22045). Even if you're not able to attend the live sessions, we'll make sure to upload each webinar recording within 24 hours of the event.

Thanks for reading,
The AdSense team

01/03/2010

UK Hitwise on Gasta.com

United Kingdom Newsletter - February, 2010

Gasta.eu and Gasta.com top Europe climbers in January 2010

Top websites in France
After the recent launch of the Hitwise France service, which provides clients with data on website, industry and category rankings, clickstream traffic activity, search behaviour and keyword research, the following is a first glance into French Internet usage.

Google.fr is the most visited website in France, accounting for 1 in every 10 Internet visits

During the week ending 30/01/10, Google France was the most visited website in France, picking up 10.38% of all French Internet visits - equivalent to 1 in every 10. Two other Google-owned properties also appeared in the list of the 10 most visited websites in France during the same week: YouTube at number 4 and Google.com at number 7.

Top 10 websites in France, ranked by market share of French Internet visits, week ending 30/01/10
1. Google France (10.38%)
2. Facebook (6.83%)
3. Windows Live Mail (3.20%)
4. YouTube (2.37%)
5. Orange France Webmail (1.96%)
6. Orange France (1.88%)
7. Google (1.73%)
8. Sykrock (1.43%)
9. Leboncoin.fr (1.26%)
10. MSN France (1.01%)

Facebook is the second most visited website in France, accounting for 6.83% of all French Internet visits during the week ending 30/01/10. The site accounted for just under half of all French visits to social networks over the same period, picking up over twice as many visits as second placed YouTube. Skyrock is the third most popular social network in France, and the eighth most popular website overall.

Windows Live Mail, (also known as Windows Live Hotmail) is the third most visited website in France and the most popular webmail service. Orange France Webmail is the next most popular webmail service and fifth most visited website overall, while Orange France ranks sixth. The list of the top 10 websites in France is completed by Leboncoin.fr, the most popular Shopping and Classifieds website, at number nine, and MSN France in tenth position.

Social networking is a more popular activity in France than in the UK, but online shopping less so

Search Engines are the most visited category of website in France, accounting for 14.27% of all French Internet visits during the week ending 30/01/10. Social networks and Forums rank second, picking up 12.85% of French Internet visits - more than the 10.61% the industry accounts for in the UK. Shopping and Classifieds websites, on the other hand, account for a higher percentage of Internet visits in the UK (8.74%) than in France (8.44%).

France and the UK have very similar sized Internet populations, so it is interesting to compare the different ways in which the web is used in the two countries. In France, more online time is spent on communication and entertainment than in the UK, with Entertainment websites and Webmail services also picking up a higher proportion of visits. On the other hand, people in the UK are more likely to use the Internet to make transactions and look for information. News and Media, Sports, Travel, and Education websites all account for a higher proportion of Internet visits in the UK than in France.
Fast Movers
Chatroulette - www.chatroulette.com
Position for the w/e 09/01/2010: #22,164
Position for the w/e 06/02/2010: #2,318
Positions Jumped: 19,846

For the week ending 13/02/10 Chatroulette, a new webcam site connecting users for live video chats at random, doubled its online traffic becoming the 1,189th most visited website in the UK and second most visited webcam site in the UK after www.Justin.tv.

Aside from the random nature of the meetings it arranges, the other interesting thing about Chartroulette is its visitor profile. Compared with other Webcam sites, it attracts a much wealthier and more 'sophisticated' audience than the webcam category in general. The most over-indexed Experian Mosaic groups visiting the website during the w/e 13/02/10 were: Alpha Territory (described as 'People with substantial wealth who live in the most sought after neighbourhoods'), Professional Rewards ('Experienced professionals in successful careers enjoying comfortable lifestyles in suburban or semi-rural homes') and Liberal Opinions ('Young, well educated city dwellers enjoying the vibrancy and diversity of urban life').

Whether the site is attracting these people because of its novelty value remains to be seen, but with average session times at a relatively respectable seven and a half minutes, many are staying out of more than just curiosity. As might be expected from a site that has become a viral success, a third of Chartroulette's traffic currently comes from social networks, with Facebook alone accounting for 23% of visits for the same period.

News In Brief
Apple Tablet the fourth most searched for laptop in the UK
Following the recent buzz and rumoured announcement of Apple's highly anticipated Tablet PC, the laptop became the fourth most searched for laptop model in the UK for the week ending 23/01/10. A look at the latest Hitwise Hot Consumer Electronics List shows that a portfolio of searches including terms such as 'apple tablet', 'apple islate', 'itablet', and 'ipad' accounted for 1.9% of all laptop related searches over the same period, up from 1.1% the week before (w/e 16/01/10). Only the Sony Viao, Samsung NC10 netbook and Apple's own Macbook (although not the Macbook Pro) received more searches.

Despite the increase in searches and all the hype, the Tablet was far from being Apple's most searched for product towards the end of January. In fact, it account for just 0.8% of Apple related searches - 35 times less than the iPhone.

Promotions
Every Penny Counts
Good data quality is essential in the charity sector, it helps you to communicate with your donors more effectively and boost donations.

Download a selection of Experian QAS resources on the charity sector.

Financial Services Quarterly Review
Exclusive to Hitwise clients, this quarterly report provides in-depth analysis of the trends that matter to the business and finance and insurance industries. The latest Review, based on trends from October - December 2009, includes a focus on potential for a recovery in the UK property market and the demographics of finance comparison websites.

For more information on how you can access to the full report, please email support.uk@hitwise.com.

Already a Hitwise client? Contact your Account Manager to start receiving this quarterly report automatically.

Media queries at Hitwise
If you are interested in using Hitwise content and statistics in publications and presentations, we encourage you to do so. Please source the content as "Hitwise United Kingdom - www.hitwise.com/uk".
Additionally, if you require assistance with statistics or content, please feel free to contact

04/02/2010

Gasta Keyword targeting: Massive traffic increases in January 2010

Keyword targeting completes the Gasta Network location-focused online and mobile device ad serving solution

Gasta Network, the premier location-focused ad network, today announced the addition of keyword targeting to the company’s ad targeting arsenal. Gasta Network’s proprietary Location Logic technology allows advertisers to target the delivery of their ads by including or excluding audiences based on where the audiences are living, along with the audiences’ expressed geographies of interest. With the ability to stack multiple location targeting criteria, coupling Location Logic with keyword targeting provides Gasta Network advertisers with the most advanced location-driven targeting available online or on mobile device today.

“The addition of keyword-targeting rounds out the Gasta Network offering – and is generating a great deal of excitement and inbound interest throughout the digital advertising community,” said Gasta Network CEO, Christopher Morris. “With the recent addition of new partners, including new resellers, advertisers and collaborators in development, Gasta Network is well positioned to take advantage of the recent explosion in demand for location-based advertising.”

“With Location Logic and keyword ad serving technology, Gasta Network is poised to not only serve ads on maps, but on any website or mobile application with a location-focused theme,” said Gasta Network Founder and CTO, Dr. David Baar. “We can now select ads using logic that ingests both the user’s physical location, and locations they express interest in, plus keywords, and perform combinatorial include/exclude logic on this set of location and context information to serve them an appropriate ad. We also can consider the ‘degree of locality’ of the user's interest in deciding whether to show a local business ad or a more brand-oriented one.”

Gasta Network ad-serving is available for all location oriented websites and mobile applications, including those for devices featuring iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems. Mobile application developers and web content publishers can contact bizz@amiwired.com for more information on how to achieve additional revenues through location-targeted Gasta Network ads. Advertisers can contact bizz@amiwired.com to develop their next location-targeted ad campaign.

About Gasta Network

We Monetize Location. Gasta Network is a fast-growing location-focused advertising network made up of websites and mobile applications delivering Real Estate, Travel, Health & Fitness, News, Weather and Traffic information. Gasta Network provides local and brand advertisers with an interactive medium for delivering geo-targeted display ads to a large and actively engaged user community, based on Gasta Network’s Location Logic ad selection and delivery technology. For mobile and web developers, Gasta Network transforms online maps, websites and mobile applications from cost centers into revenue-generating properties. To learn more about Gasta Network, visit www.Gasta Network.com.

28/01/2010

27/01/2010

Gasta Keywords : a collaboration in marketing

Work with Gasta.com for Long Tail Success

Independent Analyst Study Determines That Collaboration Improves Business Results
Collaboration technologies are changing how, when and where we work. To gain a competitive advantage, leading organizations are developing a collaboration strategy that will enable innovation and improve productivity.

Although collaboration is positioned to be the next great promoter of enterprise efficiency, the business benefits are limited unless an organization builds a unified program to support the use of new tools and to facilitate organizational change.

Study Highlights New Collaboration Methods
A recently completed study commissioned by Cisco from Forrester Consulting reveals how companies are currently investing in collaboration technology and what they plan for the future. Among the findings:

Business goals are driving adoption of collaboration technologies
New collaboration tools are adding value across business functions
Emerging collaboration tools present transformative benefits
An architectural approach to deployment of collaboration technology brings a competitive advantage
Tangible Benefits of Architecture for Collaboration
The Forrester study highlights the business benefits of building the right collaboration architecture:

Makes distributed teams more productive
Reduces travel and meeting expenses
Enables an increasingly mobile workforce
Expands adoption of collaboration tools

26/01/2010

Europasearch Update: Guardian’s Rusbridger Urges Against Industry-Wide Paywalls

Europasearch.com Tech Debate

Guardian’s Rusbridger Urges Against Industry-Wide Paywalls

It’s not the Berlin Wall and Rupert Murdoch heads News Corp (NYSE: NWS). not the USSR, but Alan Rusbridger’s speech on the future of journalism Monday evokes Ronald Reagan’s exhortation “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” The Guardian editor-in-chief used the 2010 Hugh Cudlipp Lecture to deliver a counterpoint to Murdoch’s plans to put News Corp.‘s online news properties behind some kind of paywall—and his repeat urgings that the rest of the news industry follow suit. Rusbridger reminded listeners that the Murdoch who now embraces paywalls is the same “brave, radical proprietor” who favored “reach before revenue” when he “ruthlessly” undersold his papers or has backed free models.

Rusbridger has made no secret of his belief that open access equals reach equals influence—as he illustrated during the talk, Guardian has gone from selling only 650 copies outside the UK in 1956 to one of the top English-speaking news sites globally— so he isn’t breaking major ground. And he isn’t completely arguing against paywalls as much as the notion that they can work across the industry. (Conversely, some argue that online news paywalls can only work if everyone does it.) But, using Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.‘s admission that charging for frequent access to NYTimes.com is a “bet,” Rusbridger suggests both men are playing a “hunch.”

He adds: “To put it another way, it may be right for the Times of London and New York, but not for everyone. It may be right at some point for everybody in the future, but not yet. There is probably general agreement that we may all want to charge for specialist, highly-targeted, hard-to-replicate content. It’s the ‘universal’ bit that is uncertain.” Rusbridger draws a different line for mobile. The Guardian already has one of the top paid iPhone news apps, selling 70,000 subscriptions at £2.39 the first month. “It’s one clue to the future, not an epiphany.”

Rusbridger’s multi-layered message is best read intact and I urge anyone who is interested in the subject to do just that. (You can also watch a video interview with Rusbridger. Oddly for all the talk of an open web, embedding isn’t allowed.) Some excerpts:

—“If you erect a universal pay wall around your content then it follows you are turning away from a world of openly shared content. Again, there may be sound business reasons for doing this, but editorially it is about the most fundamental statement anyone could make about how newspapers see themselves in relation to the newly-shaped world.”

—“There is an irreversible trend in society today which rather wonderfully continues what we as an industry started – here, in newspapers, in the UK. It’s not a “digital trend” – that’s just shorthand. It’s a trend about how people are expressing themselves, about how societies will choose to organise themselves, about a new democracy of ideas and information, about changing notions of authority, about the releasing of individual creativity, about an ability to hear previously unheard voices; about respecting, including and harnessing the views of others. About resisting the people who want to close down free speech.

As Scott said 90 years ago: “What a chance for the newspaper!” If we turn our back on all this and at the same time conclude that there is nothing to learn from it because what ‘they’ do is different – ‘we are journalists, they aren’t: we do journalism; they don’t’ – then, never mind business models, we will be sleep walking into oblivion.”

Staci D. Kramer
twitter @sdkstl
Disclosure: Our publisher ContentNext is a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian News & Media.

24/01/2010

Gasta Tech News: Chris Crum webpronews article on RDFa

Gasta Tech Update: A Markup That Could Have Big Implications for SEO
RDFa Could Play an Increasingly Big Role in Search

RDFa, which stands for Resource Description Framework in attributes, is a W3C recommendation, which adds a set of attribute level extensions to XHTML for embedding rich metadata within web documents. While not everyone believes that W3C standards are incredibly necessary to operate a successful site, some see a great deal of potential for search engine optimization in RDFa.

In fact, this is the topic of a current WebProWorld thread, which was started by Dave Lauretti of MoreStar, who asks, "Are you working the RDFa Framework into your SEO campaigns?" He writes, "Now under certain conditions and with certain search strings on both Google and Yahoo we can find instances where the RDFa framework integrated within a website can enhance their listing in the search results."

Lauretti refers to an article from last summer at A List Apart, by Mark Birbeck who said that Google was beginning to process RDFa and Microformats as it indexes sites, using the parsed data to enhance the display of search results with "rich snippets". This results in the Google results you see like this:
RDFa in play

"It's a simple change to the display of search results, yet our experiments have shown that users find the new data valuable -- if they see useful and relevant information from the page, they are more likely to click through," Google said upon the launch of rich snippets.

Google says it is experimenting with markup for business and location data, but that it doesn't currently display this information, unless the business or organization is part of a review (hence the results in the above example). But when review information is marked up in the body of a web page, Google can identify it and may make it available in search results. When review information is shown in search results, this can of course entice users to click through to the page (one of the many reasons to treat customers right and monitor your reputation).

Currently Google uses RDFa for reviews, but this search also displays the date of the review, the star rating, the author and the price range of an iPod, as Lauretti points out.

Best Buy's lead web development engineer reported that by adding RDFa the company saw improved ranking for respective pages. They saw a 30% increase in traffic, and Yahoo evidently observed a 15% increase in click-through rates.(via Steven Pemberton)

Implications for SEO

I'm not going to get into the technical side of RDFa here (see resources listed later in the article), but I would like to get into some of the implications that Google's use of RDFa could have on SEO practices. For one, rich snippets can show specific information related to products that are searched for. For example, a result for a movie search could bring up information like:

- Run time
- Release Date
- Rating
- Theaters that are showing it

"The implementation of RDFa not only gives more information about products or services but also increases the visibility of these in the latest generations of search engines, recommender systems and other applications," Lauretti tells WebProNews. "If accuracy is an issue when it comes to search and search results then pages with RDFa will get better rankings as there would be little to question regarding the page theme." (Source) He provides the following chart containing examples of the types of data that could potentially be displayed with RDFa:
RDFa Implications

"It is obvious that search marketers and SEOs will be utilizing this ability for themselves and their clients," says Lauretti. Take contact information specifically. "Using RDFa in your contact information clarifies to the search engine that the text within your contact block of code is indeed contact information." He says in this same light, "people information" can be displayed in the search results (usually social networking info). You could potentially show manufacturer information or author information.

RDFa actually has implications beyond just Google's regular web search. With respect to Google's Image search, the owner of images can also use RDFa to provide license information about the images they own. Google currently allows image searchers to have images displayed based on license type, and using RDFa with your images lets the search bots know under which licenses you are making your images available (Via Mark Birbeck). There is also RDFa support for video.

Following are some resources where you can learn more about RDFa and how to implement it:

Google Introduces Rich Snippets
Introduction to RDFa
RDFa Primer
About RDFa (Google Webmaster Central)
RDFa to Provide Image License Info
RDFa Microformat Tagging For Your Website
For Businesses and Organizations
About Review Data (Google Webmaster Central)

Google's Matt Cutts has said in the past that Google has been kind of "white listing" sites to get rich snippets, as Google feels they are appropriate, but as they grow more confident that such snippets don't hurt the user experience, then Google will likely roll the ability out more and more broadly. This is one thing to keep an eye on as the year progresses, and is why those in the WebProWorld thread believe RDFa will become a bigger topic of discussion in 2010.

WebProNews would like to thank Dave Lauretti, who contributed some findings to this piece.

23/01/2010

Gasta Property: Property Mentor

We are nearly into February already, but 2010 is proving to be an incredible year for property investment.

I just wanted to send you a quick email today to prove to you why low property prices isn’t the only reason you should book onto one of our free 2 hour taster sessions.

I was reading an article in The Guardian the other day which revealed that in the last 50 years:

1. We have had 4 PROPERTY BOOMS. 1971-73, 1977-80, 1985-89 AND 1998-2007.
And you know what they say? History just loves to repeat itself… Luckily, if you book and attend one of our free 2 hour tasters TODAY, you too can utilise our 8 PROVEN investment strategies which are capable of working in all economic climates.

2. UK population has grown from 9m to 61.6m.
That is roughly 1m extra people every year that YOU can offer a home to. Book your place now

3. Single person households have increased from 20% of the market place to 33%.
As a nation we are living longer, and unfortunately divorce rates have risen alongside it. Our FREE course has been tailored to take advantage of the growing market of singletons so you can quickly and efficiently offer them a clean break from their former lives – while still benefiting from £1,000 monthly profits.

4. Home ownership has fallen from 70% to 68% of the market.
It’s not that surprising that home ownership still dominants the market place, but here is the thing… constrained by low levels of lending, huge deposits and limited finance, more and more people are looking to escape the restrictions of mortgages and are renting instead. We will show you how to take advantage of the changing marketplace…

5. UK property prices have risen from £2,507 to £162,085.
That is an impressive 6,400% increase, despite 3 recessions! And you don’t have to miss out… Act now and you can still get your slice of last years 9.4% property price increases before we boom again

If these statistics are anything to go by the next big property boom is just around the corner…

So revisit us NOW at www.PropertyMentor.co.uk and make sure you dont miss out on: 6,400% property price increases, property booms and the demands of an expanding rental niche.

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18/01/2010

About Gasta search network

About Gasta

Started in Belfast in 1998 Gasta is a global search engine and web directory. Gasta has now launched SearchMatch paid inclusion programs for all of its engines and sees paid listings as the future of Internet marketing enabling and empowering advertisers to bid on niche Keywords and phrases that are directly related to their business.

Geo Targeting

Gasta Europe automatically includes effective Geo Targeting of advertising across regions so the user searching in Dublin receives adverts from Dublin and UK Regions and the user searching in New York receives inventory from USA regions.

More than 97% of gasta.com users live and/or work in the regional search areas the index is aimed at. This offers an extremely focused way of targeting prospective customers. Localize to globalize. With Gasta.com you the advertiser only pay for the traffic you receive. Gasta.com has a unique featured Site scheme allows you to directly gear expenditure to traffic. This is the most cost effective method with no wasted clicks.

Diverse User Base

Gasta.com search results are rendered by a network of Search Partners ranging from major Internet brands to organizations who specifically address the Region.

Gasta.com has a more focussed appeal because it is targeted directly to a local audience

Ad Management

24/7 Ad Campaign Management access your account and manage your listings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the gasta.com Management and bid System

Opportunities exist for partnerships with Gasta.com as trends suggest that in the near future all search engines will be regionalised. If you have a business idea or would like to partner with the gasta search network in any global region, contact gasta.com.

Gasta.com search network

UK-Based Gasta Search Engine Network Enters Into Sales / Merger Talks

The Gasta search network is a blended search that will deliver web results, news, videos, and images with one single keyword search, then lets users social bookmark search results in their own library. The Gasta search network extends its reach into Europe and USA, has search engines launched in South Africa, China, and Japan. Gasta is a European trademark and the Gasta search engine was last year's winner of the PWC award for innovation, it also holds one of the UK most valuable property domain holdings.

Belfast, Ireland (PRWEB) October 14, 2008 -- It was announced here today that the Belfast-based web 2.0 Search Engine Network Gasta is in talks with several companies for a possible sale or merger. A well established player in European, US, and Asian search, The Gasta.com search engine network currently consists of 450+ Domains, is translated into six languages, offers a contextualised ad system, powerful SEO options, keyword management tools, and full service administration to create, launch, and quickly deploy new search engines in emerging markets and geographical regions as needed.

Gasta has created a very easy to use back-end admin system that is designed for non technical use, within the admin you can add new keywords, manage ad campaigns, replicate advertising codes, and launch new search index's and directories in minutes, Gasta has developed its own text based contextualised ad system, InstantAds™ and the keyword direct hit service SearchMatch™ allowing users to buy targeted keywords for the geographic region they do business in. As well as this there are many seo options including InstantLinks™ the free link exchange system that publishes the main directory." We can launch new search engines in emerging regions very easily, with the rapid deployment platform we have developed" said Higgins. "We can launch in Poland and Malaysia very quickly and have been looking out for possible local partners on the ground in these regions".

While Gasta.com is well-established in the Search Industry, it has chosen to maintain a low profile and provided state of the art services to its visitors and advertisers. Christian Nielsen, owner of Nielsentech.com, an Internet consulting firm located in the US said he has used Gasta for many years. "Yes, I was submitting client sites to Gasta's system back as early as 1999 when we started doing SEO and web promotion. They have evolved over the years, and we have keep in contact due to their attitude of service and ethics. Most other firms in the US don't seem to know about them and that's been a competitive edge for us."

Gasta.com owner Francis Higgins believes that now is a 'good time' to transition the search engines network due to the convergence of web 2.0 technologies. Higgins said "We believe that we have created great distribution platform to easily explore and rapidly develop new and emerging regions. We have looked into the possibility of partnering with a mobile carrier to deliver local mobile search in which great opportunities are coming in the future, Gasta works well now on mobiles but we would need the expertise of the big carriers to make an impact and monetise the service.

We have worked hard over the past 12 years to improve the reach and the depth of the Gasta network. With the rapid deployment and white label solution we have developed we can quickly launch blended search engines that will bring up web results, videos, news, and images with one keyword. Our brand commands a high level of respect by those that are familiar with us and those that do some research will see our extensive digital footprint built up over the years that shows our quality and consistency and has established our brand's value in the search marketing industry."

Contacts
Francis Higgins
Comm Director Gasta Search Networks
bizz @ amiwired.com

Gasta.com Keywords

13/11/2010

Gasta search network

11/08/2010

Gasta SEO: As good a guide as any from Fathom SEO

26/04/2010

Gasta Keywords

23/04/2010

Gasta Keywords

20/04/2010

Gasta Keywords

07/04/2010

Gasta Ireland Facts

22/03/2010

Gasta Search Network - Working to build your promotions

11/03/2010

Gasta Tech News: NISP CONNECT

09/03/2010

Google news:

01/03/2010

UK Hitwise on Gasta.com

04/02/2010

Gasta Keyword targeting: Massive traffic increases in January 2010

28/01/2010

Gasta Search Network Bookmarking and Sharing Resource

27/01/2010

Gasta Keywords : a collaboration in marketing

26/01/2010

Europasearch Update: Guardian’s Rusbridger Urges Against Industry-Wide Paywalls

24/01/2010

Gasta Tech News: Chris Crum webpronews article on RDFa

23/01/2010

Gasta Property: Property Mentor

18/01/2010

About Gasta search network

Gasta.com search network

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