Intermarketing by Merkados™» Opinion

Using Teasers Effectively in Online Marketing

admin — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:15:35 +0000

The concept of a teaser

A teaser is a perfect way of presenting your information without giving away all of it. With the rise of interactive marketing the concept of teasers has become more and more utilized. With the amount of information that you can find online it’s difficult to prove your value to anybody these days. With a teaser people learn about your products and at the same time allow you an opportunity to explain why should they care. But wait, can the wrong teaser harm your business?

In this article, Alex Centeno MBA, creative director and online marketing strategist with over 10 years of experience online, provides you with his no-bs, straight to the point, take on how to create effective teasers. Give your users a taste of your product or information while gaining an advantage that can generate a lot of business. These interesting keys will transform your potential market into faithful buyers.

So what are the keys to providing the right teaser?

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Programming a Slider for WordPress 3.3

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:40:15 +0000

If you are a designer or developer starting in the use of WordPress as one of your Content Management Systems of choice, then perhaps there will come a time when you’ll want to implement a Homepage slider.

So what is a Slider exactly? A slider is also known as a “Featured Image Section” that usually transitions from one message to another either by fading in and out or by other effects like SlidingUp or ZoomingIn. In any event, the use of Sliders has been a very popular one because not only is it the most prominent thing in a page because of its size, also it has movement. This combination will attract the eyes of your audience better than anything else, and therefore is a good promotional tool for your site.

Now, you could hard-code the slider in place and be done with it. However, wouldn’t it be better if you could simply upload your images via your WordPress Admin Interface and they would show up in your slider?

Solution

Activate Featured Images for your posts in your WordPress Admin Section. This is easily done by adding a couple of lines of code to your functions.php file. If you don’t know what a functions.php file is, then perhaps you need to start by checking out the basic components of your themes and revise the codex to learn more about it first.
```
// adds support for the thumbnails in the pages.
add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' );
```

Also while you are there, make sure you create a resizing option for the image that is going to be used in your Slider.

// slider size for Sliders in the Home Page
add_image_size( 'slider-image', 980, 342 ); // Exact Size of the sliders 980 x 342

Go to your Homepage template (perhaps index.php) and locate where you are intending to create the slider. Then simply create a new loop and call the Featured Images of a particular Category of Posts:

/*
* Selection of Slider by User
*
*
*/

// create a wp_query for the slider. This loop will only include posts with category slider and limit the amount to 5
$slider_query = new WP_Query('category_name=Slider&posts_per_page=5');
if( $slider_query->have_posts() ) : while ($slider_query->have_posts() ) : $slider_query->the_post();
if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) :
// grab the attachment image with the right resizing option and put it in $image.
$image = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id(), 'slider-image' );


" width="980" height="342" />

// back to php
endif;
endwhile;
endif;

That’s it, now to use it is very simple. Simply create a new post and select category: Slider. That tells WordPress that this post is to be used in your Slider Section in your Homepage. Then upload an image as a “Featured Image” for that particular post. This image, will be modified by WordPress to display in the right size.
What you are doing behind the scenes is very simple: You are first creating a new loop(see codex if you need more help with understanding loops), then you grab the Featured Image of the posts with category “Slider” and then finally you create an html image tag with the results of that loop. In this case I am limiting the results to 5 posts for speed of loading.

Hope this helps and don’t hesitate to comment below.

Until next time,

Alex

Strategy Concepts: Increasing your Strengths – Small Business Series

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:46:19 +0000

You are probably not in the business of confrontation, however there are plenty of occasions in the life of a small business owner where you’ll need the benefits and advantages of the strength position. Every one of the small business owners that I meet with on the regular basis wants to grow their business, every single one of them. In this post, I am going to share with you a common problem that I see with most small business owners. This problem is so prominent that I am sure that you are suffering from it. I give you a quick example of the problem and of course give you one way of solving it and pro pulse your business forward.

This post shouldn’t be free. But it is. So make sure that you check it out.

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Keychain Access Window Problem – A’s in Squares Mac OS X

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:02:58 +0000

So let’s say that you turn on your Mac for another day at work and all of a sudden when you get the keychain access window to enter your password, you end up seeing something like the one in Figure 1 below. Your keychain access windows (your system) is having all these weird characters and now you can’t read your messages for access. You may start by going to Google and trying to find solutions, however you may not find anything, just like I did.

Figure 1.

What do you do to correct this? Not only it is annoying, also it may be dangerous to click something you can’t read. Imagine if you install something that you shouldn’t!

Here is how to fix it:

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Alex Centeno MBA.
Creative Director & Digital Media Strategist
Merkados Interactive Partners
www.Merkados.com

Online marketing shaped by the need to become

admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:00:48 +0000

One thing every online marketing specialist has to understand is that no matter what he does he always is dealing with individual persons. Once you get involved with analytics the first problem is to start thinking that since you can track behavior as a group of users, all of them are the same. It is very important to understand that in the marketing business you assume that a market has similar needs and desires, and that they want to fill them with great intensity. The more they wait to fill their desires the more stress they receive, until they release the tension by fulfilling the desires.

All of us have desires. Either is a real need: a car, a house, a cell phone, a lottery ticket, friends, love, hosting, bananas and others, or it can be an abstract desire: I want to know the secret because it is secret. For example: a tv show says: “in a few seconds we are going to show you the biggest secret of all times!” and instantly they create in the viewers the abstract desire of completion. You want to know what it is. What for? It doesn’t matter. You just want to know.

The abstract desires can be created at any given moment by websites in different ways. You can create this desires by creating un-conclusive statements to marketing phrases: for example: ” This product comes loaded with all your favorite features! What features are they talking about? Your favoriteâ€¦ How do they know my favorite features? By in-conclusive statements you transform the perception of the customer, because no matter what your copy says the brain has to process it and agree or disagree.

For example: Right now you can agree or disagree with this article, but by reading it you are changing your perspective because you ask yourself if you agree or not.

You can direct the attention of your online users by the way you transform their emotions. For example if I say:

* Think for a second about the smell of the ocean, the warm sand and the breeze, feel the sun burning your skin little by little, think about the feeling later when your skin is all red and it hurts to touch anything, you donâ€™t want to do that.

If you read the last paragraph you don’t only read it and keep going but you actually set yourself in the picture because most of us has experienced that and it is painful.

You can use online copy to create sensations that will move the understanding of your audience in many ways. Some will make them buy, some will not.

If you go in sweater store in the middle of the summer and it is 115 F. out and the store has this huge carpet with long hair and you happen to realize that the A/C is broken inside you probably won’t buy.

Same situation, the hottest day ever, you look up an you see a beach bar selling bear for half price, the bear is 33 – Fahrenheit – just when it is starting to ice, you can feel the little pieces of ice going down your throat – yes, it is very probably that you would buy.

Statement number one in Marketing: Life is about value. You, as everyone else, is fighting to be, to become. Things give us pleasure because they allow us to get closer to becoming or being. We buy food, cars, houses, pens, CDs, magic cards, plastic bags, ice, cheese, stationary bikes. Get it? Just to become. The value of everything is determined by the ability to give that power> a glass of water from a neighbor won’t be of value most of the time, except if you need that water to survive in the desert.

If you want to market products online successfully, find that one characteristic that makes people become, and share it with as many people as you can.

7 Dangerous Online Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make and How to Avoid Them

admin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:10:37 +0000

There is no question that in the game of chess, unless you have trained yourself in the strategy behind it, you have no chance of success against a sophisticated opponent. Marketing your business online, also requires strategy. However, most businesses usually build a website, without a good understanding of the strategy behind it. It is not hard to imagine why they are getting such poor results. In the game of chess, of course, the looser goes home and everything continues as it was. Unfortunately in the game of online marketing, your business has to live with the consequences of bad strategy.

In this report, “7 Dangerous Online Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make and How to Avoid Them”, Merkados™ has compiled some of the most dangerous trends and put together a comprehensive plan to avoid them altogether.

As part of Merkados’ commitment to the success of the small business owners of North Carolina, it is offering this report, which took multitude of hours, people and resources to put together, free of charge for a limited time only. Once this limited time is over, the report will be available from this site for a small fee.

If you are a small business owner you may find that some of this mistakes shockingly apply to your business, but you’ll also find in this report refreshing ways to fix them immediately and start playing the game of online marketing at the highest level.

This text is available for purchase but you need to login or register first. Please Login here.

To download the report simply login and click in the link above. The report has a cost of ~~USD$9.99~~USD$4.99. In other words, almost the same as a Latte at Starbucks® and a cookie. Do you prefer to have a coffee or to understand how to take your business to the next level online?

Pricing Based on Value – Small Business Tutorials

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:59:41 +0000

Profit is all about value, but it’s not about value in the eyes of the person providing the product, but for the person receiving it, in other words, you can’t sell something at what you feel is the right value to you. You’re supposed to sell it at the right value for the person receiving it. It’s almost obvious but most people don’t do this when they’re starting their small business. In this post I will explain why.

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Jquery UI – Installation in Drupal 6 – Easy

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:24:03 +0000

This post is a fast one. You may be one of the thousands of people trying to install jQUERY UI module for Drupal 6. However you may find yourself struggling to make it happen. Perhaps you are like me and every time that you have to install it you keep forgetting how it is done. Here you will find the quick answer so you don’t have to keep looking. Simply just do it.

I know that so many times I have said that I am going to write this quick post and so I have finally decided to do it.

The problem.

The problem is that the installation of the Jquery UI module in Drupal 6 is not as straightforward as you may think. And so the Drupal.org website has some instructions that are extremely complex and sometimes contradictory. Believe me I have spend great amount of time trying to figure it out. However more than once I have ended up having to go to the forums and reading pages of pages of semi-documentation until I finally get it to work.

Since I want to spare you of this trouble then here it is. The easy installation process of Jquery UI in your Drupal 6 Installation.

The Solution.

First go ahead and download the jquery_ui module from drupal.org. (in my case I actually use drush, so the command would be:

/*In the terminal type*/
user$ drush dl jquery_ui
/*End of Code*/

2. Now you may be tempted to just go ahead and enable it, however this is not the way to go.
3. Head to the jquery_ui plugin download page: http://code.google.com/p/jquery-ui/downloads/detail?name=jquery.ui-1.6.zip&can=2&q=1.6
4. Now that you have it in your “Downloads” folder then head to the root directory of your Drupal installation.
5. Then click the folder “sites”.
6. Then click on the folder “all”.
7. The locate the folder named “libraries” if it doesn’t exist, then feel free to create it here.
8. Move your zip file from your “Downloads” to your “libraries” folder and unzip it.
9. Delete the zip file.
10. Now you should be inside of the “libraries” folder and have a folder named something along the lines of “jquery.ui-6-12x”.
11. Proceed to rename that folder to the following: “jquery.ui” – make sure that the folder is jquery then a DOT and then UI.
12. That’s it, now you may head back to your modules page in Drupal to enable the Jquery UI module.

I hope this helps you accomplish even more with Drupal.

Until next time.

Alex Centeno MBA.
Creative Director & Digital Media Strategist
Merkados Interactive Partners
www.Merkados.com

Latest News: To learn more about our latest projects visit our portfolio at: http://www.merkados.com/portfolio

Lion OS X 10.7.1 – Can’t Log In – Graphics Problems

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 05:24:54 +0000

If you have every experienced a non-functioning computer, for example if you owned a computer with Vista, then you know how I felt today. I decided to update my Lion OS X 10.7.0 OS to the 10.7.1 version. I should’ve known that things don’t always go smoothly. I should’ve been a little more cautious, and at least done the upgrade on Friday afternoon. But the real problem is that I trust Apple too much. I trust that they are not going to disrupt my system. But what if they do? What if in your particular case, the upgrade happens to change your Mac in a way that breaks it. Perhaps you are experiencing it right now. The first thing you do is find another computer, iphone or iPad to start navigating potential solutions in Google. That’s how I started. However I ended up finding the solution after trying everything else out there on the web. Anyway, after trying many, and I mean very many, things and visited dozens of websites trying to find the solution, I finally found one. Here it is.

The problem:

When you update from Lion OS X 10.7.0 to OS X 10.7.1 you are requested to restart your computer. However, you may not be able to click on your username icon and log in. Another possibility is that you may be able to click on the icon, however you can’t enter your password. So you basically are stuck without being able to log in. One temporary solution is to log in via SAFE MODE. I am not going to explain how to log in with SAFE MODE in this post, however you may find plenty of references online.
Another problem is that you can’t soft restart or shut down your Mac so you end up having to restart by pressing the Power Button for 4 seconds. This doesn’t fix the problem either.

The reason for the problem:

The reason the problem happens is that the update deals in some way with your graphics cards specially if you have multiple monitors and/or multiple graphic cards. I am not familiar exactly with the details, however I can tell you that if you are using several LCD monitors or DVI video output to a TV or multiple monitors you may experience this problem.

The solution:

Unplug the external monitors, tvs, LCDs or Plasmas from graphic cards leaving only your primary display. Then restart.
Once fully logged in, you may plug your external monitors back in. That’s it.

Can you believe how easy that is? Of course you can’t! Because unless this is your first website you may spend hours trying to figure this one out.

This problem obviously is going to happen more often for people with Mac Pro. The Mac Pro allows your system to have more than one graphics card.

Enjoy!

Finder Problems Mac OS X Lion – Finder keeps Restarting – SOLUTION

admin — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:38:37 +0000

For the past 10 hours I have been experiencing lots of problems related to my recent upgrade to Lion (Mac OS X 10.6). For some of you out there, it might have been as easy breezy as simply downloading and then hitting the button. For me, it has been an ocean of tears along the way both in my MacBook Pro and in my Mac Pro. The latest tears came from a Finder App problem. All of a sudden, my Finder started to crash and restart, crash and restart indefinitely. I tried everything under the sun. I thought at first that it had to do with the Trashcan as some blogs mention and tried absolutely everything including repairing permissions, restarting in Safe Mode, Command S, Command V and much more of all things. None of them worked.

The reason I am writing this post is to finally post what did work and the reasons I think it happened in the first place.

Problem.

The problem seems to happen when Lion tries to write information to your new “All my files” Smart Folder. This is absolutely no problem, when you have a clean install. However, if you did like me, an upgrade of your Snow Leopard installation, then this may be a problem. Snow Leopard uses this funky little hidden files named… .DS_Store. This files created under Snow Leopard, seem to have some trouble sometimes with Lion. To put it mildly, the Snow Leopard won’t surrender without a fight to the Lion. Once that happens, it continues its intention to restart the Finder without succeeding or allowing anything else to go right with the Finder. This keeps throwing error after error and your console becomes like a burning pit of logs. Sometimes even windows popup saying things like: Application Finder can’t open – etc.

I certainly was confused as if the cause had some origin in the Startup Applications such as: Quicksilver for Mac, LogmeIn, or even Amnesty or GeekTool. To this moment I don’t know if it originated there, however the fix doesn’t involve removing those applications.

The Solution.

Take a deep breath, you deserve it.
Make a total backup of your Hard Drive. I don’t just say this to scare you, I really mean it. I was the guy saying what is the worst that can happen. I am going to do this without backing up. The truth of the matter is that if you are really willing to live without the information, photos and videos, perhaps you should have a clean install in the first place.
Run your nice little “Terminal” Application. If, and only if , you can’t even get to the Terminal, then try creating a separate Admin account and then log into that one. You shouldn’t see any problems with the finder for any other accounts.
Once Terminal is running, type the following command:

username$ sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \;

That is it!

Then sit back and relax, depending on the size of your hard drive, this may take up to 30 minutes or more, be ready to say “y” (for yes) when asked if you want to overwrite some of your .DS_Store files. And that is it! If you happened to like this post, please take two seconds to register.

I hope this saves you some grey ones.

Best

Alex