Thanks to Rob Pell for the following guest post:

Much has been made of psychology in retail. The methods in which store managers and planners arrange their stock into “hot zones” and “cold zones”, the different sorts of music they pipe onto the shop floor, the colours they use to alert you to offers and on point of sale displays; all of these things are carefully calculated to make you, the consumer, buy something.

It follows, then, that similarly sophisticated psychological processes are used online. If you think about it, of course they are; how else would one business get the edge on another business if not by employing such strategies.

Enhancing the Value

One of these psychological tactics is to enhance the value of the product or service advertised online. The psychology behind this relates to the inherent human sense of self-interest: we as a species like to feel that we are getting a good deal and not being ripped off, this also appeals to our sense of self-confidence and pride.

To appeal to these natural human traits, you might want to consider bundling your product or service up with an additional extra or a ‘free gift’. Anything that you can add that can increase the apparent value of your product without eating into your overheads will have a marked impact on your profits.

You could even introduce a voucher or e-code system which rewards consumer loyalty. As long as you are giving the consumer the impression that they are getting a truly unmissable bargain, the psychology is working.

Focus on Solutions

This tactic is born out of a very simple piece of psychology; humans are likely to become despondent when presented with a problem, but become empowered when presented with a solution.

When marketing your product or service online – whether by Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feed or other medium – be sure to present it in the form of a solution to a problem, as opposed to simply a problem.

For example, you might be selling an eBook relating to SEO techniques and your advertising spiel might go something like this: “improve your rank on Google with this eBook.”

Of course, this sentence is crass and sales-y but I use it to illustrate a point; presenting your potential customers with a solution to problem will promote a positive response within them, making them more likely to part with their cash. Used in conjunction with targeted marketing – where you aim your marketing campaign directly at a demographic with relevant interests – this becomes even more effective.

Be Realistic

After many years of online gossip, rumours and speculation in the fields of sport, science and celebrity culture, the internet browsing public have become hardened. They no longer believe everything they read and instead approach what they see online with an air of cynicism.

To counteract that cynicism your claims must be believable. Too many fledgling internet marketers have gone down the route of offering goods and services that sound too good to be true. The newly savvy public know that most of time they are.

Instead, speak to your audience plainly and confidently and use as many examples as you can to gain the trust of your potential customers. Only when this trust is gained can you subtly subvert their cynicism and convert a potential customer into a customer.

Rob Pell is a marketing enthusiast, all round geek and happy employee of Simplifydigital, the UK broadband, digital TV and home phone experts. Simplifydigital are accredited by Ofcom and provide independent consumer advice on digital services.

Hubspot puts together a great Facebook business page instruction list. This is a basic “How To” guide for anybody looking to quickly understand and learn Facebook Timeline for businesses. It sums up each key feature nicely all while adding directions for some of the more difficult processes. Overall this infographic is knowledgeable and straight to the point all while helping you better understand the features.

Facebook Business Page Timeline Cheat Sheet

If you haven’t heard yet, some major, major sites are taking action to protest two major acts that are being run through congress. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House and PIPA (Protect IP Act) in the Senate are both set up to change the internet in a huge way if they pass. Essentially – the freedom we enjoy to express ourselves and communicate freely online may be in jeopardy.

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So Paul Christoforo and Ocean Marketing have gone viral.  But even though they say bad marketing is good marketing, I think this particular instance is an example of bad marketing being bad marketing.

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In the effort to get links and spread word of your business online, many people can get a bit overzealous.  Ryan Sammy put together an excellent list detailing the 7 deadly sins of content promotion.  I’ve summarized them here, with my own input on it.

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In the past, most local businesses never thought they could compete with major companies.  The marketing budget needed to really make a similar impact was usually way out of their capabilities.  However, with Google’s latest updates, it’s looking like the smaller business has a much better chance of staying within the public’s eyes.

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When doing SEO, it’s not as easy as just picking out your main market keyword and thinking you can jump to the top with that keyword.  A lot of people seem to think that generic keywords equal good sales.  But this is not the case, more often than not.  Good SEO requires work and research. Read more

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Today a court order goes into effect to force Microsoft to allow Windows users a choice in internet browsers.  Previously, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was the default browser installation on Windows.  As of today, that decision is no longer enforced, and users will have a choice to make that many were previously unaware they even had.

One possibility of this outcome is that Google Chrome may now see some increase in use.  Google is doing a heavier push in the mainstream media, so everyday internet users will see the option to install Chrome.  If a lot of them choose this, this will increase Google’s hold over the search engine market, and this will also effect many SEOs in their approach to optimization.

It appears the battle between Google and Microsoft (who’s joined forces with Yahoo) may have only now just begun.  To check out more details on this story, see this article by HighPosition.net.

As everyone knows, typing in a domain doesn’t always give you the site you intended to hit.  And typos like this happen all the time.  There are people who have realized this and are making money from it.

There are two ways to make money from domain typos – either by using PPC and bidding on these typos (and then making money from the traffic you get on these usually cheap keywords), or by registering these domains and putting ads on the site for them.

The people that do the latter are called “typosquatters”.  And there’s potentially a lot of money in the ads for higher traffic domain typos.  Keep in mind that if the owners of the real domain notice you doing this, they can ask you to take the site down.

Whether or not typosquatting is ethical is a subjective question, but the fact is that some people make a ton of money from it, and so does Google.  You can find out more about this and the figures involved in this article from Sideways News.