How to Reduce the Cost of Advertising Jobs - Adventures in Advertising Jobs

By Susan M. Heathfield

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy 

My initial advertisement was expensive at $1700.00, so I rewrote the ad to remove all extraneous words. Since newspapers tend to charge for the number of lines in their print ads, I used the newspaper website to repeatedly review my progress in reducing the number of lines. This is the print ad I developed; the cost was listed on the website as $1305.50.

The Print Advertisement

Cellular Technician - Level 3 Wireless

Technical Lead for Cellular Remanufacturing Ops

City, State

"Technician to lead phone troubleshooting and repair at growing cell phone remanufacturer. Requires: Level 3 certification at manufacturers: Nokia, Motorola, Samsung; 5 years+ troubleshooting exp. with various handset models and manufacturers; 2 yr. degree in Electronics Technology/equivalent; reads/follows schematics; has developed training/trained staff; soldering skills; works on surface mount PC boards; knows trouble shooting equipment: DVM, Spectrum Analyzer; supervisory experience preferred. Resume/salary: HR - ReCellular, Inc.; Company Address."

Then, while I would have disagreed with this at the time, fortune favored my ad placement. Instead of a confirmation, I received an error page, after entering the entire transaction online. Forced to call the newspaper to find out whether the ad was received, I discovered it was not.

So, I placed the ad again over the phone. Total cost: $1212.50. When I asked the operator why there was such a difference between my online placement versus calling the ad in, she responded that “spacing was different online.”

This was good news for my company, but not good news for the newspaper website. I am thoroughly trained, at this point, to call in or fax my ads rather than using the newspaper website.

Your experience may vary, but my experience provided key learning points for me. You can significantly reduce the cost of online advertising and classified advertising with a bit of effort and rewriting. The cost savings is definitely worth your time. The cost reduction, by not using the newspaper website to order the ad, was also significant in this instance. This deserves wider exploration as we work to reduce the cost of our future Internet and newspaper advertising.

White Hat Vs. Black Hat SEO

From Apryl Duncan

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy 

Search engine spiders can spot the difference between white hat and black hat SEO efforts. Optimize your site with white hat search engine optimization techniques to increase your search results and avoid the penalties of black hat SEO.

• Meta Tags

Black Hat SEO - Stuffing or Spamming Meta Tags
Stuffing or spamming your Meta tags does nothing for your search results except flag your site as one using black hat SEO. Search engines are always on the lookout for spammed Meta tags. For example, let's say an online pet store called Fiction Pets is stuffing its Meta tags. The site's black hat Meta keywords might read:

<meta name="keywords" content="fiction pets, pets, dogs and cats, pet stores, dogs, cats, lizards, birds, dog collars, hamster cages, jessica alba, fish, dog shampoo, dog treats, bird seed, good dogs, bad dogs, nice kitty">

Its stuffed Meta description might read:

<meta name="description" content="Fiction Pets is the best pet store of all the pet stores. You've never seen a pet store like Fiction Pets. best pet stores, good pet stores, visit pet stores, contact pet stores">

White Hat SEO - Choose a Solid Keyword Phrase
Research your keyword phrase. Choose a solid keyword phrase that accurately represents your page and use it in your Meta tags. An example of Meta keywords:

<meta name="keywords" content="online pet store, fiction pets, pet supplies, pets store, pet supply store">

A white hat Meta description could be:

<meta name="description" content="Fiction Pets is an online pet store with a full line of pet supplies for dogs, cats, birds, fish and more. Our pet supply store can help you get everything you need for all of your pets.">

• Content

Black Hat SEO - Hidden Content
There are many ways to hide content on your site. All of them are black hat SEO methods.

Hidden content includes white text full of keywords on a white background. Another black hat SEO method is using comment tags to hide keywords. For example:

<!--hidden content, hidden content is bad, hidden content in comment tags is bad--!>

White Hat SEO - Quality Content
Content that targets a strong, related keyword phrase on each page wins every time. After you've chosen your keyword phrase, use it consistently throughout the page. For example, a page with a Meta title of "White Hat SEO - White Hat SEO methods" could have this first paragraph of content:

White hat SEO is the key to effective search engine optimization. If you're not using white hat SEO methods, none of your SEO techniques will be effective.

• Linking

Black Hat SEO - Link Farming
The idea behind link farming is that you exchange links with other websites to boost your site's rank in search results. Search engines like Google examine how many sites are linking to yours when determining rank.

With a link farm, you've traded your link with many sites for the sole purpose of increasing your site's search rank. In effect, you're trying to fool the search engine into thinking your site is more popular than it really is.

White Hat SEO - Inbound Linking
When someone links to your blog post or a page on your site within their content, you have a quality inbound link. Unlike with black hat link farming, inbound linking is not a link list traded for the sake of boosting your search results.

Creating content that is compelling attracts site visitors. It also captures the attention of other webmasters who are looking to create their own content with contextual links to your site.

• Page Elements

Black Hat SEO - Doorway Pages
Doorway pages are known by many names, such as bridge pages, entry pages, gateway pages, jump pages and portal pages. These pages are created to spam search engines with a certain phrase.

A doorway page is created to get traffic based on keyword phrases and then funnel those site visitors to the main site. Most search engines catch doorway pages and sites are penalized.

White Hat SEO - Headings
A better use of page elements is to break up your page visually with SEO-friendly headings. An article using <H1>, <H2> and <H3> tags that make good use of your keywords has more weight in search engines than a page full of regular-sized text.

What is datafurnishing?

From Alexis A. Moore

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy  

Question: What is datafurnishing?

Answer: Datafurnishing companies are entities and agencies that compile and sell consumer private records.

The three national credit bureaus Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union are examples of datafurnishing companies. There are other agencies which are not as well known. The largest of these (outside of the credit bureaus) is called ChoicePoint, a LexisNexis Company; ChoicePoint and LexisNexis were once separate datafurnishing agencies that have subsequently merged.

Datafurnishing companies and the credit bureaus sell consumer private records information to smaller datafurnishing agencies such as Merlin Information Services, Source Resources, KnowX, Accurint, Abika and the information brokers who operate them for a fee. The information broker and datafurnishing agents then repackage the consumer private records and then re-sell them to the general public for the price that the market will bear.

Thus your personal information can wend its way from the credit bureau to a high-tech investigator hired to find it with no input from you.

While datafurnishers in theory are supposed to know why the information is being passed on and to whom, in reality they tend to plead that they are incapable of storing all that information and those records have been erased. There are no laws currently in place to make them take responsibility.

The above piece is seventh in a series of nine articles on women and cyberstalking written for About.com by cyberstalking expert Alexis A. Moore, founder of the national advocacy group Survivors in Action. Links to the entire series are below.

First Time Manager

From Daniel Richards

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy 

Your first business may also be the first time you’re the boss. Becoming a skilled manager doesn’t happen overnight. Here are some tips to get you started managing workers.

Hire The Right Person For The Job

Your job as a manager begins when you’re recruiting a new employee, not on their first day of work. It may sound obvious, but finding someone who is the right fit for the job will make managing that person a lot easier down the road.

• Take the time to match the candidate’s skills and experience with the tasks at hand.
• Ask the same questions of all candidates so you have an easy basis of comparison.
• Create a test or a tryout session that will help you gauge their talents in an actual work setting.

Build A Strong Company Culture

Paying a competitive wage will help you attract and retain solid performers. But motivating your workers, a crucial challenge for any manager, is about more than money. It involves creating the kind of culture or work environment for your company that sets it apart from competitors. Consider the case of software developer SAS, which was profiled on this segment on ABC's 60 Minutes.

The North Carolina company offers competitive salaries, but also created a strong culture that keeps turnover and the costs associated with it to a minimum. You can do the same by communicating early and often with your team, empowering them to make decisions and solve problems, outlining your expectations clearly, acknowledging success and learning from setbacks.

Can the elements for creating a strong culture be quantified? The Small Business Administration takes a crack at it with a list of seven ways to keep employees happy and motivated:

• Show appreciation for a job well done
• Involve employees in decision making
• Contribute to the social environment by having your company participate in the surrounding community
• Be concerned with employees’ health and well-being
• Show loyalty to your team
• Create a comfortable and efficient work environment
• Respect the members of your company

Be Your Employee's Coach

Ferdinand Fournies, a former Columbia Business School professor who now runs a business coaching consultancy, tackles the issue of employee motivation in his books Coaching for Improved Work Performance and Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed To Do and What To Do About It.

Some of the topics Fournies addresses include why managers fail as coaches (they don’t understand how their workers' values differ from their own) and the different types of feedback managers have at their disposal (neutral, positive and negative).

Fournies presents 16 different reasons why employees may not be performing to your expectations including:

• “They Don’t Know What They Are Supposed To Do”
• “They Think Their Way Is Better”
• “They Think Something Else Is More Important”

As F. John Reh, About.com's Guide to Management Guide, points out, there are times to stand back and times to step in and be a coach.

Why It All Matters

As Jeff Chambers, the director of human resources for SAS notes in his interview with 60 Minutes, you’ll want to keep your employees feeling good about work for more than altruistic reasons. Among the benefits of a satisfied workforce are:

• Reduced turnover costs
• A more experienced and skilled staff
• Time saved on recruiting and training

Overall, it's important to keep in mind that rapid turnover is expensive and can quickly ruin a young business. Establish a coaching relationship with your employees at an early stage, and check in at regular intervals to ensure your employees view you as a mentor as well as a boss.

Copywriter Profile

From Rachel Deahl

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy  

What Does a Copywriter Do?

At advertising agencies a copywriter is known as a “creative” because he or she makes up the slogans, or copy, that drive ad campaigns. This Bud’s for You. BMW – The Ultimate Driving Machine. Just Do It. Those famous phrases are all the work of a copywriter.

How Do You Become a Copywriter?

Getting a job as a copywriter is tougher than getting a job in other fields of advertising because you need a portfolio of work to get in the door. So how do you get a portfolio, or a book, as it’s dubbed in the ad world?

To get a book, you need to get an internship. Your book is a collection of ads you’ve worked on and you can’t work on any ads until you get some work at an advertising agency.

To get an internship at an ad agency you need to search online for openings. You can also contact creative directors, who run the creative departments at ad agencies.

If you don’t want to get an internship, or can’t, you can create spec ads on your own. Because copywriters work in various fields -- print, TV, radio and online -- your spec work will have to mimic the kind of ads you’re interested in creating. If you want to work online, you should be creating banner ads and online campaigns. You’ll need print spots if you want to work in print advertising. Etc. Although you might be able to land work by creating spec ads, hiring managers prefer to see work you’ve done while interning at an agency.

Also, while you don’t need a graduate degree to become a copywriter, hiring managers do prefer to see that you’ve earned an undergraduate degree.

What Skills Do You Need for the Job?

Copywriting is all about creativity so you really need to have a talent for the work. While some people might learn on the job, this kind of work is best for people who can craft stories with images and words. (It’s stories that often sell products -- the slogans and images simply tell the stories.) Getting an internship in the creative department of an agency, as mentioned above, is a good way to figure out whether you have the talent to be a copywriter.