E-Commerce, SEO, Blogging, Social Networks, Web Operations Hands-on Workshop

All DigitalFilipino.com Club members are invited to attend the forthcoming E-Commerce Hands-on Workshop series this July 23, 25, 29, 31, and August 5 at the Alfox Internet Cafe (beside Chowking), Kamuning Road, corner Edsa, Quezon City.

Whether you are preparing a holiday season campaign or simply improving your website, I'm certain that this can be useful to your needs.

DigitalFilipino.com Club SME members can send 1 representative while Corporate members can send 2 representatives.

Individual club members can attend a one-day (or two half-day) session. Please confirm for food count purposes.

The training program shall be as follows:

July 23: E-Commerce Project Planning

• E-Commerce Purchasing Trends
  
• Developing a requirements document
  
• Identifying needs
• Setting goals
• Features list (prioritization)
• User identification and needs
• Competition identification
• Direct
• Indirect
• Keyword performers
  
• Source of revenue
• Content plan
• Project Plan creation
  

July 25: Internet, SEO, and Social Media Marketing Workshop

• 9:00 - 12:00 E-Mail / Newsletter Marketing
  
• Introduction to E-Mail Marketing
• Components of an E-Mail Marketing Campaign
• Hands-on exercise
• Introduction to Newsletter Creation
• Creating a newsletter
• Hands-on exercise
  
• 1:00 - 3:00 Search Engine Marketing
  
• Search engine optimization
• Keyword research
• Keyword placement in web site or blog
• Content is key
• Writing good titles, description, and articles
• Re-directing pages
• Sitemap creation
• RSS creation
• 3:00 - 5:00 Social Media, Lifestreaming, Paid Campaigns for promotion
  
• Social Network
• Creating a campaign page in a social network site (Facebook, Multiply, Friendster, MySpace).
  
• Social Media
• Lifestreaming
  
• Internet Advertising (paid placements)
  

July 29: Blogging Workshop

• 9:00 - 12:00 Blogging 101 and Set-Up
  
• Introduction to Blogging
• Type of blogs highlighting the popular ones
• Platform
• Blog creation
  
• Blog ethics
  
• Copyright
  
• Advertising
  
• Re-publishing
• Blog content
• Purpose
• Topic tracking
• Writing
• Monitoring performance
  
• 1:00 - 5:00 Blog Promotion and Marketing
• Ping
• Advertising
• Social bookmarks, networks, and media
  
• Contests
• Google Reader
• Comments

July 31: Accepting Payments Online

• 9:00 - 12:00 Introduction to Online Payments
  
• Ways to accept payments online
• Demo of online payment systems (email billing, web-based payment, mobile payments)
• 1:00 - 5:00
  
• Evaluating online and mobile payment providers (comparative analysis)
• Fraud detection

August 5: Improving Website Performance and Navigation

• 9:00 - 12:00 Improving Web Site Performance
  
• Factors that cause slow-loading Web Sites
• 14 rules for fast website performance
• Hands-on exercise
• 1:00 - 5:00 Improving Web Navigation
  
• Web navigation problems
• Mechanisms and type of web navigation
• Improving web navigation design
• Hands-on exercise
  

All training materials shall be posted at the club member site and also at our social network for online interactive learning purposes.

Interested non-members are requested to sign up as an Individual, SME, or Corporate member prior to the workshop and confirm attendance for food count purposes.

Blogging, Web, and E-Commerce Hands-on Workshop

All DigitalFilipino.com Club members are invited to attend the forthcoming Blogging, Web, and E-Commerce Hands-on Workshop series this January 31, February 1, 2, 5, and 11 at the Alfox Internet Cafe (beside Chowking), Kamuning Road, corner Edsa, Quezon City.

DigitalFilipino.com Club SME members can send 1 representative while Corporate members can send 2 representatives.

Individual club members can attend a one-day (or two half-day) session. Please confirm for food count purposes.

The training program shall be as follows:

January 31: Blogging Workshop

• 9:00 - 12:00 Blogging 101 and Set-Up
  
• Introduction to Blogging
• Type of blogs highlighting the popular ones
• Content plan and posting
• Exercise: Blog Critic
  
• Set-up your blog
• Blog creation
  
• Widgets
  
• Feedburner
• Analytics
  
• Technorati
• 1:00 - 5:00 Blog Promotion and Marketing
• Promote your blog
• Ratified
  
• MyBlogLog
• Facebook
• Entrecard
• Self-created programs
  

February 1: Internet Marketing Workshop

• 9:00 - 12:00 E-Mail / Newsletter Marketing
  
• Introduction to E-Mail Marketing
• Components of an E-Mail Marketing Campaign
• Hands-on exercise
• Introduction to Newsletter Creation
• Creating a newsletter
• Hands-on exercise
  
• 1:00 - 5:00 Search Engine Marketing
  
• Search engine optimization
• Keyword research
• Keyword placement in web site or blog
• Content is key
• Writing good titles, description, and articles
• Re-directing pages
• Sitemap creation
• RSS creation
• Submission to Web Directories
• Internet Advertising (paid placements)
  
• Monitoring Web Site Traffic

February 2: Accepting Payments Online

• 9:00 - 12:00 Introduction to Online Payments
  
• Ways to accept payments online
• Demo of online payment systems (email billing, web-based payment, mobile payments)
• 1:00 - 5:00
  
• Evaluating online and mobile payment providers (comparative analysis)
• Fraud detection

February 5: Web 2.0 Applications

• 9:00 - 12:00 Overview of Web 2.0 Applications
  
• Introduction to Machine Learning
  
• Applications
• product / content recommendations
• group clustering
• search engine
• needs matching
• decision predictions
  
• price models
• independent content matching
• Hands-on exercises
• 1:00 - 5:00 Building Web 2.0 applications
  
• Using Open Web Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
• Facebook Application Platform
• Google OpenSocial
  
• Hands-on exercises

February 11: Improving Website Performance and Navigation

• 9:00 - 12:00 Improving Web Site Performance
  
• Factors that cause slow-loading Web Sites
• 14 rules for fast website performance
• Hands-on exercises
• 1:00 - 5:00 Improving Web Navigation
  
• Web navigation problems
• Mechanisms and type of web navigation
• Improving web navigation design
• Hands-on exercises
  

Interested non-members are requested to sign up as an Individual, SME, or Corporate member prior to the workshop and confirm attendance for food count purposes.

Web and E-Commerce Hands-On Workshop

All DigitalFilipino.com Club members are invited to attend the forthcoming Web and E-Commerce Workshop series this:

• November 12 and 13 at the Laboratory 1, National Computer Center / Commission on Information and Communications Technology, C.P. Garcia Avenue, U.P. Diliman Quezon City (beside PhilVocs).
• November 17 and 24 at the Alfox Internet Cafe (beside Chowking), Kamuning Road, corner Edsa, Quezon City.

DigitalFilipino.com Club SME members can send 1 representative while Corporate members can send 2 representatives.

Individual club members can attend a one-day (or two half-day) session. Please confirm for food count purposes.

The training program shall be as follows:

November 12: Improving Website Performance and Navigation

• 9:00 - 12:00 Improving Web Site Performance
  
• Factors that cause slow-loading Web Sites
• 14 rules for fast website performance
• Hands-on exercises
• Guest resource:
• Web Site Growing Pains (Jay Frank De Jesus)
  
• 1:00 - 5:00 Improving Web Navigation
  
• Web navigation problems
• Mechanisms and type of web navigation
• Improving web navigation design
• Hands-on exercises
  

November 13: Web 2.0 Applications

• 9:00 - 12:00 Overview of Web 2.0 Applications
  
• Introduction to Machine Learning
  
• Applications
• product / content recommendations
• group clustering
• search engine
• needs matching
• decision predictions
  
• price models
• independent content matching
• Hands-on exercises
• Guest resource:
• Internet Enabled Collaboration and Coopetition in a Flat World (Jan Pabellon, IT Group)
  
• 1:00 - 5:00 Building Web 2.0 applications
  
• Using Open Web Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
• Facebook Application Platform
• Google OpenSocial
  
• Hands-on exercises

November 17: Internet Marketing Workshop

• 9:00 - 12:00 E-Mail / Newsletter Marketing
  
• Introduction to E-Mail Marketing
• Components of an E-Mail Marketing Campaign
• Hands-on exercise
• Introduction to Newsletter Creation
• Creating a newsletter
• Hands-on exercise
  
• 1:00 - 5:00 Search Engine Marketing
  
• Search engine optimization
• Keyword research
• Keyword placement in web site or blog
• Content is key
• Writing good titles, description, and articles
• Re-directing pages
• Sitemap creation
• RSS creation
• Submission to Web Directories
• Internet Advertising (paid placements)
  
• Monitoring Web Site Traffic

November 24: Accepting Payments Online

• 2:00 - 6:00
• Ways to accept payments online
• Demo of online payment systems (email billing, web-based payment, mobile payments)
• Evaluating online payment providers (comparative analysis)
• Fraud detection
  

Interested non-members are requested to sign up as an Individual, SME, or Corporate member prior to November 12 and confirm attendance for food count purposes.

Improving Website Navigation

On the afternoon of November 12, I'll be having a session on Web Navigation. This topic was heavily inspired by the book Designing Web Navigation by James Kalbach. The main premise for the workshop is whether you are planning a new website or revising an existing one, it is important that we keep ourselves focused on what we want to achieve that includes why are we doing it, how can we meet the needs of our target users, among others.

We need to do an information search process that tends to reflect the action, thoughts, and feelings of the site visitor and what can we do to meet them. An example can be like in the case of DigitalFilipino users.

1. Initiation: Recognize need to look for e-commerce information.
2. Selection: Choose appropriate resources.
3. Searching: Locate relevant articles.
4. Differentiation: Prioritize search results.
5. Deciding: Determine which article is most relevant.
6. Monitor: Check site over time for additional articles.
7. Action: Join the mailing list or subscribe to the RSS feed or join the club.

Each item above requires understanding on the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the user (and their persona) which will also compel site owners like me to provide features and that will arrive on the kind of business return that I want to get from it such as awareness, referrals, gaining trust or relationship, potential book buyers or club members later on.

In addition, this also forces me to review my site navigation, labels, menu, among others whether I'm leading users to the things that they need and what I want to achieve.

If the e-business operates in a cut throat market such as those selling various gift products, evaluating the competitor's web navigation and labeling methods versus yours will be helpful as well.

Improving this will also require doing interviews and task analysis. One method that can help in this process is card sorting. This is where you write one item or content in your website per card. This gets shuffled and given to users. They then sort the card and create piles or groups. Afterwards, they give a meaningful name that represent each pile or group of cards. This process gives you a perspective on how prospective users classify the information that gets presented to them and may help you in developing your site's content structure. There are several online version of this that you can use such as as CardSword, CardSort, CardZort, among others.

There are several tools that can be used to have an initial check up on your website navigation. This includes:

• Watchfire WebXACT
• Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator
• Web Accessibility Toolbar
• Color Contrast Analyzer for Web Pages
• Fangs
• aDesigner