At Zunch, we find over and over again that one of the biggest challenges of building a website is writing content. Often, our clients decide to take on that daunting task themselves, planning to use content from print. It's a good place to start, as long as it is appropriately and strategically re-purposed.

Here are some quick tips to writing Web content:

1. Avoid marketing fluff.
    Online users find it self-inflating and time-wasting.

2. Make the text scannable.
    Use short phrases and common words to help them digest it quickly, including your keywords.

3. Be concise.
    Pretend they have OADD (online A.D.D.)
    Don't make the user wade through bloated text to find the meat.

4. Break up long pages.
    If it must be long, try anchor tags at the top to help users get what they need quickly.

5. Cross-reference related pages with hyperlinks to help the user get there.
    it's great for SEO too!

6. Keep forms short.
    By asking questions that aren't necessary, you'll be less likely to get any info from the user at all.

7. Answer questions.
    As you write, think about what questions users will have and answer them.

There are more content tips and in-depth explanation in an article by Jakob Nielsen.

Of course, the best idea is to have Zunch take on that task so they can make sure all the pieces are in place and user-friendly.

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Top Interactive firm adds executive vice president to its growing management team

DALLAS, Texas (June 27, 2006) – International professional services company Zunch Communications, Inc. is pleased to announce today that Chadd Lomoglio has been appointed executive vice president.  With more than 16 years of experience in business development and sales management and seven years within the Interactive marketing industry, Mr. Lomoglio will provide leadership for the Zunch business development team and product and services development.

“Chadd is a distinguished executive with a track record of growing businesses,” Zunch Chairman & CEO John G. Sanchez said.  “With his executive leadership and deep solutions-based experience, we look forward to addressing the exciting growth opportunities for Zunch as we continue to provide our clients with innovative ways to increase their market share.”

Prior to joining Zunch, Lomoglio served as executive vice president of MarketSmart Interactive, formerly known as WebSourced/Keyword Ranking, where he was responsible for business development and generating new sales revenue.  Mr. Lomoglio was an integral part of the company, having grown its revenue from start-up to $20 million as well as driving its sales force from three to 70 people in just six years.
 
“The passion of the Zunch team as well as its complete product and service offering positioned this company for unprecedented growth,” Mr. Lomoglio said.  “I am excited to join this strong management team and help drive revenue so we can continue to build technology that adds value to our customers.”

Continue reading Zunch Names Chadd Lomoglio Executive Vice President

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Zunch claims a spot in today's online edition of Internet Retailer.  Check out Zunch in the News.

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Zunch Pay Per Click Specialist Laura Deerfield wrote a very interesting article for the DM News Essential Guide to Search Engine Marketing.  Check it out.

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Search marketing ROI is at the highest level in 15 months, according to a new study released by Performics.  I'm continually amazed at the power and opportunity of search marketing.  I also love to see and hear from new converts, typically those clients who come to us with a great product and smart website, but no optimization.  After implementing a search strategy, they soon discover what has been missing all along.  Targetted and qualified visitors begin appearing on the site and making business decisions (a purchase, a lead, etc) which propel the business.  It really is a beautiful thing!

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 Us Zunchers in the Dev Pit (soon to be the Dev Office Array, hah) love to geek-out on anything cool going on in the wild world of tech-knowledgy, so the idea of dabbling in robotics raises more than one eyebrow in this pleasant little cube farm we call home 2.0.

This week, Microsoft announced Microsoft Robotics Studio, a new software suite designed to help simplify the process of interfacing with robotics hardware.  The current system will integrate with the upcoming Lego Mindstorms NXT robotics hardware kit, and is geared towards early adopters in Industry as well as collegiate and hobbyist users.  It’s also going to expand to support many other robots from other manufacturers.

The application integrates everything you need – a visual programming tool, debug support, modular interface support (for windows/web based controls), *and* a 3D physics engine for doing real-world simulations so you don’t destroy your hardware when you try something.

We are unsure yet on whether the robot will require product activation in order to function.  :-)

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Interactive firm appoints chief operating officer to manage day-to-day activities

DALLAS, Texas (PRWEB) June 20, 2006 – Zunch Communications, Inc., a top international Interactive marketing agency highly-ranked for its online marketing solutions, is excited to announce today that Interactive marketing expert Johnny Thompson has returned to the company in the newly created post of chief operating officer.  In this new role, Thompson is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the growing agency and will report directly to Zunch Chairman & CEO John G. Sanchez.

“We are all tremendously excited about Johnny’s return to our talented team,” Sanchez said.  “His leadership experience and in-depth understanding of Zunch operations is extremely valuable as we move forward.  Johnny was a huge asset to Zunch in his previous roles and we’re confident his will excel in this new position and help lead this expanding company through its next phase of growth.”

Thompson brings more than nine years of experience in Web application technology including in-depth exposure to vertical markets such as Interactive and traditional marketing, defense, insurance and telecommunications.  He has the breadth of knowledge to make informed decisions about client needs as well as equipping his staff with the tools they need to deliver solutions.  In his previous roles at Zunch as senior systems architect and vice president of technology, Thompson designed the world’s first search engine friendly shopping cart and content management system, zWebCommurce and zContentManager.

“I am absolutely thrilled to return to Zunch at such an amazing time,” Thompson said.  “Zunch has an incredible pipeline of innovative products and services and I am happy to be back working with this great team as we develop and deliver next-generation solutions that deliver the highest ROI for our clients.”

“Johnny has a successful track record of providing excellent leadership to all of our team members,” Sanchez said.  “With his appointment we are solidifying our executive management team and will enact upon our growth strategy both in the U.S. and globally.”

Continue reading: Interactive Marketing Expert Johnny Thompson Returns to Zunch as COO

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Use Top Three Market Penetration Tools of Search Engines, IM and Email to Enter China Market

By Catherine Zhang, Overseas Dept. at iResearch Inc., Shanghai, China

In iResearch’s recently issued 2006 China Online Economy Research Report, according to the user statistics of Internet segment markets, the penetration rate of search engines, instant messenger and email is the highest of all and takes 87.4 percent, 83.8 percent and 79.3 percent of Internet users in China representatively in 2005. The emerging Internet services such as blogging and online magazine have accumulated a considerable amount of users.

iResearch estimates that the number of Internet users in China will exceed 130 million in 2006 with a increase of 18 percent year on year. The compound growth rate is expected to be 10 percent in the next five years and the number of Internet users will rise to 232 million. The number of China's Internet users has access to the fresh period of rapid, sustained and stable development. With the increase of the number of Internet users, the number of Internet application services target clients and usage users is increasing significantly.

The huge number of Internet users in China is not only promoting Internet traffic and advertising efficiency, but is also transforming the increase of Internet user amount to the growth of industry revenues in Internet industries that rely on the payment of individual users. This is a simple rule for online game, online travel booing and C2C ecommerce. If user penetration rate reached a certain level, Internet enterprises will gradually face the trial of user satisfaction, user loyalty and other product proof. The core of competition will transform and enhance the level of user experience.

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You may have seen our "Zunch Wagons" rolling around Dallas for a couple of years now.  We've decided to overhaul the design for more brand recognition and spead more rush hour cheer along DFW highways.  Over the next couple of months, you'll see a brand new face on our little fleet.

Honk if you see a Zuncher!

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DALLAS, Texas (PRWEB) June 13, 2006 – Zunch Communications, Inc., the leading international Interactive marketing agency dedicated to achieving measurable results for its clients, announces it has been chosen by Apple Farm Inn  for its award-winning online marketing solutions.  The deluxe San Luis Obispo hotel is the perfect destination for those seeking a luxurious weekend retreat or a captivating experience at the finest in San Luis Obispo lodging.

“The extravagant accommodations and gracious personalized service at Apple Farm Inn offer an oasis of tranquility that is unmatched by other hotels in San Luis Obispo,” Zunch Director of Interactive Marketing Matthew Shehorn said.  “The Zunch team is ready to help introduce guests from across the nation and around the world to this enchanting hotel in San Luis Obispo, California.”

Patrick McGuire, revenue manager of Apple Farm Inn, said Zunch is a major player in the Interactive vertical and continues to be ranked highly for its online marketing and service.

 “The hotel industry has become very competitive and we feel the aggressive strategies that Zunch employs will allow us to compete at a much higher level,” McGuire said.  “Zunch has proven success in the hotel industry and we’re extremely confident in this agency’s ability to improve our Internet marketing presence.”

 Continue reading Apple Farm Inn Selects Zunch for Online Marketing

 

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Remote Web services are a fascinating new way of allowing Website visitors to view content tailored to their needs. Using a few lines of code, a Web developer can query data from a remote server and publish the data in whatever format he needs. XMethods.net, one of the larger free Web services directories, has free code examples for a plethora of services including currency conversion, email validation, World Cup soccer tracking, anagrams and lotto number generators.

If you're looking for more commercial application of Web services, take a look at Amazon.com. Amazon.com is one of the main sites that allows its customers to create an Interactive shopping cart for their own personal website(!) that links directly to Amazon's enormous product database. Using their API, a designer can build a storefront which pulls all the data (pricing, images in different sizes, all manner of product details) in a short amount of time.  The developer runs a query, using keywords, product title, author, etc, and the web service pulls the data back as a xml-formatted packet that can easily be displayed using XSL or regular HTML code.

Web services are the backbone for one of Zunch clients.  This Website is the first Zunch-developed site to use Web services to provide up to date ticket information to their customers. Looking for tickets to the next Texas Rangers home stand? No problem. Just go to the Texas Rangers page, select the game you're interested in and voila! A current list of all tickets for that day's game shows up, displaying pricing, the number of available tickets and seating information. There's also a link showing a stadium seating chart.

As you can see, the uses for remote Web services are wide and incredibly useful. The dev team at Zunch has the know-how and experience to implement any Web service to suit your website's needs.

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Google has quietly launched its new Web-based spreadsheet software today, currently in a limited test run over at Google Labs.  Whether this is the Microsoft Excel killer some people might be looking forward to, I have no clue.  Unfortunately, you must sign up to have access and I'm still waiting for my invite to come into my Gmail.  But, it does have one very unique feature that really caught my eye - after you save your document on the web, you can share it with people on your Google Talk contacts by entering their email.  Once shared, they can open the document at the same time as you and you can *both* make changes at once.  To me, this is the holy grail of office applications - integrated support of live collaboration.  Once the document is complete, you can download the Excel file (XLS format) document to keep.

This is the first direct stab at a Microsoft product.  Well, technically I guess you could consider Google Page Creator to be a competitor with Microsoft Front Page, but that might be kind of a stretch since Page Creator doesn't come close to the same feature set of Front Page.  Either way, you can bet this means war.  Computer software is about to change forever :-)

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Are you still looking for a shopping cart that allows multiple shipping addresses, international orders, multiple languages and blends seamlessly into your shipping and account software?  If so, your worries are over. 

zWebCommurce, the leading ecommerce solution developed by Zunch, is unlike any other shopping cart on the market.  This unique application is search engine friendly--that’s right, a search engine friendly shopping cart!  Now, whenever someone conducts a search for your product, zWebCommurce enables your company’s product page to appear in the search results. zWebCommurce is also fully customizable because Zunch understands all businesses have their own needs—and they are not the same. 

Contact us today if you feel you should not have to adapt your business around a shopping cart—the shopping cart should be tailored towards you and how you do business. 

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We would all like to welcome Lynn Holley to the award-winning Zunch team.  Lynn joins our talented team of Interactive Marketing Consultants and is very excited to help our clients achieve success.

Welcome to the Zunch team!!!

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