Volume 1, Issue 11.

Concept:Marketing Targets Pirates

The music industry has battled many lawsuits, since the invention of music file sharing.  With companies such as Napster, LimeWire, Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, and the millions of other websites that market free music downloads, the music industry/artists have tried to target individual file sharers in hopes of discouraging the practice of pirating music.  In addition, the artists along with companies like MediaDefender began intentionally placing phony files at the top of the searches that purposely failed during mid-download. Though this proved to be frustrating for sharers, it wasn’t enough to stop the ever popular pirating.

Recently artist, Jay-Z along with Coca-Cola Co., tried something new. They recognized these file-sharers are more likely to be big music fans. Rather than suing the individuals, to market towards them may be far more profitable in the long run. Coca-Cola Co. and Jay-Z send out phony files, but add promotional materials to turn an anti-piracy issue into yet another medium for advertising.

Many other artists have jumped on the promotional phony file bandwagon; however, only 1% of the phony files on file sharing websites have marketing promotions attached. At the reverse spectrum, many artists and bands are grateful for file sharing, because they believe that their popularity is derived mainly from internet sharing as opposed to the usual mediums such as radio and television. They claim this technological word-of-mouth is a highly effective marketing tool.

For more information in this Noble Concept, visit the Wall Street Journal Online

Recipe:Is Your Website Scary?

Having a website for business is as vital as having business cards in today’s technology society. Consider these five essentials when evaluating your present website:

• Is your business website professional? – Cookie-cutter templates and home built websites do not encourage people to do business with you. It looks unreliable and typically is. (Similar to perforated business cards)
• Is your website secure? – WWW users fear giving personal information to purchase anything online without proof of security. The necessary certifications, such as SSL, needs to be positioned in prominent locations on your website.
• Does your e-commerce website accept all payment options? – Make it easy for people to purchase your products. Don’t waste their time; offering multiple payment methods is vital.
• Is your website optimized? – Unique keywords, descriptions, page titles, and alt tags for each page of your website are all great ways to have your website spidered by search engines.  In addition to this, keep your website up to date. This minor but consistent detail will produce a reoccurring audience and is great for search engines.
• Do you have adequate web hosting? – Sure there are some cheap and even free hosting companies out there, but is it worth the downtime you could experience? (Incidentally, downtime can affect search engine visibility.)

Client:Truckee River Flood Project

Truckee River Flood Project, also known as www.truckeeflood.us, selected Noble Studios to create a fully dynamic website. The Flood Project informs local communities, businesses, as well as the nation of the restoration project taking place on the Truckee River, which runs through California and Nevada. Due to the flooding frequency of the river, the website includes a flood warning system that updates the condition of the water level during times of concern. The custom Content Management System (CMS) allows all administrators to make changes to all facets of the website including: creating new pages, sub-pages, images, PDF’s, and verbiage. A custom website blog was also imperative to involve visitors in the progress of the Truckee River Flood Project.

2006 Noblestudios.com