NZS.com Newsletter January 2009

Welcome to 2009! NZS.com has an exciting year ahead, and we can't wait to get you more involved in the New Zealand web space with new tips, tools and resources that you'll never know how to go without once you use them.

To kick off the year we've got advice on creating or renewing your business website, the world's newest top level domain, the worldwide move towards product placement, and we hint at a brand new section launching soon on NZS.com.

Contents:

• Top Ten Sites
• Rocketing Off This Month on NZS.com
• The .tel Domain Has Arrived
• Creating (or Renewing) Your Business Website
• Popping Up Everywhere: Product Placement

What a great Kiwi festive season we had! The weather nationwide has been fantastic over the holiday period with sunny days and warm evenings, and there are still loads of events happening throughout the nation over the summer months, including some great music festivals. Check out the top ten click-throughs to New Zealand music events from NZS.com last month:

Rank	Site Name	URL
1.	Big Day Out	www.bigdayout.com
2.	Blues Brews and BBQs Festival	www.bluesbrews.co.nz
3.	Rhythm & Vines	www.rhythmandvines.co.nz
4.	Phat08	www.phatclub.co.nz
5.	Canaan Downs	www.canaandowns.com
6.	Splore	www.splore.net
7.	SilentArena	www.silentarena.com
8.	The New Zealand Country Music Gold Guitar Awards	www.goldguitars.co.nz
9.	Womad	www.womad.co.nz
10.	Waiheke Jazz Festival	www.waihekejazz.co.nz

Are you hooked on your iPhone or Blackberry? What mobile websites do you use? Send us your mobile websites NOW - we've got an exciting new section brewing for them...

We all use the internet daily at home and work, and increasingly on the go with our mobile phones and other internet-enabled handheld devices. Finding the content you are after while you are at the bach, out at lunch or on the bus isn't always easy, but that is all set to change. Get ready to have the New Zealand web easily accessible anytime, anywhere... NZS.com Mobi is about to rocket into your hand!

Keep your eye out on the NZS.com blog - we've got an exciting new mobile version of NZS.com launching soon which will give you full access to NZS.com from your iPhone, Blackberry and other mobile devices with web browsers.

We'll let you know as soon as it's live, but in the meantime have you checked out the NZS.com mobile websites listings yet? If you have a website that is designed for use on a mobile device, or have a favourite New Zealand mobile site that we don't have listed, let us know by adding it to our directory with our Add a Site page.

There's a new Top Level Domain (TLD) on the block, which aims to give brands and trademark owners first pick in securing the URL's closely related to their other TLD's (.com, .org and so on). It's called .tel.

This new domain was made available in late 2008 and aims to unify the web's official contact details database for businesses and organizations worldwide. .tel domain registration was made available in its first stage in early December, and is intended to act as the web's official phone book. .tel domains are created solely for the purpose of making the phone numbers, e-mail addresses, GPS data, Skype call information and so on, readily available.

.tel is designed specifically for use as a mobile website domain, accessible on devices such as the Apple iPhone and Smartphone. Its core purpose is to give access to the holder of the .tel URL without the need for searching through their standard TLD such as a .com, which is often difficult on the move. When contact information is accessed via mobile devices, easy links will be able to make calls, open e-mail compositions and find maps without the need for further searching by the user. Additionally, .tel's are set up to provide global access to a contact directory without the need to have the domain registrant's information in an address book.

Owners of .tel domains will be able to manage their contact repository via a simple dashboard, and they can control which details are published, and who they are visible to. The system is to have a mechanism to grant access to private areas with more contact details for approved contacts.

.tel domain registration is available via the international websites Telnic or Digitrad. Phase one of the .tel registration movement was made available on December 3, and allows only registered trademarks to secure the .tel domain which relates to their trademarked brand. The second phase will begin on February 3 2009, and will open .tel domains to anyone, although they will be on sale at a premium. The final stage of availability of .tel domains will come 6 weeks later on March 24, when the domains will be available to anyone.

2009 is here, and if you have been thinking about starting up a new business website, or renewing your old one, there are several must do's to start off with. Whether you plan to attack the design process by yourself or enlist in the help of a web designer, use these tips to design a website to please both your visitors and search engines alike.

The Text/Image Balance
Make sure you have the right balance between text and images on each page. Image-heavy websites with little text on them won't be indexed efficiently by search engines to match search relevancy from your target market. Simple text-laden sites on the other hand, can look amateur and low in quality. Using a combination of the two (as a general rule at least 250 words of text per page) will satisfy both your visitors and search engines alike.

Choosing Your Font
Use a readable font size and font, making sure it is one that is easily scalable for visitors with low vision. Break up your paragraphs with bullet points (internet users skim read) and make sure all of your information is concise and cohesive. Bold only key ideas, as excess use of bolding will over-emphasise the whole page, which is counter-productive for both visitor use and search engine optimisation.

Calls To Action
Place strong calls to action throughout your site, including underlined blue hyperlinked keywords. These are the easiest ways to instruct visitors to 'buy' 'contact' or 'support' your company, products or services. Then, have someone do some landing page testing to perform key tasks around your site.

Contact Me!
Include your phone number in an easily accessible place on your website, as it gives visitors peace of mind when assessing the validity of your business. The higher to the top of the page, the better. If you operate from a commercial premises, a physical address and exterior photo on each page is a great way to associate your location (e.g. your storefront) with your geographic location - and remember you can even include a simple map.

Product placement isn't a new concept - while it's banned in the UK, US television is rampant with it - and it's becoming increasingly popular on New Zealand TV with the rise of the DVR (Digital Video Recorder).

Product placement, while a form of advertising, is often a reflection of the branded world we live in today. How many computers do you see in American films that aren't Apple Mac or Dell? These brands dominate the computer product placement worldwide, similarly reflecting their domination in real-world offices and homes. Instead of spending time creating fictitious brands or no-name products, television producers have real branded products provided for use which mirror real world consumerism, and as a big bonus add financially to their production budgets.

The strong introduction of DVRs and personal recording systems such as MySky over the last year has seen an increasing shift towards fast-forwarding through the advertisements which effectively make television shows possible. Production companies in New Zealand have watched this trend increase, and have begun introducing products into the shows themselves (particularly cars, cell phones, computers, food and drinks), as a way of getting to their audience when they are actively involved.

In the US, product placement on television is expected. The American Idol judges sip Coca-Cola throughout every show, and the Project Runway hairstylists use only Tresemme styling products. New Zealand has started to make this move with shows such as Sportcafe (hosts drinking sponsoring beer brands) and Mucking In (consistent product usage of Resene Paints and Freedom Furniture items, among others). We can definitely expect this trend to increase in the coming year, with less and less television viewers sitting through live advertisements.

Product placement is also making its way into online video with companies such as Brandfame setting up shop for the sole purpose of placing products in YouTube videos which they then attempt to make viral. Many consumer brands (recently American Eagle clothing, Tide detergent, and famously 42 Below vodka) produce videos they hope to go viral, which soft-peddle their brands by placing them in the background.

While some may see the increasing amount of product placement obtrusive to television or compromising of its quality, television producers will argue that it actually makes more television possible. It is a way for production companies to stretch tight budgets and actually create better shows. If a show were to cost $150,000 per hour to make and a large percentage of that can be funded by product placement, they can potentially increase the amount of hours they make, and the quality of both the on-screen talent and off-screen production.

We're interested in your opinion, if you have anything you'd like to hear about in the newsletter, let us know.

Images from Flickr: Luxury Show, Adam, Press Play.