Customised, relevant and up-to-date newsfeeds on a website will improve your search engine ranking and provide a solid connection with your market.  Unique news feeds can also be exploited across other platforms and distribution channels including RSS, email marketing and PR campaigns.

The Benefits of News Feeds
Instant delivery of unique, relevant and topical news feeds will ensure your website is always up-to-date. Those who want to read your articles will keep coming back increasing the number of repeat visitors. Your site will also be seen as the place to go to for news about your industry. With the articles residing on your own website, there will be no need for any more external links to news articles, keeping your hard-won customers on your site.

• Be seen as an ‘authority source’ for your industry
• Important keywords can be included in xml and in the article body copy in order to help identify news pages to the search engines.
• News articles can link to the most profitable internal website pages to aid navigation for readers and to direct web crawlers.
• News can be automatically reformatted for clients, subscribers and readers in the form of an e-newsletter to encourage traffic back to your site.
• News pages are dynamic, which helps search engines regard the site as current.

Levels of service

Research and copywriting For Unique & Frequent Content
We will plan, direct and commission relevant freelancers to prepare unique articles for your site, relevant to your strategic objectives and your specific audience.  Articles are not duplicated in the same form across the World Wide Web, which is important to search engines seeking high quality content.

You, as the client, will have full control over the types of stories written. You can change the brief at anytime and we will ensure that all news feeds will conform to and change with your SEO strategies.

Alternatively, a less expensive system is to publish RSS feeds from news sites.

Publishing
We will develop a system to add a separate static page to your site to encourage search engines to explore and crawl a website more frequently (including important keywords in the news url to help identify the page). Articles can be archived to encourage further crawling of the site, and to provide an invaluable online knowledge resource to site users.

Processing Engine
We can help locate a suitable tailored or RSS feed and develop a processing engine module within your administration console, allowing the site administrator to:

- View all stories
- Search / sort
- Edit / delete / publish/ unpublish
- View how many feeds were received and stories imported
- Persent stats on a realtime chart on the console dashboard

We can also develop dynamic front end photo and video galleries. We can time the delivery of the feed to suit your needs, for example when viewing figures are high or when readers log on in the morning.

Interested?
Please contact us for further information and a range of choices.

Whether it is a phenomenal website, online marketing strategy, complex software solution or mobile app, we guarantee price and delivery date. Our creative team in Cheltenham, UK and our dedicated team of software and website specialists in our Bucharest office work seamlessly together to successfully deliver:

Corporate websites
Document and Content management systems
Online customer helpdesks
Billing and trading systems
Online sales environments
Membership management
Personnel recruitment and administration platforms
Property and sales platforms
Discussion forums and voting systems
URN FMCG promotions
Auctioning systems
Booking and reservation platforms

As marketing becomes increasingly technology led, The Marketing Farm is ideally placed to provide all the marketing disciplines you need under one umbrella, seamlessly integrating great concepts with smashing technology to generate value and results. Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

We develop customised ecommerce solutions, feature packed to meet the very needs of the customer. We now provide three fixed price solutions.

Please contact us for further information. Below is our fixed price menu for the publishing industry.

Standard Package

• Hierarchical category system
• Shopping cart
• PayPal integration
• Static pages
• Users registration
• Users management
• Orders management
• Order status, order history in the user’s account
• Forms (contact, feedback)
• Search facility – by book title, book author, category name
• Books linked to multiple categories
• Books running out of stock listing in the backend
• Books listings with pagination controls and sorting options
• Most popular books listing
• Multiple media files attached to a book (images, audio files, covers)
• Newsletter sign up form
• Newsletter subscribers management and mass mailing with sent emails archive
• Carousel on the homepage with featured titles
• SEO optimized code

Gold Package
The GOLD package has all the features of the STANDARD package, plus:

• Book reviews
• Wish List for logged in users
• ‘Look inside this book’ feature
• Authors listing
• Author dedicated pages (bio, books, image, links)
• Social networks integration (facebook LIKE button, facebook widget, twitter feed)
• Forthcoming Titles listing
• Related Books listing
• Book Bundles – where “bundle” is defined as a group of books that can be presented and sold as a product with his own price, ISBN, etc
• Tag clouds
• Books tags (used for navigation, SEO)
• Ajax forms (inline validation, user feedback)

Premium Package
The PREMIUM package has all the features of the GOLD package, plus:

• Blog system with categories, comments (custom or through the use of Disqus.com or Facebook comments), blog archive, post tags
• RSS feeds
• Discount rules and coupon codes
• Shipping rules
• PayPal Pro Integration (requires SSL)
• Sphinx search which provides search by relevance
• Search terms capturing so admin will know what people want
• Daily database backup
• Website monitoring (uptime, speed)
• Website upgrades (per upgrade or monthly)
  Free hosting

Original thinking in terms of SEO is as important as the mundane.. the tagging, keywording, newsfeeds etc. Self content generating sites to feed into your main site are not new. Many businesses will have forums. However, we have spied a growing number of Q&A sites where visitors join to post questions or answer them, and vote accordingly. Unlike forums, there is little competition in this market, but those that are churn out considerable content and hence page ranking and traffic. 

A Q&A site helps your online community to share knowledge. People with questions quickly get the answers they need. The community dynamic is enriched by commenting, voting, notifications, user points and rankings. Any web searches are questions, so Q&A content is also very search-engine friendly, bringing new visitors to your site. They are not beautiful sites, but they put function at for the fore: answers to questions.

Examples include:

http://stackoverflow.com/ with a PageRank of 6

http://serverfault.com/ with a PageRank of 6

http://superuser.com/ with a PageRank of 6

People want to share a question, and people like to answer!

We have today launched one under the name EquineTalk at http://eqtalk.com/ . Our SEO team are now seeding the site with users, questions and answers and once it is rolling on Google we will link it through to feed traffic into our client, Hauctions  http://hauctions.net/ with banners and links.

If you would be interested in a similar Q&A site tailored and customised to your sector as a traffic driver, please contact us.

A new ‘look’, some fresh copy and incorporation of some of the latest software plug-ins is all it might take to get your website tuned up again. With an increasing number of viewers now browsing from mobile devices and tablets,  it is a timely year to review. 

These are a few of the questions we will ask you

Has Your Target Audience Changed?
Target audiences never stand still and their changing tastes, ambitions, opinions and demands must be reflected in the make-over.

Usability, Browser Compatibility and Navigation Check
Your website may look attractive on your browser, but what about an ipad or on a TV? Is the navigation layout now confused by more recent site extensions and now need a rethink?

What Can The Sparkle Effect Be?
Websites invariably lose their sparkle with age. If you browse through the pages and feel the site is looking drab and boring, you know it is time for a makeover. If you think this, then your website visitors will probably think this as well!

Search Engine Positioning and Optimisation
The search engine environment is more competitive than ever and the means of generating traffic are getting ever more clever and complex. We think outside the box and will suggest novel methods!

The Media Trust. For some clients we work closely to develop new features and promotions on a monthly basis. 

RIPS International. Designed and developed with a simple CMS system, this site continues to be maintenance free with a contemporary and relevant design after 18 months of going live.

Ask For A Free Appraisal
Our objective in all our website makeovers is to create a vast improvement in the way your website looks, functions and performs for least cost. Please contact us for  free appraisal of your current site.

Successful communities have discussion at their core, and our discussion board we developed for our client, New York based EMS Financial Services LLC, is proving a considerable success. Called EMS TrafficBoard, it gives telco buyers a platform on which to post their best rates and to connect with buyers. It is membership based and encourages users to use the EMS portal as their clearing house.

By tailoring and branding an existing software framework, IP.Board, we can help achieve your business goals with a platform that fosters vibrant discussion for a very reasonable cost. Please contact us for further information.

Benefits of Discussion Boards
The initial challenge for most websites is generating traffic. However, the bigger challenge is making sure that once visitors get there, they don’t click away after ten seconds with the impression that your site has nothing to offer. The “stickiness” of your site plays a major role in determining whether your visitors become customers, and whether your site will support itself with measurable value to your business or organization.

Relevant content on your website is the most important factor in keeping your visitors’ attention and discussion provide just that: relevant user generated content.

By adding a discussion board to your website you will be able to communicate with your website visitors and generate and sustain more repeat traffic. One can also learn some important information from the comments made. A Board will help you to understand your visitors’ mind and interest and help you take the lead and steer in their interest. When you will know their interest you can improve your marketing…

Please contact us for advice on how online communities can help your business.

The competition, offers 18-25 year olds the chance to be mentored by top journalists – with one lucky winner getting the chance to have their column printed in The Sun. Find out more here.

We have just taken live a customised ecommerce solution for an independent educational publishers, Brilliant Publications. It is the second such site we have completed for independent publishers this year, following on from Sportsbooks. We develop bespoke systems that are feature packed to meet the very needs of the customer. They supply the wish list and we develop the specification and solution!

The Brilliant system has been developed with a multiple of features including:

• Bespoke site design and branding
• A customer database within the backend
• A site wide search facility
• Newsletter signups, data capture, online feedback and contact systems
• Customer generated product reviews
• Complete client content management system
• Integrated blog
• Web analytics including all visitor tracking and conversion reporting
• On page SEO
• Social networking integration (Facebook, Twitter and RSS, Send to a Friend etc)
• Teaching resources zone
• Most popular books selection facility
• Dynamic front page showcase
• Facility to link Ebook’s unique ISBN to the printed ISBN
• ‘Related books’ display function
• Product bundling
• Book series options
• Optional playlist for mp3 files
• Multiple shipping price structure.
• Credit account and card payment options
• Internal stock control
• External stock display (Available in 7 days / 21 days / Not yet published)
• Postponed payment collection for books not yet published/back in stock
• 13 digit ISBN as the unique key for product identification
• Integration with the client’s Publishing Management Software
• Ebook download provision of 30 days for unlimited downloads
• Online quiz facility

Please contact us to see how we could help your business improve the ecommerce experience for customers and administrators, increase traffic and improve sales conversions and values.

The Marketing Farm is spearheading a new approach to website delivery. We are now providing new website development solutions for 2011 on one to three year payment plans.

Websites, whether for PCs or mobiles, are not brochures. Neither are they pictures. They are living breathing marketing vessels and our interest is its ongoing development.

In our view, too many web or development agencies and designers operating in the traditions of a print agency. They sell, you buy. Their new business managers then roll onto the next sell sale. Six or nine months down the line, markets have shifted, opportunities arisen and the poor client is left is left standing with a website that does not quite fit.

A Mona Lisa is wonderful to look at, but she does not move with the times. A ZX81 was state of the art when launched but was quickly superseded. A website is an ongoing investment, not an off the shelf buy, however attractive her eyelashes might be.

There is a reason The Marketing Farm grows through recommendation and employs no sales staff and it is because we work for the long term mutual advantage. So, that being the case, it begs the question: ‘Why not show such faith and spread payments over the course of the average website shelf life?’ We do not propose what we not believe will yield so, given that confidence, we should share it.

Tangible Results

The commercial beauty of a website as a marketing medium is the tangible results by which you and ourselves can judge its success.

These include:

• Web traffic (under many different criteria)
• Sales (if an online store)
• Subscriptions
• Data collection
• Links in
• Downloads
• Enquiry submissions
• Referrals

Online and mobile marketing provides immense leverage to build business and brands. A three year plan enables us to work with the client on a platform of proactive evolution to fulfill return on investment (ROI) targets.

Watch This space… we believe we are setting a trend here, lighting a path for development agencies to work hand in hand with the client, instead of snatching the hand and letting it go. Online marketing is all about relationships, and these begin with the relationship you have with your developer.

Transform The Way You Do Business in 2011!

Our software team specialise in database and bespoke software solutions that can transform the way you do business. These include the development of:

• Mobile apps
• Document and Content management systems
• Online customer helpdesks
• Billing and trading systems
• Online sales and auction environments
• Membership management
• Personnel recruitment and administration platforms
• Property and sales platforms
• Discussion forums and voting systems
• URN FMCG promotions

As part of their Community Voices project, Inspiring Voices Awards seek to celebrate and encourage the varied and inspiring ways in which communities are empowering themselves through the use of digital media.

They are seeking ten examples of community digital media projects that could help inspire other communities. The awards will be granted to the ten applicants deemed to have made the strongest case for their project.

For a flat fee to cover site registration, build, hosting, backup and maintenance through to 1 December, we developed, tested and made live the site in four days!

Our Software Farm are expert in developing online networking and voting platforms to meet the most demanding needs. Earlier this year we published The Kerrygold Community Awards 2010 website which worked in conjunction with unique codes found on select butter packaging. Members of the public were able to add to an online fund and vote for their favourite project.