COIN72 - Lesson 1
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Your Course
This course is a broad introduction to Internet and Web marketing, including Social Media, with an emphasis on developing a strategy and techniques to promote traffic to your website, increase sales, or increase awareness about a new product. In this hands-on course you'll learn to use meta tags, XML sitemaps, understand Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and effective ways to increase traffic and increase sales. This is an intermediate level course, and assumes you have a working knowledge of HTML/XHTML, have an operational or near operational website, and a basic knowledge of e-commerce concepts. (If you are not strong in HTML/XHTML - you can partner with someone who is).
The course is broken up into five units, covering Internet marketing techniques, marketing strategy development, marketing campaigns and gorilla marketing tactics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and technology skills from XML sitemaps to RSS to Web analytics. In Spring 2011 we're adding new sections for Experiential and buzz marketing, Social Media Marketing, and an introduction to mobile marketing.
In addition to the hands on exercises, you'll also do directed research and navigation on the Web, a form of 'competitive analysis', to see how successful companies promote products, services, and websites. You are encouraged to create logs of your activities in Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, and be aware of 'branding', brand management, and 'controlling the message' in all media context, including radio, television, news, and myriad exposures to signage and messaging in your everyday life.
Web Marketing Websites
There are a number of websites that you can review to help you get started.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/
http://www.morevisibility.com/
http://www.the-dma.org/
http://www.constantcontact.com/
http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/
http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/
Your Instructor
Hello and Welcome! I'm Robert Cormia, your instructor for this course. I have been teaching HTML, XML, Web design, and Informatics for several years, actually over a decade. My background includes over 15 years on the Internet, with an emphasis in e-commerce and Web marketing, strategy and business plan development, and competitive research and analysis, and Foothill College with a focus in online teaching.
I have taught Dreamweaver classes and have used it as a Web developer for Internet software companies during the dot.com boom. Before my Internet life, I was a technologist in materials science, practicing 'nanotechnology' back in the early days. Today I also work in informatics, including the use of XML and RDF to support Semantic Web and data mining technologies. I also do public speaking on climate change, energy policy, and developing GHG emission reduction strategies. Being able to do Web work, RSS feeds, and Semantic Web mining of wikibooks allows me to practice all of my skills at once, and on a daily basis.
Your Classmates
Our current class roster includes students with a diverse list of skills and broad range of experience. Some students have no Internet or HTML/XHTML experience, and others are professionals in the digital media arena. You can get to know your classmates by selecting a partner who can help review your technical and strategic work, including someone you can follow on Twitter and/or have them follow you.
Prerequisites and Advisories
This is an intermediate level course, and assumes you have a working knowledge of HTML/XHTML, have an operational website, and a basic knowledge of e-commerce concepts. If you are very new to web technologies, I recommend that you study electronic commerce and HTML first. While you can learn a lot from this course without knowledge of Web technologies, you'll learn a lot more if can create an XML sitemap, use meta tags, and create RSS feeds.
Getting Prepared
In the first week you'll need to do several things to get prepared. First, make sure to order the textbook as it's a good 'all in one' guide to the subject. Second, if you haven't set up a Google account, try to do that as soon as possible. You'll use that account to access Google Docs, and create your Google analytics and webmaster tools accounts. Some of you may have already used Google AdWords and/or AdSense, and ae using webmaster tools. If you don't yet have a Twitter account, set that up and start tweeting, and the same for Facebook. I assume that you have built a simple website at one time, or you may be working on one now. It is important but not essential that you have a website that you can upload a sitemap file to. You can use Google sites to do that. Log into ETUDES, and check for announcements. Post an introduction in the discussion area. Finally, for assignment one, post an entry to me that you have completed these tasks, and please (additionally) paste your introduction in that section as well.
Lesson Distribution
The online lectures and the associated assignments are distributed and due based on the links in the Classroom and Assignments menus of Etudes. I have released all the lessons at once, including links to the course web site at http://fgamedia.org/faculty/rdcormia/COIN72/. It is your responsibility to monitor the ETUDES Assignments Links for the due dates and specified times for submission of homework and to check the Announcements Forums for updates or revisions to the course content and schedule. If a homework link has expired, you may not be able to get full credit for your assignment. Please do not request extensions for submitting homework unless you have a *real* emergency.
Assignment Submission
Each week your assignments will be due on the date and time specified in the ETUDES ASSIGNMENT LINK for that assignment. Any assignment turned in after the due date may be considered late, and may be marked down one grade if over one week late. Please read the Homework Submission page carefully. You may be dropped from the course if you miss more than two homework submissions.
Please complete and submit homework leaving plenty of time before the deadline. I can only assign points in ETUDES through the appropriate submission fields for each assignment. I understand that the first couple of weeks you will have a lot of information on the ETUDES interface in addition to your Dreamweaver work so I am flexible during this time and am very available to help you to be successful early on in the course, so don't worry, I'm here to help!
Grading Criteria
Please click here to see my grading criteria. You may be dropped or assigned a grade of "W" if you miss 2 homework submissions or fail two homework submissions, and do not contact me by email with a reason. Once you are dropped I cannot reinstate you. There are no incomplete grades available in this course. You will discover that I grade on effort, and I can quickly tell how much effort you have put into an assignment, either by quality, quantity, or both. This is a course where you get out what you put in.
Your Textbook
Our textbook is Web Marketing All-in-One for Dummies, which provides a good overview of the course content which you can simply read, front to back, at your leisure. I recommend purchasing it online from Amazon.com from this link. From time to time we will send out links to webinars which you should try to 'attend', as these provide the most current view of Web marketing, SEO, and social media.
Academic Dishonesty
Any work you submit in a college course is expected to be your own. If you copy and paste entire sentences from the Web and do not understand that this is plagiarism, you will be reminded of that, and assigned a grade of zero for an assignment this is essentially copied and pasted instead of real writing. My real concern is that too many people actually think that copy and pasting is writing; it's plagiarism.
What it's like to take an Online Class
The success of an online course depends on your participation in our virtual community. The class will provide the most success when you use our Discussion Forums for sharing ideas, links, questions, successes and challenges relating to the course. You'll be amazed how dynamic this course can become by your participation in these discussions. The most successful online method has emphasized communication between students, their peers and the instructors.
Netiquette for our Student Lounge
To get the most from the online environment:
- Log on often each week.
- Make significant contributions to the class.
- Respect your peers' input and insight.
- Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say to someone's face.
Clearly, unless one is extremely talented at expressing oneself through writing, communicating effectively online is a major challenge. When communicating online, expect to be misunderstood. This is a college classroom. Inappropriate behavior, spamming or flaming will result in expulsion from the course.
Ground Rules and Expectations
This is an intermediate level class. You are expected to have a 'working understanding' of, and the ability to read and edit, HTML/XHTML, and have a basic familiarity with Web technology (so you can use Google webmaster tools, upload sitemap.xml files, and engage in advanced metadata and social tagging).
This course is a 12 week course. Log on several times a week to read announcements, the weekly lesson, find a code review buddy, submit the check message, respond to a question in the forums. Additionally, you should be checking your email daily, as I often send out messages through ETUDES and by email. You are expected to do all assignments and course projects on time. You are expected to drop the course by the required date through the Admissions and Records Office; however, the instructor may drop you if you are not meeting the objectives and requirements of the course.
I expect you will check Foothill's Academic Calendar for holidays, last day to submit Pass / No Pass requests, last day to drop, etc. There are no incomplete grades available in this class, so please plan your schedule accordingly.
I expect you all to work hard, learn a lot, and HAVE FUN! And please do NOT compare yourself to others in the class. Remember that we all enter this course with different skills and experiences. Just do your best and keep open lines of communication, and share what you learn with other students. I will work with you, encourage you, and help you solve reasonable problems as they come up.
Class Errata
Please notify me by email if you find typos, incorrect information, or broken links! I reserve the right to change, amend, correct, add, or delete material from this website as conditions warrant, but will always be flexible in helping students achieve their educational goals. We want this to be a successful learning.
* click the link below to read this week's homework assignment *
Assignment 1