Welcome to StudyAbroad.com News!

CONTENTS:

I. Search Engine Marketing - Mark Shay
II. Taking Your Leads Further - Mark Landon
III. StudyAbroad.com Exhibiting at Upcoming NAFSA Conference - Lori Faunce
IV. StudyAbroad.com Site Redesign - Clara Gruen
V. Top Twenty Countries Search on StudyAbroad.com in April
VI. Unique Visitors to StudyAbroad.com

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I. SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING - MARK SHAY

One key area of EDU's online marketing has been search engine marketing. Gone are the days when you submitted your site to a search engine once. Today search engines are such a competitive medium that successful optimization involves a multifaceted approach to this lucrative source of web traffic. The business of search engines also is changing as the major players seek to develop profitable and sustaining revenue streams through advertising and partner relationships. Keeping up on the progress of search engines will help you maintain your positioning and keep your traffic levels strong.

For a search engine to succeed, it needs to find content that matches what the viewer is seeking and, at least today, they must do so at no cost to the user. Without subscription fees, search engines must survive on advertising revenue. When they offer a free service enhanced by relevant advertising, it makes for a positive user experience that transforms a visitor into a loyal user. Today the undisputed leader, both in function and business viability is Google. Google marries a powerful web index with a non-invasive, relevant advertising model.

In the search engine world, "it's all about relevance!" In the early days of the Internet, relevance meant content. Human reviewers or automated computer systems would visit a web site and determine relevant search categories or keywords for a submitted site. These would be entered into the search engine's database. The results would be displayed to the user with some accompanying advertising, usually graphic banners. As commercialism hit the Internet, new businesses emerged that redefined relevance as one's willingness to pay for positioning on matching search terms. Today, the leader in this game is a firm known as Overture (http://www.Overture.com). Overture works as an advertising engine, operating in partnership with large portals like MSN.com and Yahoo.com to provide relevant ads and revenue on a pay-per-click formula.

Positioning in the unadvertised or non-sponsored search results now depends on an ever changing mix of content relevance, freshness of content, and a popularity index that is derived from checking who links to your site and how popular that linking site is.

Recently EDU presented two sessions at the NAGAP conference, one on search engine marketing and the other reviewing the evolution of online marketing. The slide shows for these sessions are available at the following address: http://www.GradSchools.com/NAGAP.

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II. TAKING YOUR LEADS FURTHER - MARK LANDON

If you are like most academic recruiters, you understand the value of generating good-quality inquiries about your programs. You are probably spending a great deal of time, money and effort to identify suitable prospects through various methods. But what are you doing with your hard-won leads once you get them? While most recruiters recognize the value of a well-qualified lead, few have the resources to make the most of them.

Opt-In email represents one of the most powerful and effective means to convert leads into applicants. The concept is simple, and given the right tools and assistance, the execution can be quite painless.

When a potential student contacts you to inquire about your program, he or she is at least modestly interested. When you reply to these prospects, you should suggest that they remain abreast of the latest news and information about your program by signing up for your email newsletter. You should also take every opportunity to invite prospects to sign up via your website, your printed materials, fairs, and your advertising. Each student who opts-in is inviting you to become engaged in an ongoing dialogue. They are stating that they have a genuine interest in what you have to offer and they are inviting you to establish a relationship.

By sending these prospects regular communication (a monthly interval is recommended), you are at the forefront throughout their decision-making process. You are also able to incrementally inform them about how your program will benefit them, steadily building their interest. Moreover, you can inform students about open-houses, invite them to online forums, and subtly work towards making them a part of your community.

An important point which bears mentioning is that opt-in email is not spam. When a student invites you to send your newsletter, it is a welcome communication and does not bear the label of 'unsolicited.'

Through our EDU-IS recruiting service, Educational Directories Unlimited, Inc. is offering an opt-in email service called EDU Email Recruiting. We have teamed up with the leader in higher education email marketing, TargetX, to provide a turnkey solution for educational recruiters. EDU-IS is combining our marketing expertise with the award-winning TargetX email system to provide a system which is powerful, effective, and affordable. Moreover, EDU-IS personnel work with you to tailor your message, design a schedule, and ensure that your messages go out on time.

In other words, we don't just give you a tool, we make sure that the tool works for you. This is especially significant when sending bulk email, as there are so many time consumers: creating HTML email messages, handling bounced messages, and dealing with unsubscribe requests. Our system and staff also help you make sense of your campaign by providing detailed reporting on open rates, click-through rates, and pass-along rates.

If you are interested in more information about opt-in Email, visit our site at http://www.EDU-IS.com/email/ or email (optin@edudirectories.com), or phone Andrew Olanoff at 610-499-9200.

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III. STUDYABROAD.COM EXHIBITING AT UPCOMING NAFSA CONFERENCE - LORI FAUNCE

StudyAbroad.com is looking forward to seeing many of you at the upcoming NAFSA conference in Salt Lake City. For the eighth consecutive year, StudyAbroad.com will be exhibiting. This year we will be located at booth #1318. Stop by and pick up a new, easy-to-use StudyAbroad.com Services guide, a free, large, color wall map, and a copy of the StudyAbroad.com Handbook. Founders Mark Shay and Mark Landon will be available along with sales representatives Erica Brechemin and John Duncan to answer any of your questions and to discuss our partnerships with you.

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IV. STUDYABROAD.COM SITE REDESIGN - CLARA GRUEN

StudyAbroad.com is undergoing a site redesign that will give the site a clean, professional look and help students find the programs they are seeking quickly. The new site design, which will be live for the NAFSA conference beginning on May 26, utilizes new navigation that targets students by the kind of program they are seeking. Moreover, it drives students through the Academic, Summer, Intern, Language and High School portals and offers the newly redesigned Country Home Pages, which provide an overview of the country in which they find a program that interests them.

With this redesign, a number of new advertising opportunities will be available as well; new Paragraph Ad positions and Midway Ads will allow administrators to have a headline ad between the paid advertisers and the free listings on the StudyAbroad.com directory pages. Make sure you check out the new site! We welcome you to provide us feedback on the changes by emailing webmaster@studyabroad.com.

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V. TOP TWENTY COUNTRIES SEARCHED ON STUDYABROAD.COM IN APRIL 2003

1. Spain
2. England
3. Mexico
4. Italy
5. France
6. Germany
7. Canada
8. Australia
9. Japan
10. Ireland
11. United States
12. India
13. Russia
14. Belgium
15. China
16. Netherlands
17. Sweden
18. Cuba
19. Egypt
20. Argentina

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VI. UNIQUE VISITORS FOR STUDYABROAD.COM - TWO YEAR PERIOD

April 2003: 527,461
April 2002: 489,860

March 2003: 548,131
March 2002: 500,976

February 2003: 495,561
February 2002: 495,421

January 2003: 562,285
January 2002: 496,133

December 2002: 441,964
December 2001: 318,923

November 2002: 453,676
November 2001: 360,399

October 2002: 492,210
October 2001: 339,061

September 2002: 437,478
September 2001: 308,090

August 2002: 403,790
August 2001: 312,221

July 2002: 424,791
July 2001: 401,177

June 2002: 346,758
June 2001: 332,871

May 2002: 422,366
May 2001: 357,048

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