Sudoku – you've probably seen people playing the addictive 9 by 9 square grid game, seen volumes of Sudoku books at bookstores, and you may even be a Sudoku fan yourself. If you didn't already know, like many other popular games, Sudoku is widely available on the mobile platform as well. So what does sales lead generation have to do with our downloadable Sudoku mobile game? Illuminated Technologies' mobile Sudoku application is designed to be a superior lead generation, Internet marketing and Search engine optimization (SEO) tool for your business. For example, you will find that the mobile Sudoku application to be an Internet marketing and lead generation tool for Lumaganda.

For the Player

Our mobile Sudoku application is designed to effectively market your business and generate sales leads by appealing to all kinds of Sudoku players. We've loaded this addictive game with features that are essential for any paper-and-pen Sudoku game, such as the ability to write notes, four difficulty levels, saving multiple games, and creating personal profile records. Best of all, it's completely free – no annoying accounts to set up, and no user fees. Players just supply their names and emails, refer a couple of friends, download and play – when has lead generation and Internet marketing become so easy?

Lead Generation

Every business constantly needs new customers to survive– and they are produced by lead generation. Lead generation marketing is accomplished in many ways: word-of-mouth, networking, mass-marketing-campaigns, and more. Our mobile Sudoku game is an innovative and effective way to generate sales leads for and market your business. Every download requires the user to submit their name and email, supplying you with marketing information. Furthermore, users are also encouraged to “tell a friend” - they can enter as many friends' names and emails as they wish, thus multiplying the lead generation process. The idea is to spread the application and your business like a virus. Every single download will bring you at least one lead, and their friends bring their friends, and so on. Nor does it stop at just Sudoku – Illuminated Technologies is specialized in custom software development, and we have the tools to create any mobile application you'd like for great lead generation and Internet marketing results.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine optimization is a powerful means to which your business can increase its website hits; in other words, maximizing marketing exposure for your website. This is accomplished by creating as many incoming links to your website and as many interlinking across relevant websites as possible. The mobile application will be made available on your website, and all sites within the cluster will have a link to the download page. Banner graphics will also be used on portal sites as a linking tool. They can be easily copied and pasted onto third party websites, so that anyone can provide a link to the download page. This ultimately encourages maximum traffic to your company website, and is an invaluable tool in generating sales leads and improving Internet marketing. Illuminated Technologies can assist you today in designing and implementing a mobile application such as Sudoku to start generating sales leads and rev up your Internet marketing.

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The mobile version of Sudoku is available as a beta release for the following platforms. Select the version you would like to download, save the file to your computer, and transfer the application to your handheld via a USB cable. For detailed instructions on installation, please consult your mobile user's manual.

Mobile Sudoku Beta 

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Lumaganda has also released a mobile financial calculator (LumaCalc), and a mobile version of Sun Tzu's The Art of War (LumaSlides)

Illuminated Technologies' newest addition to lead generation marketing will focus on the use of free, mobile applications to improve website page rankings. The custom software developer has launched three applications that will become a permanent feature to its lead generation and marketing solution, Lumaganda. The first applications available in this series will be a mobile version of Sudoku, a mobile financial calculator, and a mobile summary of Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

Illuminated Technologies announced today that it will be including a new lead generation feature in Lumaganda, tentatively named Lumaganda Mobile. Illuminated Technologies plans to demo three initial mobile applications: mobile Sudoku, a mobile financial calculator, and a mobile version of The Art of War, to demonstrate its ability to use custom software as a lead generation tool. Lumaganda Mobile will be added to the list of lead generation features already offered by the Lumaganda service, which include contact forms, surveys, and newsletter subscriptions.

Lumaganda Mobile's downloads are a set of free, mobile applications available on J2ME, Palm OS, BlackBerry OS, Pocket PC, and SmartPhone platforms. The aim of developing the first application in the series, a mobile financial calculator, was to provide an easy-to-use application that would add value to any businessperson through functionality and portability. By offering a standard arithmetic calculator in conjunction with financial calculation options, any user can easily and quickly compute present values, return on investments, and break even points. The product also offers the ability for users to submit requests for new equations to be developed. By doing so, the compiled list of financial calculations becomes one that is highly practical and applicable to the target market.

Target Market and Benefits

This mobile application targets business individuals and university students and is to be utilized in the workplace or an educational institution. For the business user, this calculator becomes a valuable tool that is available on any widely used mobile platform. Ultimately, this product will alleviate the need to have multiple pieces of technology on hand. Thus, convenience is the key feature to the business user.

For students, this application will essentially replace the need for a financial calculator . The product will feature a basic arithmetic calculator with better user interface than most calculators available on current cellphones. Because the cellphone is owned by the majority of today's population, this product will allow students to quickly and conveniently compute financial equations.

The benefits of this product lie in its ability to accurately address the needs of two separate markets with the same product. This product will be functional, yet convenient enough that it will be accepted. The goal is to establish and increase demand for the application as the product becomes used by the market.

The ability to submit feature requests is also a significant benefit to this product. By utilizing SMS technology, users are able to connect through the application and send a request for a financial calculation they would like to see included into the program. This approach at determining the most highly demanded equations allows for only the most necessary formulas to be incorporated. As a result, usage and performance of the application is not hindered by the complexity created from providing long lists of irrelevant formulas.

Mobile Applications as a Lead Generation Tool 

The immediate use of a free financial calculator is for advertising and lead generation marketing purposes. Once it becomes readily used by the market, the application helps to fuel brand awareness. Financial calculations and equations are also popular searches on major search engines, and providing this application as a one-stop solution works to improve the business's image.

By offering the product for free to users, the opportunity is opened for the business to use the application as a lead generation marketing tool. Inputting personal information will become a necessity before the application can be downloaded. Alternatively, an email address of a specific cellphone can be entered into the website for a direct download. With either option, the business collects a database of leads (full names and emails for the former, and cellphone contacts for the latter) who are interested in the product, thus allowing for more specific target marketing in the future. Furthermore, this application is carried by mobile applications, and as a result, they act as an advertising tool, which fuels the popularity of the product, which in turn, creates a greater product demand and more visits to the website.

Mobile applications such as the financial calculator also open potential for users to refer the product to friends. By using an online referral system, the database can expand based on single users inputting their friends' emails into the referral boxes. As a result, one visitor to the site can potentially provide more than just their own single lead.

Mobile Applications and Seach Engine Optimization (SEO)

Mobile applications such as the financial calculator become a means through which a company employing such a free download can improve its search engine ranking across the major search engines. Search engine optimization ranking is improved in three ways: 1) number of hits and 2) incoming links and 3) interlinking across relevant websites.

The application will be made available on the company website. A link will be provided to all sites so a user can easily reach the page to download the calculator. In addition, banner graphics are used across different websites as a linking tool. These graphics can be easily copied and pasted to third party locations so that anyone can provide a link to the download page.

The aim of this marketing approach is to have as many inbound links to the download page as possible. Each individual who uses the financial calculator will become familiar with the application and its development company, thus building a positive brand image. In addition, the abundance of inbound links will drive up the popularity of the website, thus improving the overall rank of the page.

The number of hits to the webpage through individuals downloading the calculator will also boost popularity of the webpage and increase its overall ranking.

Finally, if different sources offering the download link offer relevant content, this network also assists in improving the ranking of the download site. If these sources are linked together, then the effect is even greater.

Ultimately, the product itself is a means through which lead generation and search engine optimization can take place. By offering a product that is highly demanded, the number of individuals who become interested in the product will increase. The greater the demand, the greater the popularity of the download source, and as a result, the larger the database of leads will become.

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The mobile financial calculator is available as a beta release for the following platforms. Select the version you would like to download, save the file to your computer, and transfer the application to your handheld via a USB cable. For detailed instructions on installation, please consult your mobile user's manual.

Financial Calculator Beta

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Lumaganda has also released a mobile version of Sudoku (LumaSudoku) and a Business Slides of Sun Tzu's The Art of War (LumaSlides).

If you speak with anyone around you, chances are that someone within the crowd has done an online survey within the past month. These inexpensive marketing tools are easy to set up, administer, track, and analyzed by students, employees, and analysts anywhere.

Online surveys have grown rapidly in popularity over the past few years. Quizilla, a popular spot for teens and young adults, is an online source for quizzes, surveys, and polls. While the majority of these surveys result in comical or humorous results (e.g. “What is your Pirate Name?”) online market research is a powerful tool when used correctly.

Online survey providers such as Zoomerang and Survey Monkey offer a variety of packages that allow anyone to administer an effective questionnaire. Free services are provided by each of the companies, but paid packages allow for a larger number of surveys to be administered simultaneously, and more survey participants. However, the far more beneficial aspect of these survey providers is the analysis tools that are offered for post-survey research purposes. From the convenience of a web browser, users are able to compute cross tabs and regressions to easily compile valuable market research data with a few clicks.

However, having a full array of analysis tools and easy administration are only benefits to the administrator. In order for data to be gathered, people need to participate in these virtual surveys. So why are online surveys so popular? The answer is in survey distribution.

Online surveys allow individuals to easily develop questionnaires, save them, and place the links directly into mail merge documents. From the convenience of a single personal computer, a user is able to reach out to anywhere from a sample population of a few individuals from an address book, to a mass email with a limitless survey group. Emails containing these links are easily passed on by initial participants, and given the topic, may become a topic of discussion amongst social groups.

Of course, there is always the question of validity and reliability in survey results. No one is saying that online surveys are entirely accurate and that upper level corporate strategy should be based on this data. However, if one were to step back and look at the possibilities of online surveys, they will quickly see an alternative use.

That's what Illuminated Technologies has done with its newest product, Lumaganda. This lead generation and marketing system takes advantage of surveys and polls as a method of lead generation. Taking part in the survey does not require you to provide a name and/or email address. However, if a participant wants to view survey results, then they must provide a valid email address and have a URL emailed to their inbox. This method of generating leads is intuitive – if you came across the website from a search engine query, then you may be interested in taking part in quick survey. However, if you came across the website from a search engine query, but with a purchase intent, then you would be interested in survey results (especially if the results would be relevant to you).

So while online surveys continue to grow in popularity based on informal market research, individuals who take advantage of such a tool as a lead generation tool may realize its true potential.

Lead generation marketing is made easy with the fully-automated features of Illuminated Technologies' newest Internet marketing solution, Lumaganda . This new service, provided by the Vancouver-based custom software developer, utilizes a multitude of innovative methods to capture valuable search engine traffic into a database of qualified prospects. Lumaganda gathers these leads by employing a variety of lead generating features on its website.

Search engines are always on the move to improve their own algorithms and combat search engine abusers. Google, for one, has recently begun cracking down on feeder sites that falsely represent a website as being more popular than it really is.

How does this all work? For starters, feeder sites are generally static webpages that consist of some auto-directing code, or a hyperlink that redirects users to another webpage. The whole concept of a feeder site is that it produces an abundance of inbound links to the host site (the website that implemented the feeder sites). The greater the number of feeder sites, the more inbound links to a website, which translates into popularity of the website. Why? Because search engine algorithms generally assume that if a website has many inbound links, other third parties must be linking to the website. If there's a lot of third parties linking to the website, that means the website must be a popular attraction. Popularity means that the site is highly relevant (since so many people are visiting it), so it should be placed at the top of the search results.

This approach worked for a short period of time, but search engines are getting smarter. Not only do the search engines know how to detect feeder sites and differentiate them from normal third party websites, but they automatically assume that the users of feeder sites are bad people, and are penalized. Penalization in the search engine world usually means that the website is banned from the server. Getting banned from Google could be a problem, and could harm your online marketing presence greatly.

So the solution? RSS feeds. The technology behind blogging is the next best way at building feeder sites. RSS feeds consist of actual content that can be uploaded quickly and frequently. This technology is used by many news and online resource sites to quickly post new content to their servers.

Search engine crawlers currently catch feeder sites by looking at what is posted on the site. Feeder sites are normally static. Which is a major giveaway to the bots. RSS feeds help because they are constantly updated, and keep each of the feeder sites fresh. On top of that, the fact that content is actually posted to the RSS feeds means that the site is actually relevant, and it is. If you run a consumer electronics business, and you manage 5 feeder sites to your page that talk about the newest and best electronics of the month, you are providing Internet users with valuable information, whether or not that is your priority.

So why not just pull RSS feeds from anywhere off the Internet? Because search engines are smarter than just looking for feeds. They need to be relevant. If you're running a consumer electronics business, and your feeder sites are whipping out 100 feeds a day about dinosaurs and monster cars, chances are it's not going to help much more than using a static site. Either way, it's irrelevant, and it's not going to help.

So the moral of the story? Use RSS feeds that are relevant, and you're pushing your website up in the search engine ranks without pissing off the big guys.