February 2006 - Posts
Performance marketing provider Miva launched a contextual advertising program
(currently in beta) which will enable publishers to determine whether a web page
should use Miva's contextual engine to dynamically serve ads based on page
content, or manually select keywords to match ads to content and/or visitor
demographics.
From the BusinessWire release:
"MIVA's automated contextual offering is another example of how the Company
is leveraging its technology investments to meet the rapidly evolving needs of
advertisers and publishers," said MIVA Chief Operating Officer, Peter Corrao. "MIVA
is continually developing solutions designed to give our global
publisher-partners a powerful asset - the ability to deliver highly verticalized
results at a favorable price through superior targeting and inventory
management. At the same time, we are helping advertisers achieve better results
for their keyword campaigns to attract more qualified leads."
Miva's contextual offering joins other major providers solutions, led by
Google Adsense, Yahoo Publishers and a slew of other solutions from companies
like BrightAds (Kanoodle), Quigo (AdSonar), AccessoryAds (7Search) and other
smaller providers. Miva's approach to the contextual craze is certainly a unique and welcome response to
Web publisher demand. Delayed, but unique.
Technorati Tags:
miva, advertising, publishers, contextual
Del.icio.us Tags:
miva, advertising, publishers, contextual
Via Jason Caplain's blog Southeast VC,
Carrie Johnson's (of Forrester) talk last week at eTail (a multi-channel retail
event) featured some interesting highlights worth noting.
- As prices of technology are falling, the number of users online are
increasing, but average household income is falling
- The number one reason that prevents some people from shopping online is they
do not want to enter in personal information. The second reasons is that they
actually want to touch the product.
- Online sales should reach 200 billion this year, 40 billion of which is travel
related.
- As sales slow, companies selling online need to realize that it will be about
stealing away market share from competitors.
- Shopping cart abandonment is pretty high, over 50%
Technorati Tags:
ecommerce, retail, forrester, caplain, online shopping
Del.icio.us Tags:
ecommerce, retail, forrester, caplain, online shopping
Today at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York,
TrueLocal announced the launch of their new Accredited Agency Program.
This program is for certified CMRs, accredited media buyers, marketing and SEO
agencies and national marketing departments and will help their clients exceed
their local web marketing goals.
“By launching our agency program we are making it easy for agencies and their
clients to tap into the expanding local search marketing arena,” states Jake
Baillie, President, TrueLocal. “Agencies will be able to easily upload and
manage client programs and will be able to deliver top ROI for their valued
clients.”
| Learn more about
TrueLocal in Website Services Magazine's Who's Who Directory
|
Technorati Tags:
truelocal, local search, local, ses
Jambo (www.jambo.com), a provider of solutions that connect people by phone to businesses represented in Internet search and directory listings, today introduced Pay-Per-Call Collect(TM) -- a complete billing and collection solution that enables businesses to pay for their pay-per-call phone leads through their standard phone bills. An industry first, Jambo's billing system makes pay-per-call advertising easily accessible and hassle-free for small businesses, and expands the revenue potential for search engines and lead generators by giving them credit for delivering to merchants qualified consumers via the phone.
Technorati Tags:
jambo, pay per call, business, website services
JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM), today revealed that 40% of search marketers are missing out by using only Google and/or Yahoo! for their campaigns. According to a new JupiterResearch report entitled: "Engine Selection Strategies: Campaign Expansion Demands Management Tools" authored by Sapna Satagopan (available at
www.jupiterresearch.com), marketers who possess better management technologies are the ones capitalizing on using a broader range of search engines.
"Even though search engine usage by marketers has broadened in the past couple of years, marketers are still slow to test the newer search providers," said Sapna Satagopan, Research Associate at JupiterResearch. "Lack of management tools and relatively low traffic volume are the biggest deterrents," added Satagopan. In contrast, the JupiterResearch report reveals that one-third of sophisticated marketers find that adding new search engines drive up their clicks.
The JupiterResearch report also finds that only 19% of search marketers make the cut as "sophisticated" - the ones using the technology to enable testing and expansion. "Increasing competition and rising keyword prices should motivate search marketers to look for newer, viable opportunities to diversify their incoming traffic," said Satagopan.
Technorati Tags:
jupiter, search, search engines
Via
MarketingVox,
Click Forensics, a Texas-based online fraud detection firm, says next week it will be providing the first free, independent and alternative technology to ISPs' attempts at detection of click fraud.
Editors Note: ISPs? I'm not sure how ISPs ever came into the click-fraud equation, but I digress. Well, back to that for a moment if I may. A lot of the misunderstanding about click-fraud I believe can be directly attributed to the media's misunderstanding of problems like this. So why MarketingVox said ISP is beyond me; maybe they will see this and change it quickly.Click Forensics says the undertaking allows participants - reportedly at present some 40 advertisers, agencies and search engines - to share their results, resulting in a relatively more accurate "fraud meter," according to
Publish. It's a great idea to aggregate and share the data - the PPC industry has been in need of something in this magnitude for a very long time. According to their site, here is how it works:
"CF Analytics is the simple solution for click fraud detection and reporting. Just apply the TAGiQ™ page tag to your website and complete a straight forward registration process. Within two weeks, you will begin receiving weekly emails with information on your PPC campaigns. These reports include a high level summary report and a detail report with threat level by click."
Learn more about the offering from
Click Forensics here.
Technorati Tags:
click fraud, PPC, pay per click
Starting March 1st, Yahoo will no longer allow competitor bids for keywords containing trademarks. The move is intended "to more easily deliver quality user experiences when users search on terms that are trademarks." Under the previous arrangement, ads would be approved if there was a competitive comparison and was somewhat objective and informative. Now according to Yahoo, "advertiser listings that qualify under the reseller or non-competitor information guidelines may be allowed, subject to Yahoo's discretion to accept or reject listings."
While it's obviously a move to protect themselves from litigation, it's a delayed move, but still a smart one. Most other pay-per-click providers have established guidelines on trademark bidding and have actively limited the practice for some time.
Google however, still allows trademark bidding.
The development will not directly affect any advertiser unless they are directly bidding on a search term that is trademarked. Most providers of pay per click solutions allow bidding on trademark terms if there is an obvious distribution (affiliate/partner) arrangement. Meaning that SportsMart can bid on the term Nike, but Adidas cannot.
Technorati Tags:
yahoo, ysm, keywords, trademarks
Congratulations, you just generated ten thousand leads through your marketing
campaign. Of those ten thousand leads, a staggering ten percent bought the
product you are selling. Congratulations again, you're on a roll. Then it hits
you - if only ten percent of the list that you worked so hard to collect through
paid search, affiliate marketing or SEO actually bought the product they were
initially interested in that means ninety percent did not buy. Hyperventilating
yet? Well, don't. Haven't you heard of zero-cost acquisition?
It happens to even the best marketers. It is simply unheard of to generate
100% conversion on offers. Well, it's not impossible but I personally have never
seen it done and I've been around, you know? I have said it time and time again.
The most valuable part of marketing is not in simply being a core component of
the overall sales process (which is important) but also the lead acquisition
process. This is because a lead (name, email, postal address, demographics,
maybe even psychographics) is valuable. So valuable in fact that many
enterprises focus solely on the process of building lists, managing lists and
maximizing the additional revenue streams available in that list.
If you can maximize the efficiency of the list you've acquired by providing
additional, relevant offers to those that did not act upon your initial offer,
you could increase revenue from you overall marketing efforts without any
significant outlay of cash - hence "zero-cost acquisition". That means a pat on
the back from the CMO. I had the opportunity to speak with Danielle Hickey
and Danay Escanaverino of Global Resources Systems, a performance-based provider
of marketing solutions and they both had some interesting perspectives on
monetizing data collected.
If you want to learn more about zero-cost acquisition,
subscribe to Website Services
Magazine where we'll have a case study from Global Resources on this very
same topic. My personal advice would be to find and send relevant offers,
maintain high quality, clean lists and if it is within your means partner with a
network like Global Resources or any performance based marketing provider that
can work with you to monetize on the leads you've generated.
Tags:
marketing, performance marketing, global resources, website services
One of the many benefits related to the increase of bandwidth on the consumer
level is that video can finally play an important role in Web strategies.
Marketing departments at companies large and small are salivating and readying
their own video content. Why? Video (and their related cousin Webmercials)
presents not only a great way to add dynamic content on your site (which in the
future may be indexed by search engines) but can provide content for users on an
educational, informational as well as a commercial level.
A email from Salim over at XLstudios Monday morning caught my eye and I've sort
of been waiting to post about it. Design firms would be wise to listen in. One
of the biggest challenges for websites is engaging their visitors. Video
provides such an ability but it can go even further. Why not use video as a
demonstration tool? Why not use video as a testimonial outlet? The possibilities
are really endless. From the xlproductionstudios.com website:
A "Web-Mercial" is a TV commercial that plays on your website. Think of
the typical web surfer - they scan through your text and then click out of your
site and in most cases, click directly into your competitor's website. Chances
are, the reason they left is because there was no compelling reason to stay.
Your site was lacking that certain "zing factor" that stops visitors in their
tracks and prompts them to make a buying decision. Web-Mercials allow you to
sink your talons into the fickle and short attention span of the potential
buyer. Web-Mercials allow you to build instant credibility as you wow visitors
with a premium quality and informative TV commercial on your website. Major
companies are flocking to this new technology because of its high success rate
in keeping visitors at their site and its proven ability to convert skeptical
visitors into enthusiastic buyers. Corporations such as AT&T, Honda, Pepsi,
McDonald's, Sprint, Sony, Nokia and IBM all use Web-Mercials on their websites.
Technorati Tags:
video, web video, video commercials
I came across an interesting news item via
BlogSEO about BlogBurst, a product from Pluck that provides exposure to your blog through its syndication service.
Here's how it works, sign up and complete some information about your wbelog then go about your blog writing. Blogburst and Pluck promote your blog in their publisher network and top-tier publishers display your blog content on their sites. Clicks on your byline drive new traffic to your blog which means increased visibility and exposure on major news and portal sites, traffic through attribution and links back to your blog. If that weren't enough to encourage you to click over to BlogBurst right this very minute, just think of the authority and credibility you'll earn within your topic area (if you're a great blogger).
It's currently an invitation only network and Website Services just received notification of acceptance. It's really an interesting opportunity to take your blog to the next level. I'm interested to see how it will work out.
Technorati Tags:
blogburst, pluck, website services
Via MediaPost, e-commerce sales accounted for 2.4 percent of all sales in the
fourth quarter, up from 2.3 percent the previous quarter, according to new
figures released Friday by the Department of Commerce (www.commerce.gov). Total
fourth quarter e-commerce revenues came to a seasonally adjusted $22.94 billion.
For all of 2005, e-commerce sales rose by 24.6 percent. Despite this record
growth some are taking the stand that retailers are over-relying on Internet
search. You have to be kidding! It is these mixed media and marketing messages
that confuse SMB's into not focusing in on what works – Internet search
promotions (search advertising and search optimization).
According to Aaron Kessler, a senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray,
retailers should rely less on search engine marketing and develop a more
comprehensive, multi-channel strategy because of the rising competition over
internet paid-search keywords. Kessler, who follows e-retailers for Piper
Jaffray continued “Three years ago, Internet search was a good value for any
retail category, but now it’s not always the value it was,” he says. “It’s a
great marketing channel when it works, but many retailers have become too
reliant on it.”
My response to thinking like that is "rubbish." When it comes to promoting an
online business you need to go with what works and hands down, search marketing
works better than any promotional method, get this, in the history of marketing
promotions.
The key to successful search marketing, he and other experts say, is to find a
way to fit it into a complete marketing strategy. No kidding!?! Take a look at
Best Buy, also covered in the Internet Retailer article. “Our SEM effort has
been very profitable because we manage it as part of an overall online
advertising portfolio and because of our strong brand, which we build through
multi-channel national advertising and in-store service,” says Sam Taylor, vice
president of online stores and marketing for Best Buy Co. Inc., adding that Best
Buy will aggressively expand its budget for search engine marketing this year,
just as it did last year.
Got that? "Best Buy will aggressively expand its budget for search engine
marketing this year, just as it did last year." That means that SEM (which
includes pay-per-click and search engine optimization) should be an integral
part of your overall business strategy if you take a page from Best Buy's
promotional playbook. A diverse marketing plan (including direct mail, TV and
radio is smart if you have the budget for it but if you do not then search is
simply the best thing to grow a business and generate revenue.
Technorati Tags:
marketing, search marketing, piper jaffray, retailers
Every now and again, I like to take a look through the Who's Who Directory of
Website Services Magazine to come up with ideas to blog about. Today I came across an interesting new listing for
RSVME - a free application that integrates with Outlook and other email
packages, and makes obtaining feedback from people a snap.
You can quickly and
easily put together a questionnaire on any subject, from the best time for
soccer practice to who's bringing what food to a party. Then select names out of
your address book you want to send the questionnaire to, and send. It's that
simple! As your friends get your email and answer your questionnaire, you get
the response back in one simple-to-read report.
Get a free listing for your company in the Who's Who Directory
Receive a free subscription to Website Services Magazine
Technorati Tags:
outlook, outlook tools, feedback
I stumbled upon a new service dubbed
NativeText which looks promising. Essentially, NativeText is a human-powered system for translating your podcast or RSS feed into other languages and is translated by humans, not software and then syndicates the content to the global Internet community. Hardly any information whatsoever is available on the site but what was most appealing to me is that it seems that the service will be free.
According to the site: "No übergeek hacking or foreign language proficiency required. Have your blog speaking Español en ciberspacio (or French, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Hungarian, Czech, Greek, Portugese, Russian, and more)."
Technorati Tags:
nativetext, translation, web translation
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New Study Shows Nonprofits Raised 40% More Money Online in 2005;
E-Mail List Growth High, But E-Mail Turnover Rates High AlsoA new study examining the increasing importance of the Internet to nonprofits revealed a surge of online donations along with marketing and advocacy benefits from building an Internet constituency.
The ENonprofit Benchmarks Study, released this week, is the first of its kind to look at the overall effectiveness of nonprofits using the Internet to raise money, build e-mail lists, and influence political causes. The study provides an across-the-board look at how well leading American nonprofits are performing online.
“These days, for dot-coms, success on the Internet is based on sales and revenue,” says Benjamin Smith, vice president at M+R Strategic Services and a study co-author. “For nonprofits, success online is more difficult to measure. Is it the quality of information provided, donations collected, or impact on policy? This study helps nonprofits identify key success metrics to evaluate their programs.”
The study analyzes data on online fundraising and political activism, e-mail messaging, e-mail list growth, and other metrics from 2003 to 2005. The data came from 15 top national nonprofits working in on environmental, legal/civil rights, and international aid issues, and from three top providers of online communications tools for nonprofits.
The ENonprofit Benchmarks Study (available online at
www.e-benchmarksstudy.com) was co-authored by M+R Strategic Services and the Advocacy Institute. It was sponsored by the Advocacy Institute, Beaconfire Consulting, Convio, Donordigital, GetActive Software, Kintera and M+R Strategic Services. Additional funding was provided by the Beldon Fund and the Surdna Foundation.
You can review and discuss key finding from the study in the
Website Services Forum.
SearchEngineJournal yesterday posted an interview with
Patrick Gavin of TextLinksAds while Webmaster World had an amazing post by sugarrae on "
Link Development vs. Traffic Development and Staying with the Times". It's all very interesting information and they are both good, and important, reads. If you want a summary of best practices when it comes to link building, read Chris Boggs article on the
Nitty-Gritty of Link Requests at Website Services Magazine.
Technorati Tags:
links, link building, IBLs
A Sit Down With WhenU's Bill Day
The third issue of Website Services Magazine (coming in May) will feature an
article about behavioral marketing: "The Bright Lights and Big Promise of
Behavioral." You can
subscribe here. I had the opportunity to speak with WhenU CEO Bill day
this afternoon, and while I'm a cynical guy by nature, much of what Bill said
had me believing in the power of behavioral solutions. What behavioral provides
is the "promise of democratizing ad spending," said Day, continuing "Think of it
this way: if you add up all the Web page views of the big guys (Google and
Yahoo) it adds up to less than ten percent of total page views." This means that
if you can target an audience with your message away from these primary
properties in an adjacent, behaviorally-driven manner at secondary outlets,
you'll be the big winner so to speak when it comes to your return on investment.
As more and more marketers are looking for a complimentary model to PPC
solutions (where pricing is high and unsold inventory is low) messages can be
brought to a broader web community with more precision and that's appealing when
it comes to online promotions.
Some more on WhenU: WhenU offers permission-based, client-side
software applications that deliver a limited number of behaviorally targeted and
contextually relevant coupons, ads and comparative shopping results directly to
consumers' desktops -- without compromising the privacy, security or smooth
functioning of peoples' computers. WhenU's latest client release makes it
possible to precisely target truly relevant and timely savings opportunities to
individual consumers who are actively shopping for particular products while
simultaneously strengthening our ability to ensure that these offers are shown
only to fully opted-in consumers. WhenU's evolving business model is driven by the belief that consumers must
maintain control of the desktop. People must be free to opt-in or opt-out of
receiving competitive offers, and they should be able to get relevant,
actionable offers without giving up their personally identifiable information
and without exposing detailed records of their browsing and purchasing
histories.
Outsell, Inc., the leading information industry research and analyst firm, has released results of a national advertising spending survey of unprecedented breadth and depth. The results, summarized in The Annual Ad Spending Study: Where and Why Advertisers are Moving Online are based on a survey Outsell fielded to 1,200 advertisers in November 2005 who control an estimated $2.4 billion in advertising.
Read the entire release....
The Website Services Magazine staff just put the second issue of the publication live online at www.WebsiteServices.com.
Read Editor & Chief Pete Prestipino's Letter From the Editor or get a brief overview of the articles in the second edition.
Some Things Of Note:
- Don't forget to request an official subscription at Websiteservices.com/Subscribe
- Get a listing in Website Services Who's Who Directory
- Submit company news or a free classified ad
- Participate in the WSM Forum
I started thinking this morning about the importance of building links. I'm interested to know what readers think the "best" linking strategy is; one-way links, reciprocal links or the increasingly popular three-way approach. I also had a few minutes to write up an article I've titled "Links Farms and Link Exchange 2.0" -
Take the Instant WSM Survey:
In terms of search engine placement, what type of inbound link is best?
Last week WSM reported on the
dotmobi Switch On! Guide - a web developers handbook to ensuring the best possible Internet experience for the mobile user. We came across an interesting site this morning via
DuctTapeMarketing. As mobile devices become more powerful, more common and more useful as a business tool, "mobilizing" your blog is becoming increasingly more important if you intend on delivering your marketing message in as many forms and format as you can.
Via John Jantsch of DuctTapeMarketing.com:
"Blog readers are now subscribing to and reading blogs using mobile phones and PDAs. From what little research I have done there is an entire version of HTML just for mobile reading. While converting all of your web pages, blog posts and RSS feeds to mobile standards may well make sense, it looks like a pretty big undertaking."
Interested in "Mobilizing" Your Message?
A service dubbed
WINKsite allows bloggers and marketers to set-up a mobile space that's available worldwide on a web-enabled phone, PDA or desktop PC. Each mobile site is outfitted with easy-to-use mobile channels including chat, blog, mobile feed reader, surveys, journal, forum, calendar, guestbook, bookmarks, email and more.
Technorati Tags:
winksite, mobilize content, mobile rss
Dotster is hosting a $1 Domain Happy Hour.
If you are interested (and I certainly am) you can buy domain names there is a
limit of one $1 name per order. While the limit is per order, not per user, you
may be able to order unlimited $1 domains, but one order at a time. It starts
tomorrow (as of the time of this blog post writing there was one day, two hours
and 20 minutes until you can get start making purchases.
I have had some interesting experiences with dotster. I jumped on the free .info
fire sale about eighteen months ago and now have about thirty domains managed
through dotster. They are masters of the great promotion and the happy hour
concept is no different.
Keep those one dollar domain name purchases at only one dollar by bypassing
their hosting (unless you need it - it's good and not too expensive) as well as
the other slew of proposed add-on products and services such as site submission
and you can build a nice stable of domains on the cheap.
Well done, dotster. Well done.
Technorati Tags:
dotster, cheap domains, domain names
DirectEmployers Association, a non-profit consortium of over 200 leading U.S. employers and operator of the JobCentral.com employment search engine (www.jobcentral.com), released the results of an in-depth industry study, conducted on its behalf by strategic management and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, that shows the Internet is now the primary hiring source for employers.
The study of hiring practices at leading U.S. companies revealed that Internet sources produced 51% of all hires in 2005 with the largest source of hires being the employers' own corporate web sites, while newspaper classified advertisements were the source of only 5% of the new hires.
According to the study, individual percentages of new hires for each Internet source are: Corporate Employment Web Sites: 21%; General Job Boards: 15%; Niche Job Boards: 6%; Social Network Web Sites: 5%; and Commercial Resume Databases: 4%.
Technorati Tags:
jobcentral, booz allen, internet hiring
Internet media and market research provider Nielsen//NetRatings reported that the total number of searches in the U.S. conducted across approximately 60 search engines grew 55 percent year-over-year to nearly 5.1 billion searches in December 2005. There were 3.3 billion searches conducted via search engines in December 2004.
The total number of U.S.-based searches conducted across approximately 60 search engines in December reached nearly 5.1 billion - or an increase of 55 percent from the 3.3 billion searches conducted in Dec. 2004, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Google accounted for nearly half - 48.9 percent - of the searches, increasing its share by 5.7 percentage points from Dec. 04's 43.1 percent. Yahoo Search and MSN Search shares fell 0.3 and 3.1 percentage points, respectively.
"The double-digit increase in online search activity marks a significant milestone in the evolution of Internet consumer behavior," said Ken Cassar, senior director of analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. "Online search is the primary tool most people rely on to do everyday research."
Yahoo accounted for 21.4 percent of searches in December, and MSN Search was third with 10.9 percent. The number of searches conducted on the top three search engines increased by double digits compared with December '04 numbers. Searches on Google increased 75 percent, to number nearly 2.5 billion; Yahoo searches increased 53 percent, to nearly 1.1 billion, and MSN Search searches increased 20 percent, to 553 million.
Technorati Tags:
nielsen netratings, Google, Yahoo, MSN
GlobeVISION, Inc., a global media service company with North American headquarters in Los Angeles, announced it is launching the first on demand Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service for Asian-Americans in North America, and has already forged content deals with three media giants. The announcement was made by Edward Bach, Founder and CEO/President of GlobeVISION, who is also the Founder and former CEO of ATI Technologies Korea, Inc.
Content deals with Korea's two largest private broadcasters, MBC and SBS, as well as CJ Media, Korea's largest cable media group, will allow PIE service to deliver tens of thousands of Korean and Chinese television and movie programming choices directly from Asia to the TV sets of subscribers in North America. The service is available now on a trial basis in Southern California and will begin serving Asian-Americans across the U.S. and Asian-Canadians on July 1st.
Technorati Tags:
IPTV, internet protocol television, GlobeVision
The buzz is circulating about CoComment, the latest Web 2.0 site which enables users to turn "comments into conversations" by tracking the conversations (via blogs, forums, etc.) you engage in on the Web.
When you comment on a blog, coComment keeps a copy of your message on a special page - called "your conversations" - that allows you to quickly see your comment and where it was posted, with a link to the original site. Display all the comments you make accross the blogosphere on your own blog. In one easy step you can show your readers where you've been commenting recently. Don't lose the value you create on other's blogs, benefit from it! Whether you've commented on a blog or you're just following a blog-based conversation of interest to you, coComment can let you know what's been added to a particular discussion in real time.
Technorati Tags:
CoComment, Blog, Blogging, Weblogs
mobile Top Level Domain (mTLD), the company behind the new ‘.mobi’ (dotmobi) internet domain, yesterday published the first in a series of its Switch On! Guides – a web developer’s handbook designed to ensure the best possible internet experience for the mobile user. This consultative edition of the dotmobi Switch On! Web Browsing Guide provides mandatory rules and highly recommended best practices for content developers and mobiles supporting website owners, ensuring that their websites can be optimally accessed by any mobile device.
Read the consultative dotmobi Switch On! Web Browsing Guide.The dotmobi domain, set for commercial launch this summer, will revolutionise the relationship between the internet and mobile devices by the clear identification of made-for-mobile internet sites and applications. Neil Edwards, General Manager of mTLD Ltd, said: “Many existing internet protocols and practices are grounded in desktop PC-oriented services and were not designed with a mobile device in mind, which has led to a less than optimal performance for the end user. The dotmobi guides are designed to preserve the best possible user experience while retaining the open standards-based approach of the internet. Many years of research from world class companies have gone into producing the dotmobi Switch On! Web Browsing Guide.”
Technorati Tags:
mobile top level domain, .mobi, Switch On!
The Interactive Advertising Bureau has released a new list of spiders, part of
its long-standing effort to help advertisers filter out nonhuman visits. The
list is to be maintained in conjunction with ABC Electronic in the UK.
The joint effort aims to catalogue all the common bots
and spiders, in an effort to warn publishers, analytics firms, and third-party
ad servers about which ads are being served to automated programs instead of
eyeballs. It covers spiders known to visit sites in the US and UK. More
in this IAB press release.
You have to be an IAB subscriber to receive the list.
My initial thought is that this is certainly a step in
the right direction. The success of such a list would depend on how thorough and
up to date it is kept. For example, no information on the contents of the list
was provided but it could be safely assumed that there would be information on
the IP address and user-agent of the spider. Both of these can be altered
relatively quickly. If it is a continually updated list it will work but there
needs to be a way to either dynamically prohibit said spiders in real time or
simply a guideline (possibly set forth by the IAB) about how much to credit
advertisers based on the activiity of the list. The IAB suspects between 0.5%
and 3% of ad impressions are generated by bots and spiders.
Technorati Tags:
IAB, interactive advertising bureau, robots, ad impressions
Here's a plug-in for all you Firefox fans. Hyperwords, a Palo Alto based
company, has made it a bit simpler to fully experience the power of 'Net
services.
The
Hyperwords utility let the user select text on a webpage and gain access to
Search (Google, news, LinkedIn, MySpace), References (Wikipedia, dictionary,
financial information), Map, Shop (including Amazon, eBay), Copy, Email, Tag
(with del.ico.us and Furl), Blog (with Blogger, WordPress and search with
Technorati) and Translate.
Via Andy Beal of
MarketingPilgrim, "it
appears Yahoo is resorting to bribing users of other search engines to
switch to Yahoo Search. They've sent out a survey that suggests a whole host of
rewards you can select, if you switch you primary search activity to Yahoo."
This idea seems remotely similar to the buzz of several months ago surrounding
Bill Gates's suggestion that Web users be paid for using a search service.
Thoughts? Let me know.
Instant Survey: Would you use Yahoo as your primary search engine in exchange for rewards such as music discounts, frequent flyer miles, etc.?
Bubble Tool Tip: I've had one person in particular (you know who you
are) repeatedly ask me to find some simple way to provide more information on
outbound links. Well, I found one - and while it's not neccessarily for the
newbies, design, or web design (in this case), should be both fun and functional
and that is exactly what I found. I came across a post over at Web-Graphics.com
about a bubble tooltip in
javascript a week ago that certainly merits some attention. The
function is an easy way to add (via a bit of CSS and javascript) fancy tooltips
with a balloon shape to any web page.
According to a new study on viral marketing by
Sharpe Partners, almost ninety
percent of Internet users share content via email, for many confirming the power
and potential of viral marketing.
Some 63 percent of respondents say they share content at least once a week, with
25 % sharing daily or almost daily, and as many as 75% of the respondents
forward this content to up to six other recipients. "We knew a lot of people
were sharing content, but even we didn't expect it to be so pervasive," said
Kathy Sharpe, CEO of Sharpe Partners.
In addition to highlighting the rampant frequency of content sharing, the study
generated some interesting results regarding the type of content that is sent.
The most popular content is humorous material, with 88 % forwarding jokes or
cartoons. The second most popular category is news (56%), followed by healthcare
and medical information (32%), religious and spiritual material (30%), games
(25%), business and personal finance information (24%), and sports/hobbies
(24%).
The lesson from all of this is to give your users the opportunity to share
your content and the power of "word of mouth" or the self-propelling viral
marketing will maximize any Web marketing campaign's success. The challenge is
developing content that Internet users will want to share on a consistent basis
with their sphere of influence.
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If you are like most in the Internet business industry (or any industry for that matter) you spend a lot of time researching information and keeping up to date on trends and best practices. Thanks to the overwhelming amount of information that people must sift through in order to stay ahead of the game (these days usually achieved through emails) RSS can provide some significant benefits when it comes to saving your most valuable commodity - time.
As such, I thought it would be wise to develop a guide to using RSS for saving time associated with researching and keeping up to date on vital, virtual information.
RSS stand for Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary (depending on who you are talking to). Essentially, RSS (or one of its variations such as ATOM) is a text based format of XML - which in laymen's terms means a list of items typically containing a title, a summary and a link to a web page. Most RSS feeds are reverse-chronologically ordered (the most up-to-date information is listed higher) and available at most websites for your use free. While knowing what RSS is tends to be less important than how you can use it to your advantage, it's always nice to have some background information when you're conversing at parties or cavorting at hidden bars in Chicago.
For anyone that reads a multiple emails or web pages every day, an RSS feed aggregator is a necessity. RSS aggregators are set up to periodically check for new items in the feeds you are subscribed to, commonly once every hour. With RSS, the news comes to you, rather than you having to go to the news. This saves a tremendous amount of time. In addition, you can read many more feeds in the same amount of time. You can also avoid all the non-new information on a web page, including the ads, menus, or take it a step further and skip information that is not interesting or relevant to your objectives.
To get started with RSS, you must use an RSS reader or RSS aggregator - a program which collects all the RSS feeds you have decided to subscribe to and presents them through one interface. There are hundreds of aggregators (my preferred provider is Bloglines.com) including some general purpose services from Yahoo and Google. To find an RSS reader, search for "RSS reader" at your favorite search engine.
Finding and Subscribing to RSS Feeds
Finding RSS feeds to subscribe to is pretty easy - you probably already have access to them. Go to your favorite website (if they have a web search function you could search for it) but there should be a "subscribe to feed" option somewhere available - you can also search through multiple RSS feeds at sites like CompleteRSS.com. Once you find the feed (you may also see the buttons below), click it, copy the website URL in the address bar and submit it to your RSS aggregator - some will actually be added to your RSS aggregator automatically.
Subscribe now to the Website Services Magazine RSS feed:
It may seem a little confusing but that's because there is no standard to subscribing - each aggregator is different. Take a few minutes to figure out how to use RSS and you'll quickly be on your way to speeding research time - which means more time handling business.
Managing pay-per-click (PPC) advertising accounts (sponsored links on SERPs -
search engine results pages) can be cumbersome. If your search engine
optimization campaign is slow to take hold, the PPC provides some immediate
relief to the challenge of getting people to your website.
The benefits of PPC are clear; speed to market, immense reach in competitive
venues and the high potential for a positive ROI (return on investment) if
utilized correctly. I emphasize "utilize correctly" because many users of pay
per click advertising solutions such as Adwords,
YSM (Yahoo/Overture),
Kanoodle,
7Search and Miva simply are not as well
acquainted with the user-consoles or the overall management of those advertiser
accounts.
Define Keyword Strategy:
Yes, keyword strategy is an obtuse way of explaining that you need to know how
to use keywords in your promotions in order to attract quality (and I emphasize
quality) visitors to your site. Researching keywords is a necessary part of
success with PPC but it does not end there. Your research is going to give you
hundreds if not thousands of keywords for each URL (and in turn product) that
you are promoting. As organization and monitoring keywords is essential to
successful PPC campaigns, break those thousands of keywords into three groups
(low or no traffic, moderate traffic and high traffic) and establish separate
campaigns for each group. You will find that you will be moving keywords from
category to category and adding new keywords frequently. An organized keyword
strategy is worth the investment of time it requires.
Expand Reach At Every Turn:
One of the greatest errors PPC advertisers make is limiting their ad campaigns
to one network. Setting up and managing a campaign takes time, granted, but what
most do not understand (or want you to understand for whatever reason) is that
the user of the Google Ad network (Adwords) do not use the Yahoo Ad network.
Advertising on only one network limits your reach when in fact advertising on
multiple networks increases your reach dramatically - and that means more
visitors to your website (which is what we all want right?).
Test & Experiment Frequently:
Now that you have defined a proper keyword strategy, it's time to refine the
advertisements associated with keywords through testing and experimentation.
Monitor progress daily throughout the life of the campaign. You should have a
good idea at all ti,es which keywords are working and which aren’t - which means
that you will be able to dump keywords that are not converting. You should also
have a good idea of what creative/landing page combinations are earning the best
conversion rates. This is your opportunity to test whether those questionable
keywords are worthy of an SEO effort.
In summary, by defining a solid keyword strategy, looking for opportunities at
every turn and testing, testing and testing your keywords, keyword combinations
and experimenting with landing pages will you be able to effectively and
efficiently use pay per click advertising campaigns.