June 2006 - Posts
Website Services Magazine has released a digital version of its immensely
popular print publication. If you missed out on the first few issues, access the
entire archive for free at
www.WebsiteServices.com. While only the first issue is available without
logging in, subscriptions to the digital edition archive are free and take just
a few minutes to complete.
If you are already a subscriber, you can
login here to
access the digital magazine.
WSM Digital allows readers to easily
send any article you find helpful to friends or colleagues, and even enables you
to search through all of the past issues to find the information that is most
valuable to you.
Learn more at
WebsiteServices.com/Digital!
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Revolutionary? Ummm... Yes! Google has officially released its payment
processing system, now dubbed Google Checkout. Google claims a faster, safer and
more convenient way to shop and sell online and my initial analysis is that it
is indeed revolutionary. For Merchants: "Google Checkout works with Google's
search advertising program, AdWords, to increase sales and minimize your
expenses throughout the online sales and marketing process."
Google Checkout Links:
Information for sellers
Information for buyers
What's so revolutionary about that?
Well, according to the site, merchants can "Process sales for free."
That's what is so revolutionary!
For every $1 you spend on AdWords, merchants can process $10 in sales for free
through Google Checkout. For example, if you spent $1,000 on AdWords last month,
this month you can process $10,000 in sales at no cost. The more you spend to
promote your business through AdWords, the more you save on transaction
processing fees with Google Checkout. If you exceed your free transaction
processing for the month, or you don't advertise with AdWords at all, you'll
only be charged 2% plus $.20 per transaction.
Fraud Protection For Merchants
Google Checkout claims to identify and filter out fraudulent transactions.
Under its Chargeback Resolution policy, Google evaluates all chargebacks
merchants receive and, whenever possible, fights them on merhcants behalf. Some
transactions are also covered by Google's Payment Guarantee policy: if you get a
chargeback on an eligible transaction and give Google all requested
documentation and information within 10 days of the request, they will reimburse
you within a week.
Who's using Google Checkout Right Now?
Levi's, Timberland, Buy.com, Zales, GNC, ***'s Sporting Goods, Ritz Camera,
Dockers, Aeropostale, Tweeter, BackCountry, BlueFly
More to come... stay tuned.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
What? You're using HTML tables to layout your website? You are sooooo behind
the times! CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) first made their appearance back in 1996
and is currently neck and neck in terms of popularity with HTML-based Web
coding. Using Cascading Style Sheets helps Web designers control fonts, layout
and other design elements efficiently. Some of the advantages to using CSS
include faster download times (BTW - check your website download times here),
shorter development and maintenance time, improved accessibility, more elemental
placement control (type and images) and YES - better search engine rankings. Why
better search engine rankings? Search engine spiders can index more content (and
hence less design code) which for many websites has resulted in higher page
ranks.
Looking for a great resource to learn about CSS and its latest developments?
Check out Veerle's
Blog, a graphic/web designer living in Belgium who has assembled a great
list of resources to help anyone learn the ropes of designing CSS based
websites.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Internet marketing firm TMA E-Marketing has launched a new business blog directory, dubbed iblogbusiness.com. An alternative to Google Blog Search and Yahoo Search Blog, the directory is divided into 32 business categories, which one can click on to find related blogs and content. It is a new site, so there is still much work to be done. It is interesting, however, and points to the growing importance of businesses adding a blog to their site. Not only do blogs help business move up in organic search rankings, but they can also provide important information to browsers thinking of investing in a new product or service. Brand awareness is another important benefit to business blogs and now there is another portal for exposure.
Iblogbusiness.com continues to grow and will soon be adding a podcast search feature and RSS feeds. On the site, you can register your blog for consideration and inclusion in the directory - and why not? It can't hurt. While new and unrefined, it's a site worth checking out and keeping tabs on in the future.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
The Supernova conference in San Francisco featured a panel with leaders of today's growing search technologies. The consensus was that search still has a long way to go.
"There also needs to be greater awareness that search is changing, and we need to change people's perceptions about what search is all about," said Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com. "We also need to make things more seamless for the user, like narrowing the gap between finding the information for them, tracking it and acting on it."
Web 2.0 has opened a new door for search. As users become creators of content, the relationship between data and consumer becomes even more relevant. According to David Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati, search providers need to adapt to the new user-provider relationship. "We are all now living on the Web. People are producers now, not just consumers," Sifry said. "We now have to look at how these documents are created, and the answer is that they are created by people at a certain point in time. So, you now have two additional pieces of metadata: when something happened and who did it."
It is reported that 8.2% of Google searches come from social networks. New search technologies and taking into account social networking will certainly play a key role in the ever-evoloving world of e-commerce. Many businesses have started to create pages on sites like MySpace to promote their product or service. The more that search engines can incorporate these networks into their results, seemingly the more far-reaching businesses will become.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
From the perpetual news machine which is Google, it looks as though those folks down in the valley are headed full tilt into the local marketing/search/ advertising market; here are a few of my "highly speculative" reasons:
#1 - Advertisers need to
set the
time zone in their Google Adwords account (they were all previously set to
Pacific Time). #2 - Coupled with new
dayparting features and #3 - Reports that Google may introduce a
CPA (cost per action) model for Adsense publishers, I would say it is highly
likely that all that time you've spent with #4 -
Google Base (to which you should be submitting content, product, services,
homes, recipes, whatever) was immensely important and may be the programs which will catapult Google (thanks
to...#5 - the full utilization of its pending
payment processing system) even more full tilt into the local auction (and
search) marketplace.
If this is indeed what is happening (I blogged about a possible relationship
with
Gbuy and Google Base back on March 1st, 2006) then it indicates a good
opportunity to capitalize on underperforming markets such as the local Web business
arena.
Some executives at Google have told London's The Times they expect the company's mobile division to soon become the biggest driver of new business. Google is making efforts to present search results that conform better with mobile devices along with testing dozens of new search-related products for use solely on mobile phones and small wireless devices.
Deep Nishar, Google's director of wireless products in London says, "You only have to look at the global trends for mobile use and PC use to see where our business is going." He added, "Mobile is absolutely getting very significant investment."
An excerpt from The Times article: "In Britain there is one mobile phone for every person, while in some parts of Scandinavia mobile ownership is almost double that rate. 'Looking at these numbers, it becomes very obvious that in the future people will want to access information on the web with a device they carry with them,' Mr Nishar said."
While this is an overseas initiative, it's only a matter of time before the nearly 200 million U.S. mobile phone subscribers are targeted. Website Services Magazine has been writing about the emerging importance of mobile technology and optimizing your site for mobile search. You can read our past articles here, here and here.
If you want to see how your site currently stacks up, you can test drive your website and see how it appears in mobile phones.
Read about how to get your site mobile-ready.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Sometimes the attraction is too great for pay per click advertisers. You have successfully identified the competitors in your industry and you have an aggressive strategy to bid on their brand names or products. The more visitor traffic the terms generate the greater the attraction and attention you will generate. While you can get away with it on some pay per click advertising networks (if not all depending on the popularity of the term), the companies behind the terms you are bidding upon may not be so pleased.
Yahoo, HDVE (True.com) and Spark Networks (JDate.com) have been accused by JP Enterprises of bidding on trademarked keywords such as "lovecity," "lovecity.com" and "www.lovecity."
The suit alleges that those companies' keyword-purchasing practices caused consumer confusion, hurt the "lovecity" brand and drove down sales. It accuses Yahoo and the other companies of "tarnishing the goodwill and reputation" of lovecity and "causing lost sales."
The lesson from all this? It comes down to a risk/reward scenario. First, if the risk of being sued for trademark infringement does not phase you, then the reward is exceptional if you can generate conversions from that (borrowed or earned depending on how you look at it) traffic. Most pay per click advertisers are content to target the long tail of searches - those keywords and phrases, that while receiving few queries, will result in a lower price and a higher conversion – and you should be too.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
According to a recent eMarketer report, 2005 saw 32.2 million U.S. Moms online. Defined as female internet users with children under 18 years of age in the household, that figure is good for 18.4% of the total Internet population. These Moms are a big piece of the pie and they have big purchasing power.
Media agency MediaEDGE published a report "2005 Digital Moms" which stated, "Technology is at its most valuable when it helps [Mom] make the most of her time, not merely save time."
So how should marketers approach this growing consumer base? John Thomson, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Best Buy, recently spoke at an Internet conference and shared these three Mom-marketing tips:
1. The purchasing experience should emphasize practicality over the "wow" factor. Moms are more interested in a smooth shopping experience that a site loaded with bells and whistles.
2. De-mystify the technology to understand the benefits. Technical terms and over-complicated jargon are not effective. Stick with highlighting the benefits of the product or service in a practical manner.
3. Respect Mom's role in the purchasing decision, don't patronize. We all know that our Mom's are the smartest people alive. Make sure your site shows respect, without going overboard.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Google has officially rolled out ad scheduling, or "dayparting" for Adwords. Now advertisers can automatically adjust their bids, pause and restart their campaigns based on the time of day or day of the week.
If your target audience spikes in the evening, you can set your campaign to run beginning at 7 p.m. and ending at 10 p.m. You can set it for weekdays or only weekends.
This feature has long been anticipated. It's going to allow advertisers to experiment and fine tune their campaigns to maximize their ROI. I can hear the Hallelujah's from here.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
The United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will be meeting on June 21 in Barcelona and attempt to push through the Broadcasting Treaty. In essence, the treaty gives broadcasters the right to control the use of audiovisual material for 50 years after broadcasting it. Not the creators, nor copyright holders will have these rights if the treaty is adopted.
Initially, after expressed concern by the majority of WIPO member states (including Brazil and Chile), the WIPO agreed to remove podcasting from the treaty, but now it is being included again. It's a big deal for creators of podcasts and webcasts and could set a scary precedent for the future.
If you happen to be in Barcelona, the meeting is open to the public. If not, you can contact your Congressional representative and express your concern.
Jamie Boyle wrote an in-depth look at the issues concerning the WIPO proposals for the Financial Times. Read it here.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Sedo, an online marketplace for the buying
and selling of domain names, announced a partnership with
Domain Capital to offer domain
investors finance plans on high-value domain purchases ($10,000 or more). The
program will support a large number of investors seeking to purchase high-return
domain names without making a large upfront capital expenditure.
"With a growing number of high-value transactions each month and the ability to
instantly drive recurring revenue through parking, financing is the next logical
step for the domain industry," said Tim Schumacher, chief executive officer of
Sedo. "Our partnership with Domain Capital enables Sedo to bring more value to
domain investors and extends our track record of delivering innovative services
to the market."
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Mobasoft has developed an interesting audio comment system dubbed
MyChingo .
As a public system, bloggers receive new audio messages with optional text
comments which gets added to your players and are distributed within an RSS
feed. As a private system bloggers have the ability to review and moderate
before making public.
"We’ve seen how much added value the audio comment system has created for
our members,” says Michael Bailey, creator of MyChingo, “and we’re eager for
other people to try it out, so now they can play with it for free and see the
features it has to offer.”
“This one simple tool offers bloggers and podcasters a variety of options, from
simple voice mail to group chats,” says Bailey. “We see this as the next step in
audience participation.” MyChingo is currently being used on MySpace pages, the
Culinary Podcast Network, and sites like The Twisted Pickle Show and podCast411.
The paid version of MyChingo is just $3.95 per month, and both versions include
a recorder and built-in RSS, as well as public and private chat rooms. The
recorder can be customized and installed on any blog or web page, such as
MySpace or Blogger.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
BloggerKit is a new free service bloggers
can use to insert contextually relevant products from Amazon. If you're a
member of the e-commerce site's affiliate program you earn revenue when readers
buy products from the extensive Amazon catalogue. The reason I have not
personally ever used Amazon is that creating a list of recommended Amazon
products was painfully time consuming - but no longer. BloggerKit lets you setup
such content-related Amazon lists effortlessly by simply copying the BloggerKit
code to your blog template, and including some keywords (tags) in your
post (I really did not care for the appearance of the bk_keyword: insert
that is necessary but you can use comment syntax or within a span property tag
to hide them. Overall, an immensely creative
idea and something certainly to check out.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Online merchants the Web over are anxiously awaiting the release of Google's new payment system, dubbed Gbuy. With millions of websites actively using PayPal to manage and process payments from consumers, Google's Gbuy will have to be revolutionary to draw users away from the vast existing market share of eBay's PayPal. Early indications are that it may exceed even the staunchest GOOG opponents' expectations.
Those purchasing items through Gbuy, set for release on June 28, will be taken off the merchant's site to complete the payment - as does PayPal's system. This enables Google to capture e-commerce transaction data, which could result in more precise targeting for advertisers. The scuttlebutt is that on Google's core search results pages, those merchants using Gbuy will be listed as a "trusted Gbuy merchant." Theoretically, this may result in merchants seeing increased click-through rates. On the surface that sounds great, right? Who doesn't want more traffic? If you know about Google Adwords however, you understand the concept of Quality Score (QS) - a portion of Google's bid rank algorithm that lists sites based on the click-through rate their ad receives. If Gbuy were to merge conversion data with Quality Score and bid rank, could bid prices become too costly? Those not using Gbuy and not considered a "trusted Gbuy merchant" could see their ranking position drop and be forced to bid higher on their keywords to remain competitive.
I expect that some merchants will love it, some will like it, and some will stick with PayPal.
Take the Instant Survey: If you are a PayPal user, will you make the switch from PayPal to GBuy?
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Here in Chicago, we have the "L", a vast network of elevated trains that runs throughout downtown, to the neighborhoods of the south side, west side, north side and even to a few near suburbs. Businesses are positioned all along the tracks, some directly underneath. Combined with all of the bus routes, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) expects 458.2 million rides in 2006. Increasingly, those riders are carrying mobile devices that allow access to the internet - and shopping.
I'm no mathmetician, but 458.2 million rides seems like an incredible opportunity for businesses to reach a captive audience through their mobile devices. A Scarborough Research study found that mass transit users and "power pedestrians" (consumers who walk three or more miles in a city over the course of a week) make up about 22% of consumers in the 75 US markets surveyed. The study also found that subway riders are 27% more likely than other consumers to have spent $2,500 or more on Internet purchases in the past year.
Services such as Yahoo Local Advertising offer many options to advertise locally to your target audience. Combined with the proximity that commuters are to any number of retail locations during their daily rides, it could be a great opportunity to grab an "on-the-go" audience. It's a powerful incentive to stay abreast of mobile search marketing strategies, especially for those local businesses with brick-and-mortar locations along busy commuter routes.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
David Fry, President and CEO of Fry, Inc. recently spoke at a Chicago Internet conference. The founder of Fry Inc., a website development, design and hosting company, Mr. Fry had plenty to say about providing user-centric navigation to your customers. One interesting suggestion was properly placing your site's shipping information.
According to Fry, a big factor of shopping cart abandonment is the misplacement of shipping information. When a customer has invested his time in selecting a product, the shipping information can be a major hassle and kill the purchase. Consumers get frustrated with yet another step in the process when they feel that they are nearing the end of their purchase. What's more, when a potential customer finds that he will have to pay $10 in shipping for a $10 item, it's likely he'll reconsider his purchase and look elsewhere.
Therefore, Fry suggests placing shipping information early in the purchasing process. The consumer will know what they have to pay upfront and the overall experience will seem quicker and easier. Even if the item is not purchased, your efforts to speed up the decision-making process will be appreciated.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
In what could be a serious blow to every retailer and online advertising network on the Web (heads-up Google and Yahoo), eBay has announced they will begin selling contextual advertising to eBay sellers, to be placed on affiliate websites. For a cut of the profits, eBay will provide direct links to a seller's items on various websites, determined by keywords on those sites' Web pages. And the links lead only to eBay auctions and nowhere else.
For instance, if I plan to sell my collection of baseball cards on eBay, I can make sure that potential buyers will be exposed to my product by placing ads on various collector sites, blogs or discussion forums. In addition, as my listings change, advertising automatically changes on those affiliated websites to reflect my new products or services.
It's a potential windfall for everyone in the eBay network. Not only for eBay and eBay sellers, but it also provides a new and widespread opportunity for affiliate sites - website owners both large and small that stand to earn 35-60 percent of sales that come through a consumer clicking to eBay from their site's advertisement. With such an enormous marketplace, affiliate sites are sure to get clicks from the millions of products available on eBay - gaining profits for the affiliate, eBay, the seller and PayPal (owned by eBay).
The impact of eBay's new system will unfold in due time, while Yahoo, Google and MSN figure out their next steps to compete. If nothing else, eBay has greatly expanded their reach. Those who have been living in a cave for the past decade and have never visited eBay will now be tempted all over the Web.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
What are the media consumption habits of the average American? Which target
audiences can be reached and engaged online? How does online compliment offline
media? What are consumers saying about when, where and how they use media? What
are the implications for media, advertisers and marketers? These are some of the
questions that will be answered tomorrow at the "OPA
Eyes on the Internet 2006" event here in Chicago. I had the opportunity this
morning to speak with Pam Horan of the Online Publishers Association to get a
little insight into the event. The Web (neck and neck with radio) is an
incredible opportunity to connect with consumers, and since those whose primary
media is the Web spend more on average, it is of immense important to explore how these
consumers use that medium in relation to radio, TV and print. Understanding the
implications for media, advertisers and marketers may be prove essential in the
online publisher arena.
"With the Internet now ubiquitous in our daily lives, it's vital that we
explore exactly how consumers are using all forms of media," said Pam Horan, OPA
vice president, marketing and membership. "Because this study is based on
real-world observations, it will provide the most complete and accurate look at
everyday media use by average Americans."
If you can't make it to Chicago, don't worry, there are more sessions
coming - maybe to a city near you!
June 13, Chicago - Westin Michigan Ave
June 14, Detroit - The Townsend (in Birmingham, MI)
June 20, Los Angeles - Park Hyatt Hotel
June 21, Dallas - Four Seasons Las Colinas (in Irving, TX)
June 22, San Francisco - Four Seasons Hotel
A little more on the OPA
From the site: Founded in June 2001, the Online Publishers Association is
an industry trade organization whose mission is to advance the interests of
high-quality online publishers before the advertising community, the press, the
government and the public. For more information, go to
www.online-publishers.org.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Recently, at Internet Retailer 2006 conference and exhibition, Website Services Magazine operated a booth intended to add new subscribers. Just about everyone that we asked to subscribe to our free publication picked up the magazine and opened it before agreeing to subscribe. They were "shopping" our magazine. And most shoppers still feel it is important to be able to pick up the item they are shopping for, touch it, tap on it a few times ... maybe smell it. So what do you do if your retail operation is solely online, with no brick-and-mortar location?
The answer lies in reproducing the shopping experience through your Web pages. Newegg, launched in 2001, has quickly become a billion dollar online technology retailer and one of the top 10 overall online retailers. Without a brick-and-mortar location, Newegg VP Howard Tong realized early on that, "The website is our only interface with the customer." And he knew how turn a perceived weakness into a major strength.
Newegg's website features detailed, targeted graphics to it's customer base - one that it know's well. Looking to buy a new motherboard? One page features an up-close shot of the box at a high enough quality to read the text. The next page shows the content of the box, a closer look reveals the intimate details of the board itself. Even further, more pages offer a look at the individual components of the board, add-ons, software and other components. All of this provides the shopper with a way to "touch" the product before they purchase it. Of course, it is critical to know your customer base and what is important for them to see about your product. Unfortunately, scratch-and-sniff monitors are not available yet, but nothing is impossible.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Multi-Channel marketing, providing current and potential customers with several options to research and purchase your product, is an important facet of today's marketplace. Comscore reports that just 17% of search-related sales occur in the same session. In contrast, 83% of purchases (63% offline) are latent. Therefore, it's important to optimize your mulit-channel marketing strategy. Here are five traps to avoid:
1. Inconsistent Brand Across Channels: It's important to ensure the brand you are selling remains the same, whether sold at a brick-and-mortar location or online. It's easy to drive away customers if they see something they like on your site, only to drive across town to your store and not be able to find it. The bait-and-switch is deadly.
2. Conflicting Policies: How many days does your customer have to make a return? Is it the same across all channels? Is the coupon found on your website the same coupon found at the store, in the paper or in your marketing email? Inconsistency always breeds mistrust and drives away potential revenue.
3. Poor Customer Service Across Channels: Do your customers receive the same service online as they do at your location? Don't promote a 24-hour turnaround time if you can't follow through. Treat your online customers as if you were standing right in front of them with the mantra "The Customer is Always Right."
4. Lack of Integrated Customer Data: What good is mulit-channel marketing if you can't take advantage of the data? Are you pulling all of your data together to refine your strategy and make improvements where needed? Where are you seeing the best response? What channels need work?
5. Inability to Move From Mass Marketing to Mass AND Targeted Marketing: When marketing across channels, it's important to capture data - and use it. Mass marketing will work in some cases, but your efforts can be even more fruitful if you're able to target market as well. Identify which customers are using which marketing channel and attack. Certain customers will respond to mass marketing, others will respond much better to target marketing. It's a personalized experience that multi-channel marketing is built for.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
The House of Representatives voted down 'Net neutrality regulations on Thursday. Proponents of neutrality fear that the telcoms will hold the Internet hostage and possibly restrict access to the world's largest information source.
Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, had this to say on savetheinternet.com, "The American public favors an open and neutral Internet and does not want gatekeepers taxing innovation and throttling the free market. The House has seriously undermined access to information and democratic communication."
Conversely, opponents of neutrality see this as a first step to an upswing in consumer choices and a flood of financial resources needed to upgrade the nation's IT infrastructure.
Peter Suderman, technology analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute had this to say, "A market in which Internet service providers aren’t allowed to prioritize the content traveling over their networks is one with less innovation and fewer benefits for everyone involved."
There are still neutrality proposals currently under consideration in the Senate. Website Services Magazine will, of course, be following the latest developments.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
According to Nielsen-NetRatings, social networking sites (MySpace, Friendster, etc.) grew by 50 percent last year. And they are still growing at a very rapid rate. Advertisers are scrambling to take advantage of this audience, but one thing stands in the way - inappropriate material. Understandably, Walmart doesn't want their ad placed next to a nude photo or an explicit blog post.
The Washington Post recently featured a story about social networking site Tribe.net detailing how they lost members when they started censoring or removing material - paving the way for advertisers. It's a fine line between offering a "free-speech" style site and restricting content so that the site becomes everything that social networkers are trying to avoid.
While Tribe.net claims that the lost members didn't hurt their overall business, it's worth paying attention. When designing your site, it makes sense to plan ahead for potential advertisers. It's better to lay the rules out for your new network, blog or message board in the beginning, than to have to change them after the community is built and risk total desertion.
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |
Comscore predicts Internet retailing will hit a major milestone in 2006, with
total e-commerce sales passing $100 billion in 2006. If you're running a
nonprofit enterprise, why not partner with Ecommerce companies?
ChangeRoundup.com is a unique service that is
doing just that and making "cents" out of online
giving - partnering with online retailers and charities to place the electronic
equivalent of a spare change jar at the checkout counter.
From the site: Change Round-Up is looking for a few socially-conscious retailer who would be
willing to partner and give their customers the opportunity to donate their
spare change online. Change Round-Up also allows online retailers to be a partner with
your customers in support of a cause. It's is indeed a great way to build
customer relationships, differentiate your site from the competition, increase
loyalty and of course generate great PR.
Noone can say it better than Homer:
"The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others."
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |