November 2006 - Posts
More pageviews and more ad impressions. It wasn't long ago that advertising through Real Simple Syndication (RSS) was all the rage with industry insiders who figured that you could access precious eyeballs even when they were away from your site. This spurred a huge cottage industry in feed readers, RSS directories and, of course, advertising networks of all ilks catering exclusively to bloggers and their RSS feeds. If people weren't going to visit your site every day (said the popular logic of the moment) then you could still show them some ads while giving them your content - and everybody swooned and jumped right on board. But in our haste, we failed to remember that Web users are becoming more and more immune to ads in general - and ads in blog feeds?
Forget about it. The click-through ratio on RSS advertisements is abyssmal, which is one of the many reasons you see sites like PayPerPost, ReviewMe and others springing up. Website owners still need funds to operate and promote their sites. If no one is clicking on the ads, then, well you can see the problem. You have to get paid somehow.
So what's the solution? Summary feeds, for one. If you can write a teaser on you blog and link it to a full version of the article then you (if you utilize RSS advertising) rack up two ad impressions - when you would only have one using a full text feed. Whether or not bloggers will opt for short and sweet blog posts, which encourage a click-through, is anyones guess.
rss, feeds, rss feeds, rss advertising
As a website owner, you have a particular vision of how your site should look and function. However, trying to explain that to a designer or developer gets tricky. More often than not there is a lot of back-and-forth to get things "just so" and even then you may not get what you want. We're starting a new feature here at Website Magazine that will present some helpful solutions for those who have the vision and the skills to impliment cool features, but not neccesarrily the ability to develop them. If you have a script that you would like to share, send us an
email.
DhoniShow Javascript Inline Gallery: Sites are increasingly demanding better presentations of images and rightly so; it can make a positive change in conversion. If you have ever wanted to implement an inline gallery on your site, try the DhoniShow javascript.
ThickBox 2.1: ThickBox is a Web page UI dialog widget written in JavaScript on top of the jQuery library. It's function is to show a single image, multiple images, inline content, iframed content, or content served through AJAX in a hybrid modal. What that means to those of us not involved directly with development is that it shows a tabbed interface within an existing page and allows for all sorts of varying implimentations.
Dynamic Favicons: Website Magazine discussed the advantages of favicons and how to create them in a previous issue, but I was floored when I came across the concept of dynamic favicons - talk about getting the attention of your user! Michael Mahemoff has created a javascript that lets you cycle favicons automatically using a timer.
javascript, design, development, ui, widget, favicons
More local promotional opportunities may be coming to the Web as IAC/InterActiveCorp. will unveil a local information service that combines Web search, city guides, maps and event listings from its stellar list of properties including Ask.com, CitySearch, Evite and Ticketmaster. IAC and Ask will be at Search Engine Strategies next week so we'll make sure to drop by to see the new service and report back. The local information service will provide a more convenient way for Web users to comb through the 10 years of entertainment listings and services stored in its CitySearch service, along with links to maps, events and ticket services.
IAC, ASK, citysearch, evite, barry diller, local Web promotions
Yahoo! Search Marketing notified advertisers this afternoon of some pending
updates to their manage bids page. From the email:
"In early December 2006, some of the information on the Manage Bids page will
no longer be available. We will be removing the "Top 5 Max Bids," "Position" and
"Your Cost" columns from the current account interface. The View Bids tool will
also be removed."
Those fields will be replaced by 1) Estimated Average Position which
displays an estimate of the average position a listing may achieve based on your
bid and the current bids of other advertisers, and 2) the Bid Range for Top
Positions which displays the current range of bids other advertisers are
willing to pay for the positions at the top of the search results page.
Technorati Tags:
yahoo, YSM, advertising, panama, ppc, pay per click
Remember Snap? I do, others don't - but they are actually going pretty strong, and have recently released two new tools for website owners. The only problem, at least as I see it, is how they plan on competing without a strong solution for website owners that are affiliates. Here's a quick look at Snap's Preview Anywhere and Search Anywhere features which could stand for some affiliate monetization.
Read "
Keen On Snap; But Let's See the Dollars"
No, Website Magazine wasn't banned from Adsense. We don't even use it! If we did though, we'd follow the rules. But, you would be surprised at the number of affiliate/publishers who don't follow those rules and, as a result, get banned. If you are not sure why you've been banned from Adsense, here are five reasons why you've been kicked to the curb.
Read "Banned From Google Adsense? It's Your Own Darn Fault"
google, adsense, click fraud, advertising, affiliates, publishers
Straight out of Rainbow Bay, Australia, "Double your PPC profits while
halving your costs!" is the title of a new free 12-part email course available
at PayPerClickSearchEngines.com - the Internet's first directory of pay per
click search engines which recently underwent a site design overhaul and
now features additional topic sections including PPC bidding strategies,
improving conversion rates, click fraud, PPC tools, and PPC search engines which
offer bonus traffic. The free course, "Double your PPC profits while halving
your costs!", gives tips on using low competition PPC search engines for maximum profits, increasing your click through rate (CTR) using smart copy, wagging PPC profits out of the "long tail", ad positioning for maximum conversion and much more. Certainly worth a look.
Technorati Tags:
advertising, ppc, pay per click, pay per click search engines
Ambient Insight today announced two reports on the 2006-2011 US Mobile
Learning market.
Executive
overviews of the reports are available for free. The market for Mobile
Learning products and services across all the buyer segments is growing by 27.2%
and will exceed $1.5 billion by 2011. There are now waves of new products
hitting the market including language learning, test prep, training podcasts,
personal learning tools, location-based services, device-embedded reference,
wireless decision support, and handheld continuing education content.
"Unlike elearning which is dominated by corporate buyers, Mobile Learning is
being driven by consumer, government, and healthcare buyers," said Sam Adkins,
chief research officer. Packaged content will account for the largest revenues
for suppliers throughout the forecast period. Adkins breaks out revenues for
seven distinct types of packaged content in his report.
"But the fastest growing opportunity over the next five years is the demand
for custom content development and technology services. The largest buyers for
these m-learning services in terms of revenues are corporations and government
agencies," added Adkins.
Key Findings:
- Content developers and publishers are aggressively converting legacy
content and developing new rich multimedia Mobile Learning content
- The rapid evolution of powerful convergent and connected wireless
handheld devices with mobile Web browsers
- The availability of advanced mobile operating systems, robust mobile
application software, and rich client interfaces
- User interface technology that overcomes the limitations of the small
device footprint of most handheld devices
- The aggressive continuation of the rollout of third-generation (3G)
cellular networks in the US that began in 2005
- The rollout of fixed wireless broadband (such as WiMAX) in 2006-2007
Technorati Tags:
mobile elearning, smartphone, ambient, ambient insight, mobile learning, mlearning m-learning
Industry folks have been unnecessarily harsh on Alexa of late in my personal
opinion. It's true, the metrics provider can be gamed but that's not anything
that should surprise you - could you not do the same thing with Google Trends?
Of course you could; just find some obscure keyword or key phrase and search a few thousand
times using a Google Search API.or Google Coop and watch the traffic for that
search term shoot through the roof.
Alexa (if you are not familiar with the free service) works in the following way; a user downloads
a toolbar,
visits websites and then Alexa tabulates the data. It's (if it's not gamed) a
surprisingly helpful resource to help you assess the overall traffic of a website.
While few if any should use the data as the sole means to gauge the success of a
website, it does provide a glimpse in to what that site has been doing the past
few months and years. Large spikes in traffic mean one of two things - that the
site legitimately received a natural increase in traffic or that it's being
gamed. You can tell the two apart by either asking the site directly why there was such an
increase or doing some research on your own. If it's a blog, search
Technorati
for that post and see how many people link to it. If it's a standard site, do
some news research and see what was happening with the company at the time.
So you want to game your Alexa numbers?
Install the Alexa toolbar, get a webpage refresher (one
example, and
another) for Internet Explorer and
set it to reload your website at a random interval - say ten minutes or so.
You'll be famous with Alexa in no time.
Technorati Tags:
alexa, toolbar, statistics, metrics
ComScore Networks and Nielsen/NetRatings have both released new numbers with regards to search engine traffic. It's no surprise that Google ranks first in both sets of results, with Yahoo coming in second and MSN-Microsoft in third.
But that's where the similarities end. ComScore lists Ask.com in fourth place with 392 million searches in October, while Nielsen/NetRatings lists Ask.com in fifth place with 168 million searches. Time Warner/AOL was listed fitfth by comScore and fourth by Nielsen/NetRatings.
So what does it all mean? It means that these numbers are all but meaningless. How can the results for Ask.com vary so widely (a discrepancy of 224 million searches) and still be considered reliable? They can't.
Via MSNBC: The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that bloggers and participants in Internet bulletin board groups cannot be sued for posting defamatory statements made by others.
In deciding a case closely watched by free speech groups, the court said a federal law gives immunity from libel suits not only to Internet service providers, like AOL, but also to bloggers and other users of their services.
"
Subjecting Internet service providers and users to defamation liability would tend to chill online speech," today's unanimous ruling said.
Now here's a positive step in the direction of affiliate/publisher accountability. Yahoo has released a feature for its Publisher Network which helps those using the program to identify problems with the implementation of their ads so they can be corrected - and keep that ad revenue rolling in.
From the YPN Blog:
Here’s how it works: If a compliance issue is detected on one of your URLs, you will be notified via email and through an alert in your secure account interface. These will direct you to your new Compliance Manager control panel. The Compliance Manager will inform you of what the issue is so that you have the opportunity to fix it. Once you’ve addressed the issue, you can then go back to the Compliance Manager to submit the remedied URL. We’ll get back to you with a status report, usually within seven business days.
Compliance violations will appear under the Reports tab and only appear when a violation is logged. Once the violation is resolved, the Compliance Manager will be hidden from view again. If you have a violation on a URLs that is severe enough for that URL to be suspended, it will be suspended without prior warning via the Compliance Manager. Publishers will be notified of the suspension and be able to clear the violation through the Compliance Manager interface, once the necessary changes have been made.
Technorati Tags:
yahoo, ypn, publishers, compliance, affiliates
Well, it's all starting to heat up now. Online holiday shoppers are undoubtedly beginning to burn up their screens and mouse pads searching for that perfect little something for Junior.
EMarketer has released a new demographic study, conducted by BIGresearch and sponsored by the National Retail Federation (NRF) that surveyed 7,623 US consumers over a one-week span in October of this year.
One interesting finding is that consumers who plan on buying online tend to be more affluent vs. those that plan on buying at retail locations, discount stores, department stores and specialty stores. Online shoppers are focusing on retail websites and specialty sites including clothing, toy and electronic stores.
Not surprisingly, the 18-34 year old demographic is the most likely to purchase holiday items online.
Some other findings:
- 48.7% of male shoppers plan on purchasing online, compared to 45.5% of female shoppers
- Apparel and appliances were the two most frequently researched items online before purchasing at a brick-and-mortar location
- The top categories (in order) that female shoppers researched online were Electronics, Apparel, Appliances and Beauty Products (tied)
- The top categories (in order) that male shoppers researched online were Electronics, Appliances and Home Improvement Items
- Male shoppers were more likely to research sites such as Best Buy and CNET, while female shoppers were more likely to research using Wal-Mart and Overstock.
As far as search behavior during the holidays, consumers are more than three times more likely to start search using Google than the next most popular portal. Amazon is the top retail merchant for product research. Shopping search engines, surprisingly, where consumers can search for retailers and compare prices drew very little interest - CNET and BizRate each drew only a half percent of consumer responses.
While these findings apply to many large retailers and websites, it's worth noting these trends while you tweak your site for the holidays, paying close attention to who will be visiting your site.