'Net Features : best of 2011

Best of 2011 - Viral Video Ads

Allison Howen — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:00:00 GMT

There are quite a few online technologies and techniques that gained momentum in 2011, such as mobile optimization, cloud computing and Web video marketing. Many of them we can expect to see traveling at full-speed in 2012.

For example, according to the second annual Video State of the Industry survey from Adap.tv and Digiday, brand advertisers who bought online video ads in 2011 are expected to increase their 2012 budgets by 47 percent, while 84 percent of brands that didn’t purchase video ads in 2011 are expected to include digital video in their campaigns by early 2012.

For marketers who are planning to introduce or increase online video strategies in 2012, the ultimate goal is to go viral. This can be accomplished through various methods and with different types of video content, such as informative, funny or even slightly shocking. However, it is important not to lose one's focus - which is promoting your brand - when creating such a video.

To help spark an idea for your brand's next online video, let’s take a look at the most watched YouTube ads from 2011:

The Force: Volkswagen Commercial

More than 45 million views

The T-Mobile Royal Wedding

More than 25 million views

Chrysler Eminem Super Bowl Commercial – Imported From Detroit

More than 13 million views

DC Shoes - Ken Block’s Gymkhana Four; The Hollywood Megamercial

More than 13 million views

Jennifer Aniston goes viral for Smartwater

More than 10 million views

Team Hot Wheels – The Yellow Driver’s World Record Jump

More than 8 million views

Old Spice – Scent Vacation

More than 7 million views

Apple – Introducing Siri on iPhone 4S

More than 6 million views

Samsung - Unleash Your Fingers

More than 6 million views

Adidas D Rose – adiZero Rose 2 – The Bull

More than 4 million views

Best of 2011 - Ecommerce Landing Pages

Allison Howen — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:00:00 GMT

You only get one first impression, and a landing page is the first impression of every successful website. Therefore, it is imperative to create a good one.

Successful ecommerce landing pages include aspects such as bold titles, eye-grabbing call-to-action buttons, easy navigational links and prominently featured promotions.

As the end of 2011 draws near, let’s view some of the best examples of ecommerce landing pages from the past 12 months:

Old Navy

The best part of this landing page is the brightly and prominently displayed prices, which are perfect for consumers shopping for a good deal (who isn’t?). Additionally, the gift guide and “Holi-deals” are highlighted in red for easy visibility. And conveniently, consumers have the option to visit sister stores by clicking on tabs at the top of the landing page.

The North Face

No matter who or what a consumer is shopping for (men, women, kids, equipment or holiday gifts), this landing page features multiple eye-catching links on which to click. Not only does the main photo at the top of the page include links for different departments, but the departments are also featured directly underneath the image in a row of individual smaller photos. The landing page is direct, simple and sleek for easy end-user navigation.

Urban Decay

This landing page includes many best practices, such as the large title of the brand and inclusion of the brand’s slogan. Other best practices include a large call-to-action button that says “Buy It Now,” as well as the word “FREE” in the upper right-hand corner and bottom left-hand corner – which, without a doubt, grabs the attention of consumers. Furthermore, the featured picture box changes about every 10 seconds, and the second featured box features a call-to-action button that enables consumers to view videos from the brand.

Lush

Although a bit busier than the previous examples, one of the best aspects of this page is the gift-finder, which is featured with bright colors on the left-hand side of the page. Not only does it allow consumers to choose who the gift is for, but it also allows them to choose a price range. Other best practices of this landing page include the golden ticket promotion that is featured next to the company’s name, as well as the “New” and “Christmas” tabs at the top of the page, which are highlighted in Green and Yellow.

Ugg

This landing page notably features the Ugg’s Gift Boutique, which is an effective tactic during the holidays. Furthermore, on the right-hand side of the page, boots for both men and women are featured with call-to-action buttons. Lastly, the upper right corner prominently features the company’s shipping and return policy (free), which is an important factor for consumers.

Best of 2011 - Content Management Systems

Michael Garrity — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:00:00 GMT

The right content management system (CMS) can make all the difference in the world when it comes to Web success, especially for small businesses without big budgets to dedicate to IT and Web development (although some of the largest brands in the world utilize content management systems as well, so it’s hard not to stress their importance).

If you’re not already using a CMS, you probably should be (considering it, at least); and if you are, are you sure that it’s the best option? Here are five CMS companies who had great years in 2011, and could be your saving grace in 2012.

Joomla
You’ve probably at least heard of Joomla before. Because it is a free open source website creation tool, it often gets compared to Drupal as a sort of WordPress.org knockoff, but in reality it is a much better system. Like both WordPress and Drupal, Joomla allows you to build websites and Web applications, and you can increase their functionality and flexibility by adding “extensions” (feature add-ons similar to WordPress plugins). As a plus, the most updated version of Joomla is even easier for new users to manage thanks in part to refined admin panel, which makes it ideal for some not-so-savvy business owners looking to make it big on the Web.

concrete5
Though aimed at marketers, this free open source CMS is a useful tool for any Web professional, specifically because users are able to edit content on the site directly from the page. This primary feature provides “blocks” that can contain text, images or more complicated content like image slideshows, comments systems, file lists, maps and more. The CMS also allows users to connect their websites to the concrete5 Marketplace to automatically upgrade software and downloaded or purchased add-ons.

ImpressCMS
This simple, secure and flexible community-developed CMS is a great fit for businesses of any size. It is database-driven and fully modularized so that users can install the modules that possess the features they need and don’t have to bother with those that they don’t. It also features multi-byte language support, a theme-based skinnable interface and worldwide support through the ImpressCMS community.

CMS MadeSimple
CMS MadeSimple is a free, lightweight content management solution that is especially applicable for smaller sites. Its robust user interface includes a Web-based administration section for theme, template and stylesheet development, the installation (and updating) of add-on modules, configuring blocks of content on a page and managing user groups and permissions.

Etomite
For those who need to bolster their SEO practices, Etomite is the ideal CMS. Because it allows the end user to control almost everything about a website, from layout to meta tag generation, users can more easily optimize their sites for search engine results pages. Some of the key features include: Word processor-like (WYSIWYG) document editing to add tables, images and formated text to a page without HTML knowledge, a modern and intuitive interface, template-driven page design and free support. In addition, this CMS can also be incorporated with AJAX functionality without any AJAX system knowledge through a backend editor.

Best of 2011- Daily Deal Sites for Merchants

Allison Howen — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Everyone loves a deal.

But no consumer can sign up for the more than 600 daily deal sites that saturated the online deal market in 2011. That would be a lot of emails in the inbox.

So, with all of the daily deal sites available, how is a merchant to know the best ones to which they should offer promotions? Many aspects come into play; for instance, some daily deal sites have better concepts than others, while others have more traffic.

Let’s take a look at some of the best daily deal sites of 2011 so that merchants can decide which sites provide the best opportunities for their deals in 2012.

Groupon

Although Groupon’s traffic has recently been on a decline, there is no denying it still gets a lot of visitors -- more than 15 million unique visitors in November 2011, according to Compete.com. And if that is not a good enough reason for the company to be part of WM's Best of 2011, the fact that the company peaked at more than 33 million unique visitors in June 2011 definitely puts it on the list. There is no doubt that the future of Groupon is something for all Web workers to watch closely (and perhaps cautiously), but because it is the site that launched the category and because it is still the preeminent leader among daily deal sites, it is a more than viable option for merchants who want their deals to be seen. A close second, and an option that some believe will eventually overtake Groupon, is LivingSocial.

Gilt City

This site calls itself “an online lifestyle destination.” Currently, the site provides offers to more than 10 major U.S. cities, and received more than 335,000 unique visitors in November 2011, according to Compete. When a merchant decides to partner with Gilt City, the company helps brainstorm offer ideas, writes a feature that showcases the business, sends out emails and more. Notable statistics from the company include 90 percent of users share their experiences with two or more friends, 70 percent are likely to return to the business that they visited through Gilt City and 55 percent spend more than the offer that they are redeeming – which are all impressive statistics for merchants looking to get in the daily deal game.

Yipit

This site is a daily deal aggregator, meaning that it takes deals from sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and Yelp and recommends the best deals to its users based on their personalized preferences. Yipit provides deals in 118 cities, and its number of unique visitors continues to increase, reaching more than 157,000 in November 2011.

DailyDeals.com

This daily deal site makes the list because of its unique point of difference – it includes no local deals. DailyDeals.com is a deal website for national and online-only stores. By targeting ecommerce and national brands, DailyDeals.com hopes to gain much of its traffic through emails and social media. The reasoning behind this is because customers won’t be limited to only sharing great deals with people living in similar locations. Instead, customers can share a great deal on Facebook and share it with all of their friends -- no matter where they live. With more than 68,000 unique visitors in November, this site is a strong option for Web retailers.

Where You Shop

This startup site has a lot of promise because of its unique approach to finding deals that fit consumers' shopping habits and hot spots. Upon signup, users are shown a local map to pinpoint frequently visited areas such as their homes, schools and workplaces. Offers are emailed to members based on these pre-defined areas and, because of this location-based technology, users do not receive deals outside of their most frequently visited areas. Where You Shop has a unique visitor rate of more than 10,000 in November, which has been on the upswing since the website launched in April 2011.

Best of 2011 - Mobile Web Devices

Michael Garrity — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:00:00 GMT

The year 2011 was a pivotal one the Web, particularly as it relates the way people go about connecting to their favorite sites.

The advent of fast-emerging and rapidly growing technologies in the mobile sector has led to many users regularly accessing the Web from mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and even feature phones.

But not all of these mobile devices are created equally, so WM takes a look at some of the past year’s best and most popular gadgets for surfing the ‘Net.

iPhone 4S
When news of the iPhone 4S first dropped, some were disappointed -- to say the least. Users wanted an iPhone 5, and instead they got a revamped version of the iPhone 4. (Oh, and Siri.) Still, in the end, it was the best-selling iPhone ever despite the initially lukewarm response.

The smartphone runs on the brand new iOS 5 and offers much of the same functionality with which Apple fans and diehard iPhone users are familiar, including the old standby Safari mobile browser. With the introduction of the voice-controlled Siri, Apple also gives users a whole new way to interact with the Web on their mobile phones, as information can be accessed almost immediately. It’s likely that 2012 will finally see the release of the iPhone 5, which will possibly be a drastic reinterpretation of the device with even more sophisticated Internet capabilities.

iPad 2
Apple’s other major contribution of industry-changing technology is the iPad 2, the successor to the device that standardized tablet usage. It’s probably not a stretch to say that when people talk about tablets and tablet browsing, they’re likely thinking of using an iPad, and that kind of presence is what makes it such an important (and revolutionary) gadget.

Much faster than its predecessor, the second generation iPad is actually quite similar to its big brother when it comes to navigating on the Web, but it also presents itself as more of a content creation tool for publishing on the Web, making it a device much better suited for two-way Web needs. Like the iPhone, it comes equipped with a built-in, tablet-optimized Safari browser, and there are some impressive third-party browser options available for interested users. The second version is also powered by iOS 5.

Galaxy SII
Although it’s not nearly as revered or idolized as Apple, Samsung has proven itself to be a beyond-competent mobile developer, and the Galaxy SII is a great example of its acumen. Some have claimed that it is actually the “world’s most powerful phone to date,” backed by a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor and running on the Android Gingerbread operating system (with an Ice Cream Sandwich update on the way).

And while being a powerful tool is critical to the demands of Web users today, the Galaxy SII goes the extra mile by providing users with a great interface for browsing that consists of a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus display. One review called it “the yardstick by which every other phone competing [this year] in terms of hardware specs was measured.”

Galaxy Nexus
Running on the Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS, this is widely considered to be the best Android phone ever created. By building on the successes of the Galaxy SII, Samsung was able to craft a superb device that is “everything Android ever aspired to be.”

Featuring a 4.65 inch HG Super AMOLED Contour Display and a powerful processor specifically built for faster Web browsing and multitasking, this phone is ideal for browsing the Web. So far, no better iPhone alternative has presented itself or, perhaps more importantly, had the opportunity to challenge Apple’s dominance in terms of the general public’s perception of what a smartphone can be.

Kindle Fire
No product was more hotly anticipated this year than Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet. At $199, a considerably lower price point than the iPad 2, the 7-inch tablet is a great alternative to Apple’s industry-dominating device, especially as it allows for easy access into any of Amazon’s other online properties, most notably the Kindle Store, Amazon Prime and Amazon Cloud Storage.

The Kindle Fire runs on a customized version of the Android Gingerbread OS and features a brand new Web browser, Amazon Silk, which has received mixed reviews so far. Though the Kindle Fire may not be the optimal mobile device for using the Web, there is no denying the impact it has had on the tablet market. By dropping the price point significantly, Amazon has opened up tablet adoption to a whole new range of consumers, and the screen size was successful enough that there isn’t any shortage of rumors that Apple will release a 7 inch “mini” version of the iPad 3 in 2012. In short, thanks to Amazon and the Kindle Fire, tablet consumption is becoming even more mainstream.