'Net Features : recession

craigslist Booms in Recession

MaureenA — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Demand for classified sites has increased dramatically, according to a report released by Hitwise. Its report showed visits to classified sites increased by 84 percent in one year. Numbers increased the most between December 2008 and February 2009. To highlight the demand for craigslist visits, Hitwise divided the data into two categories: craigslist sites and all other classified sites. The category for all other classifieds was mostly flat throughout the year while craigslist's numbers increased rapidly. The report notes that craigslist visits increased 90 percent, while visits to all other classifieds grew 22 percent.

Heather Hopkins, senior online analyst, Hitwise, reports that craigslist users are typically from higher income households, but the data from this report suggest that lower income households are now turning to the site for resources.

Are you part of the increased traffic that helped craigslist boom 90 percent?

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Are IT Security Budgets Recession Proof?

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:35:00 GMT

Although budget cuts seem likely in other areas, businesses will extend their tight budgets for the sake of security.

IT security budgets remain stable despite an impending economic recession, according to a recent survey conducted at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, CA, April 7-11 by Astaro Corporation, a vendor of integrated security appliances. Of the over 300 conference attendees surveyed, 67% said that they do not see their security spending behavior affected by the recession in 2008. Despite the news, growth in IT spending for this year is relatively conservative compared to previous year.

According to Gartner Research, “small businesses expect to increase their IT spending by approximately 3.25% over 2007 spending levels. Midsize businesses expect to increase their IT spend in 2008 year over year by 5.34%. While positive, these expected increases are more conservative and below the increases we saw during the past two years.”

Jan Hichert, Astaro CEO, explains, “Many SMB administrators are looking to consolidate and simplify their security solutions in order to cut back costs and workload. Astaro helps to bring IT security costs down by merging all necessary features into one easy-to-use, robust security solution, giving businesses the best total cost of ownership and ultimately stretching tight IT security budgets even further.”

Integrating network, web and mail security and managed through an intuitive browser-based user interface, the Astaro Security Gateway offers the latest protection from Internet threats, while simplifying the administrative work. It is available as a software, hardware or virtual appliance. Not only does this UTM product cost less than traditional point products and many of its UTM competitors, but it also requires fewer man hours to deploy and maintain, leading to substantial savings.

it security astaro rsa conference gartner research security solutions internet security

Business Strategy: Playing the Recession Card

Administrator — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:30:00 GMT

From where I sit, the economy is chugging along nicely. Business owners are investing time and money in their websites even in the face of mass media's assault on the everyman (or woman) with what I call "woe is me" recession talk. Whether you believe a recession is here (or coming) or not, it's important to leverage the current economic environment. How do you do that? Play the recession card in your copywriting.

Schooner Tuna - The Tuna With a Heart

Do you remember the 1980's movie "Mr. Mom?" Toward the end, Mr. Schooner from Schooner Tuna (a take-off of Charlie Tuna) is shooting a commercial. He rambles on about lowering the cost of tuna temporarily. I remember hearing, “These are trying times," “We’re all in this together," and “Schooner Tuna, a tuna with a heart.” See where I'm going with this? Converting users is not always about the feature list or the support guarantees - it's about understanding the situation of the user. In "trying times" it's important to express that you "feel" your users woes and are doing something about it.

As fear takes over desire as the dominant emotion that drives people to take action, it's in your best interest to empathize with users and play the recession card by working in a few Mr. Schooner phrases. Better yet, find some ways to calm those fears. Perhaps you could cut the cost of an extended warranty. Or offer longer customer support hours. If you can, maybe drop the shipping fees a bit.

Finally, try rebates - they push customers to purchase and often times go unredeemed. The increase of sales combined with unused rebates could boost your bottom line while quelling customer fears about spending money in a sagging economy.