Ecommerce & Web Marketing Research: September 1-15 2004

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September 13 2004

Internet overlay needed to boost performance

Pat Gelsinger, Intel's Chief Technology Officer, has suggested that the Internet now requires an "overlay" to meet the increasing demands of ecommerce applications, entertainment sites and video intensive applications. 

Mr Gelsinger has recommended implementing a new, more secure network layer on top of the existing internet infrastructure, constructed in much the same way as original Internet infrastructure was built on top of telephone protocols.

Learn more.

September 11 2004

Marketing email open rates declining - or are they?

According to a recent article published on Clickz, *reported* open rates for email marketing campaigns is seeing a steady decline - from 28.7 percent in Q2 2003 to 22.3 percent in Q2 2004. These statistics were based on the figures provided by Bigfoot Interactive. The decrease is attributed mainly to ISP's and web hosting providers increasingly implementing anti-spam and anti-virus strategies spam by blocking remotely hosted images in emails.

Images embedded in emails are often used as a reporting tool for open rates. The way it works is that the image/s, either viewable or a transparent gif, will be stored on the server. When the user opens the email, the image is fetched from the server. The number of accesses can be easily tracked through server traffic reporting applications.

This has probably led to grossly inflated open rate reports throughout the industry in previous years as many people still persist in using a preview window in their email software. They may never actually bother to read the email, but as the images will appear/be fetched via the preview window, then that would be classed as an "open".

The image blocking methods used by ISP's is a double edged sword for marketers attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns. While open rate reports may no longer be so exaggerated, they will probably be increasingly understated. Also, the blocking of remotely hosted images can play havoc with the overall visual impact of a marketing message - in some circumstances, rendering an entire campaign worthless.

Just to make things even more challenging for email marketers in the future, it's worthwhile taking note that Windows XP SP2 blocks some images in Outlook Express by *default*.

Interested in email marketing? Read our mailing list management and autoresponder software reviews.

Need to learn about  search engine ranking and optimization strategies, without having to spend months in research? More than just a book; this is one of the most comprehensive training programs published including the book, added tools, videos and a members only forum -  SEO BOOK

Taiwan broadband access now at 50% 

Statistics released by the Taiwan Network Information Center and reported by eMarketer show that approximately 50% of the online Taiwan population now access the Internet via broadband. This level places Taiwan as having the fourth highest household broadband connectivity in the world.

Other statistics reported by eMarketer in relation to Taiwan:

• Overall, 61.4% use search engines, 
• 42.5% regularly engage in online shopping
• 39.7% use the Internet for business related tasks
• 37.4% read the news online
• 34.6% download software, music or games,
• 30% research technical information
• 77.6% claim to have made at least one purchase online. 
• Of those, they average 3.95 purchases a year
• Average annual online spending is $229.
• 56.6% of Taiwanese Internet users access the web via home

Read the report on eMarketer

September 5 2004

Something about bandwidth..

... steps onto soapbox...

Ugh.. I've probably mentioned this before; it's been one of my favorite rants over the years - load times. What is it about us as developers and webmasters that keeps pushing the envelope on load times for our sites. I chastise myself enough that the page you are reading now probably takes around 20 seconds to load on a 28.8k connection. 

Sure, only a small percentage of people would have a connection that slow these days; but it seems that every time there's an advancement in bandwidth speeds, the industry has a tendency to not only take advantage of it, but then to push it again and create home pages etc. that take 20 seconds to load over a *cable* connection! I've noticed this trend especially over the last few months. I'm not referring to small-time webmasters just in the process of learning their craft - some of these are big-name sites.

It just seems ridiculous to me that given the marvels of broadband technology, we should be taking advantage of it, not creating yet another unnecessary World Wide Wait scenario. 

... stepping down off soapbox ;)

Less than 10% of Fortune 100 optimizing sites

A report released recently by OneUpWeb has stated that only 1 in 10 Fortune 100 companies are utilizing search engine optimization and marketing strategies well - 40% don't even appear to be bothering with SEO. OneUpWeb makes the very valid point that if these companies weren't performing well in other areas of marketing or customer service, then their share prices would tumble - but I guess the term SEO isn't really at the forefront of Joe Investor's consciousness yet :).

Actually, it's not the figures/data in their report that really interested me, it's the report itself - think about it; perhaps it's a very, very clever marketing strategy by OneUpWeb to secure a few more blue-chip clients with enormous advertising budgets? I can practically guarantee this report was hand delivered to every Fortune 100 company after it was released. If this was OneUpWeb's strategy, bravo to them - good thinking!

Related - read my review of a great book - Search Engine Marketing - The Essential Guide.

US Hotels gear up for broadband

Half of USA hotels are now offering broadband Internet access in their rooms and the pace of future uptake only appears to be accelerating. Broadband connectivity in hotel rooms has more than doubled in the past 3 year - very good news for travelers. More facts and stats on hotel broadband access.

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