Ecommerce & Web Marketing Research: October 1-10 2004

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October 10 2004

Telstra - incompetence in telecommunications

Phew, hell week with moving to new premises - and we still aren't quite finished - thanks to Australia's major telecommunications company, Telstra. I won't go too deep into the gory details, but the gross incompetence of this hugely profitable and monopolistic telecommunications company have led me to lodge a formal complaint with the Australian Telecommunications Ombudsman - again. I had to do the same earlier in the year in regards to another connection for exactly the same sorts of issues.

It is quite beyond me why in 2004, telcos do not seem to understand the importance of data capable lines and how intertwined modern life and the Internet have become. So many of us involved in ecommerce need data lines more so than voice lines these days. This isn't just affecting us, but Telstra informs me it applies a *whole* suburb!

I placed an order for connection for a standard fixed line to our new premises on August 30, with ADSL to follow. Over 5 weeks down the track and I *still* don't even have a standard fixed voice line. They have provided me with an "interim" solution that isn't capable of any data services whatsoever. They refuse to provide an alternate solution, even though a couple of options are available through them. 

We've begged, pleaded and threatened. We even asked for them to meet us halfway with a solution that would cost us (our share) 5x what we are currently paying. No dice. Fine, we're playing hard ball now and I warned them we would if necessary. The ombudsman is just the beginning - more on this later. I feel by publishing a dedicated article on this (yet to be published), it may help other Australians in dealing with this (in my opinion) grossly incompetent and negligent organization. It is also an excellent example of why Telstra should not be fully privatized as our current government appears hell bent on doing. Stay tuned, this ain't over yet.

New article - PPC fraud

Some industry estimates put the number of fraudulent or illegitimate clicks as high as an average of 50%. While I find that a little hard to swallow, there is no doubt that click fraud is becoming yet another increasing challenge in the world of ecommerce. Learn more about the issue and what you can do to minimize the impact in my new article on pay per click fraud.
 

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Xmas and web marketing

For those of you who have ecommerce sites and are relatively new to visiting Taming the Beast.net, you might want to take a peek at the Xmas marketing article I dust off each year and update. If you haven't planned your Christmas strategies yet, you're running out of time - I hope the tips and considerations in the article are of value to you. View Web marketing for Xmas 2004 

October 5 2004

Ecommerce giants suffer DDoS attacks

A couple of weeks ago, payment processor Authorize.net suffered a sustained DDoS attack. Today, Worldpay, another ecommerce leader was reporting the same.

While neither company is stating this to be the case, and I have no hard evidence to support this, I'm suspecting that this is the result of an extortion attempt. 

I reported a couple of months ago about certain types of ecommerce sites being blackmailed - mainly involved with legal gambling. Hackers would contact site owners and demand large sums of cash, if the site owner failed to act, they would then be hit with a DoS (Denial of Service) attack at a critical time. 

A DoS attack usually consists of using software to bombard a server with valid requests for pages from a particular site, effectively bringing the server to a halt. A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, is the same principle, but using many compromised machines, called "zombies".

DDoS extortion targeting ecommerce sites is becoming increasingly common and is extremely worrying. Any site owner could become a target if it's perceived that they may be in a position to cough up the cash. While it's thought that well organized crime syndicates are behind this, the notion of copycats looking for an easy buck is also a major concern. They may not be able to wreak as much damage, but they will surely be a major annoyance.

October 4 2004

Small business benefiting from ecommerce

C I Host carried out a survey between May 1 and July 31 of 5,000 small USA businesses to gauge the benefits that ecommerce have brought them. Key findings:

• 99% reported gaining new customers from their site

• 81% stated increased revenues and profitability

• 60% improved their competitive position in the market

• 51% acquired business outside their traditional target market

Computer security - people still just don't get it

Putting the spotlight on people's general ignorance of computer security, the NCSA (National Cyber Security Alliance) have released the results of their latest survey.

While over 70 percent of respondents stated they have become more concerned about security than they were last year, it would appear that many still don't understand just how important an issue it is. 

For example, over 30 percent felt that there was more chance of being hit by lightning or win the lottery than become victim of a Internet related security breach. In the under 25 demographic, this attitude increased to 40 percent.

This just drives home the point that your clients and your staff may be one of the biggest threats to your ecommerce investment. Never assume that these groups know how to keep themselves safe on the Internet; always assume ignorance.

Read more of the NCSA's report - (pdf - 169 kb)

October 2 2004

Browser battles - usage statistics

With some Open Source applications starting to steal IE's thunder, I thought I'd take a look around to get a better idea of who's using what. The following statistics are for September and taken from thecounter.com's reports, covering a huge network of sites:

It seems that even a 1% or 2% increase in market share is enough to have the MS nay-sayers rejoicing and predicting the imminent fall of IE as the leading browser, but that's a long way off, if ever. 

It is great to see other software vendors making their mark - but I don't think I'll be "optimizing" my site for Firefox users for a little while. Like I always say to the purists - the market dictates, not the W3C. When the W3C and it's proponents start to really start to understand the market, and learn how to address that market - then I'll make some changes. It's encouraging to note that organizations such as Mozilla appear to be doing just that - getting away from the geek element and reaching out to the mainstream.

Shopping cart software Learn more about shopping carts or read our reviews of some the best shopping cart software around! Need to learn more about merchant accounts or payment processors? Try our ecommerce guides

Postini reports 75% of all email is spam

Postini, a provider of email security services has stated that even with recent legislation, spam is still accounting for approximately 75% of all email, which is a drop in 1% on August. Interestingly, the amount of sexually explicit email has dropped by 78% since January 2004.

While I've seen varying figures on Spam numbers - anywhere from 50% to 85%, I can definitely state through first hand experiencing as a manager of a hosting service that the problem isn't getting any better. It was only just over a year ago that we incorporated spam filters/virus scanning at a server level and I'm very glad we did. While it causes some headaches from time to time through false positives, and some spam still does get through; I shudder to think how things would be if we suddenly removed those mechanisms.

MS adding search to IM

Reported by Internet Week, Microsoft has stated that from Monday, there will be a limited trial of search features added to MSN Messenger. Users will also be able to highlight words, then right click and run a search.

With IM being so popular now, this is a great move by Microsoft - now we just need for them to roll out their long-awaited search engine and start optimizing for MSN rankings. If the search feature remains, this will be especially beneficial to those merchants targeting a younger demographic, as these are the heaviest users of IM services.

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