Ecommerce & Web Marketing Research: December 11-30 2004

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28 December 2004

Asian earthquake/Tsunami - your help is needed

I don't often go right off topic in this column, but the situation resulting from the earthquakes in Asia is absolutely heart wrenching. 

- It's estimated that up to 50,000 people may have died
- One third of those people will be children
- Millions are homeless
- 10 countries affected

This disaster struck nations least prepared to deal with it. The threat of diseases that will kill thousands more is very real.

I know at this time of the year, especially just after Xmas, 
things can be very tight; but if you can spare a few dollars, 
please try to help one of the many organizations such as World Vision who are desperate for donations so that they can continue to carry out as much relief work as possible. 

Our most heartfelt condolences to those people who may have lost friends and loved ones in the disaster.

USA leading the way in spam

It's been nearly a year now since Can-Spam legislation was introduced in the USA - and what have been the effects? Barely none. The USA is still well and truly at the top of the list of countries where spam originates, accounting for over 40% according to Sophos. 

It looks as though spammers haven't even bothered with moving operations to another country. It should be noted though that 2004 saw a huge increase in the average, unwitting or simply ignorant home PC user being utilized by spammers as a conduit for mass-mailings; many of these being US broadband connected machines.

Top 12 list

1. United States
2. South Korea
3. China (incl Hong Kong)
4. Canada
5. Brazil
6. Japan
7. France
8. Spain
9. United Kingdom
10. Germany
11. Taiwan
12. Mexico

Like I've said before - Can Spam? Yes indeed. Perhaps they should rename the Act to something a little more aggressive :). Currently it sounds like an invitation.

Read more on Sophos

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

25 December 2004

Beating blog spam

History is repeating itself - remember the days when people discovered that guestbook links could help boost your rankings - and then the spammers reaked havoc with automated submission tools? It appears that the same thing is happening with blogs; primarily WordPress and Movable Type. 

I've spoken with a number blog owners recently who are having massive problems weeding out spam comments from their blogs. One blogging application I maintain, even though comments links are disabled, is starting to see its fair share of attempts at spamming thanks to automated tools.

I guess the easy fix for blog owners is to turn off comments - but this takes away from the original purpose of blogs; interactivity. The other way is to queue comments for review; but this still means sifting through all the crap to get to the gold - very time consuming.

If you have a blog that's under attack, here's a couple of resources you may want to try:

Jay Allen offers a plugin for Movable Type users that references a central blacklist, much like email anti-spam tools such as Spam Assassin. If you don't like using blacklists, take a look at this Bayesian filter for Movable Type.

Kitten’s Spaminator - an anti-spam tool for WordPress blog software users. Another popular plugin is Spam Karma.

24 December 2004

Looking for China ecommerce/marketing  resources?

Everyone seems to be talking about China these days as being the next big market for Western businesses. In fact, it appears it will be the other way around. I'm starting to believe that China will be the equivalent of Japan in the 70's and early 80's.

I don't profess to know a lot about making inroads into China, the only advice I can give is what my Chinese accountant passed on to me - it's *all* about Guanxi (connections) and an etiquette that is vastly different to ours. It's vitally important that before you approach Chinese companies, you learn about their general and business culture. For example, a response of "no" in a business meeting is considered quite rude - "perhaps" or "maybe" are more accepted as a negative response.

I have noticed over the past year that Chinese merchants and producers are really reaching out to Western markets for partnerships. I get at least a couple of emails each day from Chinese manufacturers wanting to establish ties. While the English isn't great (but waaaaay better than my Chinese), they are always incredibly polite in their approach.

Anyway, if you're interested in doing business in China, the following are a few resources you may find useful. Bear in mind when dealing with the Chinese that when it comes to the web, it's still a relatively new concept, so online business is still handled in much the same way as traditional business. The Chinese are by no means fully Westernized as yet; and quite honestly, I don't think that's a bad thing.

Also, don't judge the company by the look of their web site. I've seen some really dreadful and amateurish sites that are the online representations of multi-million dollar companies.

Analysys Research - Ecommerce/marketing and technology trends and research in China.

Business Etiquette in China - Business etiquette and China business culture, customs and protocol 

Guanxi - a term relating to the most powerful tool  when doing business in China - connections and relationships.

Commerce Ministry - Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China.

I'd like to do some further research and gather some more useful resources on this very interesting topic, so stay tuned for a more in-depth look at commerce, particularly ecommerce, in China. 

22 December 2004

Over 16 billion spent online in holiday shopping

According to a report from DM News, US online shopping accounted for 16.7 billion dollar during the first 6 weeks of this holiday season; and increase of 28% over last year.

Read more

18 December 2004

Number of PC's to double within 5 years

Forrester Research has released a report forecasting that the number of PC's in global use will double by 2010. Other findings:

• US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific will add 150 million new PCs between now and 2010.

• Emerging economies such as China, India, Indonesia and Mexico will have over half a billion PC's in use by 2010. In 2003, the number was around 75 million.

• Linux will prove to be the OS of choice in emerging markets given that it's Open Source

Sounds as though Microsoft has a battle ahead, but I wouldn't be suprised if Bill and the boys started giving away Windows to people in these countries. Heck, it's not as though they can't afford it - they just need to use the drug dealers approach - give a taste, get 'em hooked, start charging :). 

Read more of the Forrester press release

16 December 2004

Outsourcing and Big Brother

When outsourcing projects, especially when working via telecommuting arrangements, it can be difficult keeping track of the hours that subcontractors are working, i.e.; are they actually working the hours they claim it took to complete a task?

I was chatting with an associate today who is a freelance programmer. He's just started working for an outsourcing company who have an interesting way of keeping contractors honest. What the company does is make contractors install monitoring  software on their systems. While "at work", every ten minutes a screenshot is taken of the contractors desktop, as are logs of keystrokes and mouse movements. Wow! Interesting concept, but I'm in two minds regarding this. I'm sure it is very effective, but it's very invasive and as another programmer pointed out - if you have to treat your staff that way, then something is very wrong.

The logical extension of this practice is the implementation of these systems in the traditional workplace - I wonder how long it will be before the average office desktop has this installed. Will employees rebel, or will this just be another form of privacy invasion that we'll grumble about, but then become accustomed to. George Orwell may have got the date wrong, but "1984" has well and truly arrived in 2004.

Learn more about outsourcing web design & development contracts

Ask Jeeves affiliate program - pay per search

It's been a long time since a high profile search engine company offered webmasters a bounty on each search. It appears that Ask Jeeves has wound back the clock and discovered that this type of affiliate program is a great way to generate search engine brand awareness.

For those of you who have been around affiliate programs long enough to remember, most of the major players offered such a program way back in 2000 - 2 of the most noticeable being Google and AltaVista - yes, AltaVista used to be the top search engine. Unfortunately, some of their practices, including not paying their affiliates (like me) led to their downfall; wheras Google went from strength to strength.

15 December 2004

Small business expecting increased online sales

Interland, a USA web hosting provider, recently surveyed 530 small-business owners with an online presence in the USA in relation to holiday season sales.

• 87 % expected good, if not better sales over 2003

• 58% stated they will update their website as part of holiday promotion

• 34% stated they will offer special promotions

• 29% would be increasing online advertising

In terms of general revenue for 2004:

• 28% expected 26 to 100% of their 2004 revenues to be through online sales

• 22% stated that 11 - 25% of their sales would be online.

• 36% expected 1 - 10% of their sales will be via their website.

• 14% stated their sites will generate no revenue.

Read more of the Interland Fall 2004 Business Barometer of Online Activities

Affiliate Marketing survey results.

Marketing Sherpa have released their December affiliate marketing survey report. Amongst the findings:

• 91% of merchants who participated and 82% of affiliates forecast revenue growth in 2005.

• 49% affiliates stated they wouldn't work with a merchant that banned all paid search advertising

• 49% of affiliates said they would drop a merchant if email advertising was banned.

The survey results also has interesting points in relation to merchant strategies for the coming year. Read more

Are you an affiliate? Pick up some tips on working with merchants, survival strategies and other affiliate marketing issues 

PPC prices - still bargains to be had

PPC prices are skyrocketing according to AdAge due to holiday season competition. Top bids for choice keywords and phrases in competitive markets are said to be as high as $18.90.

I did some research myself and came up with these costs per click:

buy vcr - $1.42
christmas cards - $2.00
buy ipod - $1.30
christmas gifts - $4.53
buy dvd player - $1.51

Here's an interesting one:

xbox games - $1.12
buy xbox games - $0.31

While the second term is more targeted, the click price is a lot lower. To me, this indicates a lack of understanding of getting value for money out of PPC and decreasing COA (Cost Of Acquisition). The term "xbox games" I imagine would attract a lot of "tire kicker" type clicks. I noticed a lot of these kinds of scenarios on various search terms, so it appears that there's still many relatively cheap terms to be had if you research your segment thoroughly.

At any rate, if you're shelling out for PPC advertising this holiday season, good luck - I hope it's profitable for you!

Learn more about PPC advertising

Pay Per Click  - a beginners guide

Minimizing PPC costs

Pay Pay Click anti-fraud strategies and tools

A new tool from Google - Google Suggest

I like this one :). Google has released a new tool  that will suggest related queries *before* you hit the search button via a dropdown menu below the search box - and will also display the number of results before you search.

For example, I typed in "web marketing" and the following appeared:

- web marketing association
- web marketing consulting
- web marketing strategy

+ many others, all accompanied by the number of results for each query. By clicking on the query, the related SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) will be generated.

Try out Google Suggest

Review our free Google tools listings.Top 10 spyware applications

Webroot, the authors of various anti-spyware software products, have released their top ten list of the most prevalent and insidious spyware applications for 2004. 

• PurityScan - adware

• n-Case - adware

• Gator (GAIN) - adware

• CoolWebSearch - adware

• Transponder - adware

• ISTbar/AUpdate - browser hijacker

• KeenValue - adware

• Internet Optimizer - browser hijacker

• Perfect Keylogger - spyware

• TIBS Dialer - modem dialer

Learn more about these applications.

Learn more about securing your home based online business.

Men outspending women in online shopping

Results of the third annual AOL 'Online Shopping Cities' survey were recently released, with some interesting results. Amongst the findings:

• Of the respondents, men planned to spend $326 on average; 15% more than women
• Men research or browse 31 times a month; nearly 50% more than women.
• Men purchased on average 6 times a month - 20 percent more than women.
• Men are prepared to spend double the amount on a single item while online shopping.
• While holiday shopping online, women are more concerned about going over budget
• Men are more "seasoned" online shoppers, i.e. on average, a greater length of time since their original online purchase.

Some other fascinating info can be viewed in the 'Online Shopping Cities' press release.

Learn more about Women and Web Marketing.

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