Ecommerce & Web Marketing Research: April 21 -30 2005

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April 28 2005

Report - a decade of online advertising

2004 marked a decade of web advertising and ad network DoubleClick had been around for most of that time. DoubleClick, with data sourced from various other companies including Nielsen Netratings have compiled an interesting report on the history of the online advertising industry, where it is now and what they believe the future holds. 

The report can be summed up with 3 key conclusions

• A seller’s market is emerging in online
  advertising.

• Marketers are demanding more
  accountability.

• Consumers are demanding more control.

Read DoubleClick’s The Decade in Online Advertising, 1994-2004 (PDF 1 megabyte)

"Save the cookie" group formed

Last month I made mention of the apparently increasing trend of people deleting cookies from their computers on a regular basis. This has an impact on site functionality and marketing measurements. Not only that, but for those of us who generate income through affiliate programs, it can mean a loss of commissions as most affiliate programs are cookie based.

Over a dozen ad networks have recently banded together to form SafeCount. The goal of SafeCount is to advocate the use of consumer friendly measurement systems while maintaining strong opposition to Spyware

Learn more about SafeCount

Related articles

Stealware - software hijacking commissions
Successful affiliate marketing
Affiliate Marketing Survival Strategies 
Affiliate Programs - working with merchants

April 26 2005

Novel way to gain media exposure for online business

Opera Software, the authors of that "other" browser, found a great way to gain media exposure for the release of the new version of Opera. According to the National Business Review, Opera's CEO stated that if the new version of Opera was downloaded 1 million times within 4 days of its release, he'd swim from Norway to the USA. The media dived on it, 1 million downloads were exceeded and the CEO took a dip - but didn't quite make it to the USA.

The resulting traffic from this marketing ploy reportedly bogged down the Opera site; which sort of defeats the purpose of the stunt. Still, it was a clever strategy; and the exposure saved them a stack of advertising money. It just goes to show how thinking outside the box and a simple idea can benefit your marketing. Maybe Opera can spend their savings on better servers to cope with the traffic next time :).

While on this subject - if TTB.net gets a million visitors over the next month, I'll go and do the weeding in front yard wearing nothing but my Akubra hat, my Blundstone boots and a smile.

..hmm.. no calls from the media yet - perhaps that's something that no-one really wants to see? :)

More details on Internet Explorer 7

On IEBlog, the Microsoft Internet Explorer Weblog; some further details have been posted regarding the upcoming release of IE7. I mentioned a few days ago that aside from improvements to security, tabbed browsing would be a new feature. Some other improvements that will bring joy to developers is better PNG support and a stricter adherence to CSS standards. IEBlog is the place to watch for further information. Internet Explorer 7 is due to be released sometime during the USA summer.

April 25 2005

Email impacts IQ more than pot?

I had to smile, giggle and fend off the munchies while reading this :). According to an article on CNN regarding a British study, the distractions caused by email, phone calls and SMS messages have a greater negative impact on  IQ than smoking pot.

Firstly, I don't think the comparison is such a good thing as it somewhat trivializes the very serious topic of drug abuse. I have to admit that it is an excellent way to grab the attention of all pot smoking email addicts :). Oops, and there I go....

At any rate, I would agree that the "always on" mode that we tend to work under these days does have a serious impact on our concentration, short term memory and general well being. We seemed to be inundated with so much disposable knowledge, that it's becoming difficult to retain what we should. 

I find it increasingly challenging to stay focused on tasks and I had just put it down to old age (I'm 35), but when I'm away from the bulk of distractions, I find that my mood and short-term memory improves dramatically, as does my creativity. 

As I look around me at the various gadgets and mediums I use for communicating and staying abreast of industry happenings; I am always left pondering - has technology really improved our lives or just created a different kind of slavery? If you feel the same, perhaps it's time we re-evaluate *how* we use technology. After all, we may want to run an online business, but we don't want the online business running us :).

April 24 2005

New article - Nigerian scams and ecommerce

Most of the Nigerian scams we've become familiar with over the years involve scammers siphoning money from gullible and greedy individuals. Things are changing; the scammers are getting smarter and are now fleecing ecommerce merchants through the recruitment of Western "shipping clerks"

Read Nigerian scams affecting ecommerce

April 22 2005

Web capturing classifieds growth from print

Things aren't looking too rosy for newspaper classifieds in the years ahead. According to a report on Adage, if the current trend of employment related classifieds being increasingly posted online were to spread to automotive and real-estate classifieds, it could cost newspapers 9% ($4 billion) of their total ad revenues by 2007. 

Personally, I think this forecast will come to fruition. A couple of issues holding back online real estate advertising up until recently has been a) ignorance on the part of realtors b) bandwidth issues - real estate advertising is a very visual thing. 

With realtors now realizing the power and economy of advertising via the web and broadband now in wide use, I would hate to be a classified ads account manager of any newspaper. It's going to become a much tougher job in the near future.

Read the AdAge report

IE with tabbed browsing? Bless you Bill!!

According to an article on InternetWeek, Internet Explorer may soon have tabbed browsing features after a beta run via the new MSN toolbar suite. In the debates I've had with many about FireFox vs. IE, this is one particular point of contention that stops me dead as it is a *great* feature that should have been introduced in IE 6. According to the rumors, only Internet Explorer 7, which will only run on XP Service Pack 2, will have the tabbed browsing feature. It will not be offered as an IE 6 patch or upgrade.

Read more 

Google offers personalized search history

In a bid to keep ahead of competitors MSN and Yahoo, Google is now offering My Search History; a feature where users can check back through their search history. It can also provide history while searching; e.g the last time a page was viewed and how often it's been viewed.

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

Grey powered Australian ecommerce

Think that it's the younger generation or middle aged men who will be the prime online spenders for some time to come? It may be time to think again. It seems that mature age women will be the leading spenders in the years ahead according to a recent study by economist Yuwa Hedrick-Wong. According to Hedrick-Wong; Australia's ageing female population and the more prominent role of women in the workforce will increase their spending power from approximately $36 billion to over $43 billion by 2012. Given that the USA has the same challenges with an ageing population, I expect a similar trend to occur there as well.

Read more

Related - marketing to women on the web 

China's broadband growth to surge

Although China lags behind other Asian countries at present in terms of broadband penetration, this is expect to rapidly change in the coming years. According to Strategy Analytics, China has a market of over 400 million homes and by 2010, it will account for 64 percent of all residential broadband users in the Asia-Pacific region.

Currently 77 percent of South Korean homes and over 50 percent of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore homes are broadband connected.

Read more

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