Ecommerce & Web Marketing Research: May 11 -20 2005

Would you like to receive regular email updates of my ecommerce and marketing research, plus news of additions to the site? Subscribe today for free via the form in the right hand column of this page!

Return to research index

19 May 2005

Top gaining online categories

ComScore, in their latest Media Metrix report, has reported the following categories as being the leaders in unique USA visitor gain over the last month.

The growth in career services over March/April coincides with upcoming graduations in many universities during May

Read more of the April comScore Media Metrix Rankings

18 May 2005

Just how big is the indexed web?

According to A. Gulli (University of Pisa) and A. Signorini (University of Iowa), the indexable web was more than 11.5 billion pages at the end of January 2005. "Indexable web" refers to the pages can that can be reached and indexed by search engine robots (aka spiders). The 11.5 billion estimate doesn't include many billions of other pages that search engines are unable to spider.

The report is very interesting reading, and also includes data on the overlap of Google, MSN, Ask/Teoma and Yahoo! If you're anything like me, have a couple of aspirins now to help you work through the formulae they used to arrive at their conclusion.

Download a copy of the report. (pdf 135kb)

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

17 May 2005

Real estate sites achieving substantial growth

A report released by Nielsen Netratings states that real estate web sites have gained 26 percent growth in visitor rates over the last 6 months. 15 percent of active Internet users reported visiting a real estate/rentals web site during April 2005. Realtor.com attracted nearly six million unique visitors during the month with Home Gain second at 3 million visitors. Of the big players, The largest growth rate (212%) was achieved by AOL Real Estate, followed by ForSaleByOwner.com at 142%

Read more of this report (pdf 150kb)

14 May 2005

Nearly 75% of US adults online

According to Harris Interactive, the number of adults in the USA who participate in online activities has grown to 163 million.  54% of online adults use broadband at home.

Historical data - numbers of US adults online:

Read more

Keyword prices March vs April 2005

Prices paid for search engine keywords increased on average 11 percent from April 1-30, according to the Fathom Online Keyword Price Index.

March-April search engine keyword price movements

New to PPC advertising? Read our guide

Pay per click fraud strategies and tools.

Minimizing the cost of pay per click.

Got Keywords? Free trial! Word Tracker offers a database of over 300 million keywords, plus powerful tools to help you target the right keywords & phrases for your site. :: Need some tips on keywords and search engine optimization? Try our keywords strategy guide.

12 May 2005

AOL enters the free email industry

America Online is about to offer free email - the new service with its new version of AIM - a popular Internet Messaging software package.

The mail service will offer 2 GB of storage, spam filters, anti-virus protection and a host of other features. AOL will generate revenue via ads that accompany the email interface. 

Great, just what we need - more automated AOL spam complaints generated by people who can't be bothered clicking unsubscribe links!

Read more

Autoresponder software  & mailing list managers Get more from your email marketing - tips, reviews  & free trial software/services.

Web@work study results

A WebSense study has revealed that a majority of employees would soon give up their morning coffee than their usage of the Internet at work for personal activities. I'm glad I wasn't surveyed, I would have taken a panic attack at merely the suggestion of giving up either :).

The Web@work survey also showed:

• 93% of employees said they spend time accessing the Internet from work.

• Those who admitted to accessing non-work related sites from their place of employment spent on average 3.4 hours a week in personal surfing.

• 48% stated they use the internet at work only for work-related tasks. 

• More male employees engage in personal surfing at work than female employees.

• IT decision-makers estimate that six percent of an organization’s total disk space is taken up by non work-related files.

• The most popular categories of non work-related sites accessed at work are news, personal email, online banking, travel and shopping respectively.

Read more of the Web@Work study

Mother's day generates billions in online purchases

Mother’s Day related sales generated over $4 billion dollars from April 25 to May 8, according to a report released by Verisign.

This represents an increase in online spending of 24 percent for the same period in 2004. Other key findings

• Jewelry sales increased 79% over 2004
• Candy sales were flat
• Online sales of flowers decreased 13%
• Over 54.8 million transactions were recorded, which is 31% more than last year
• May 2 was the peak day for online sales, accounting for $473 million dollars in transactions

Read more of the Mother’s Day-Period Online Shopping Activity report.

Return to research index

Free ecommerce magazines! Totally free Internet industry print magazines! No obligation to buy, no shipping fees, no hidden conditions - delivered to your door! Dozens of free magazine subscriptions! NEW!! - Visit our web templates store Great designs for your site. Professional design, also logo templates and flash intros. Compatible with FrontPage, Dreamweaver and Photoshop. Download a template today! Autoresponder software guide/reviews An all-in-one mailing list manager and autoresponder software solutions review. Ecommerce - The Internet's best shopping carts & web marketing solutions Powerful, easy to implement shopping cart with full web marketing modules, including affiliate program functionality. Our review includes free & low cost carts & ecommerce solutions. Looking for tools for writing/creating a web  development or marketing proposal?

Home