Some Internet Triva For Ya

• In 2008 there were 28 million new domain names registered.
  
• At the end of 2008 there were a total of 177 million Top Level Domains in existence
• In order the 5 largest domain extensions were .com, .cn, .de, .net and .org
• 2008 represented a 16% growth in new domains.  The largest ever.

 177 Million didn't seem like a lot to me, given the number of people on the planet.  I guess I assumed that everyone had a couple of domains.  What IS big however is that 28 million new domains were registered last year.  I don't think that the fellas at Rand, MIT and UCLA could have possibly envisioned the colossal entity that was in it's infancy.

Today, I think that it's pretty safe to say that the internet has changed the way we live our lives.  Research,  shopping, entertainment, work and so on.  If you own a business, the real question is whether or not you are using the internet to maximize your business potential.  It's not just for eBay anymore.

If you are still with me here on The Big Bald Blog, thanks for hanging around during this time of inactivity. 

Be back soon.

Pops

 

More Spammers Get The Smackdown

Here's another tasty bit of internet justice. Hot off the presses from ComputerWorld.com, a couple just got hammered with a... (dramatic pause) ...$256 MILLION fine for inundating people with junk email.

"Henry Perez and his wife Suzanne Bartok were ordered to pay the damages -- amounting to US$10 per bulk e-mail -- following a four-year court case in which the judge found that they had bombarded CIS Internet Services of Clinton, Iowa, over a four-month period in 2003."

It's probably a safe bet that CIS will never see any of that money but it feels good to hear about spammers getting what they deserve. Evidently, CIS was getting hit so hard, the massive amount of emails they received ate away at their bandwidth. So much so, that they ended up loosing about 3800 customers in 3 years even after buying dedicated servers to keep the spam at bay.

ComputerWorld reports that "...CIS has filed suit against many spammers and so far it has received about 10 judgments in its favor, Kramer said. Collecting the money has proven to be difficult, however. Many of the spammers have gone out of business, moved their money overseas or simply hidden from sight..." At least they can't do business as normal or as easy as they once did.

I always wondered how Hormel feels about "Spam" being used in such a derrogatory manner. I would think it kind of puts a damper on the marketing of such a fine product.

 

Internet Ad Spending Report

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently released information on Internet ad spending. Internet advertising revenues reached $5.8 billion for the first quarter of 2008. These numbers represent an 18.2 percent increase over the same period in 2007, and represent the second highest quarter ever recorded, after Q4 2007’s $5.9 billion.

“We continue to experience significant growth and vitality in interactive marketing, media and advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “We expect growth to continue, as consumers spend more and more time online, and marketers find more – and more innovative – ways to reach them through digital media.”

This is what they were saying in Q1. When we take a look at the 6 month numbers they have fallen off pretty sharply. Compared to the same 6 months of 2007 we are only at about an 8% increase due to a 3.7% decrease (vs. 2007) in Q2.

But where is this money coming from? Is it magically appearing from the government printing presses? No, of course not, this isn't a corporate welfare bailout, it being diverted from other mainstream media outlets.

"Spot TV spending dropped 4.4 percent as reductions in automotive, retail and telecommunications advertising offset gains from political spending. Network TV fell 2.4 percent on weaker prime time results. Newspaper media slipped 7.4 percent and radio media decreased 6.5 percent on further slowdowns in spending from auto, financial, retail and telecom categories." via

Notice the most significant decrease. Yep, newspaper. Many of you know that for some time I have been predicting the death of newsprint as we know it. Trends like this continue to support my theories.

Bottom line? Explore how advertising online can benefit your company. The formula is simple. Plan, plan, execute and track. Soon you will realize that an reallocation of dollars from newsprint and yellow pages has not hurt your business, but helped.

 

How Much Is 1 Trillion. A LOT

According to Google's reporting, in their index, there are over 1 trillion URL's with unique content on the Internet right now. Are you kidding me? A Trillion?

I don't think that most of us can comprehend 1 trillion. That is such an enormous number I think some quick facts are in order for you to understand the scope.

• The USA has not existed for one trillion seconds yet
• One trillion looks like this - 1,000,000,000,000
• Western civilization has not been around for 1 trillion seconds yet
• 1 Trillion seconds ago Neanderthals walked the Earth
• If you had a trillion dollars and you spent 1 dollar a second, it would take you 31,600 years to spend it all.

Got your head around it yet?

According to the gurus over at the big G, "Google downloads the web continuously, collecting updated page information and re-processing the entire web-link graph several times per day." Yes you read it right, GOOGLE DOWNLOADS THE WEB. Over one trillion URLs worth of downloading.

Let me ask this. If everyday Google maps out the internet, how many petabytes or exabytes (both bigger than a terabyte) of data does that download represent? What about the future? Since the Internet is growing by billions of pages per day, can one company be big enough to handle it all? Do we want one company to handle it all?

But more importantly, what happens when Skynet takes over after becoming self aware and the machines start to round us all up?

 

Spam Will Eventually Kill Ya.

From the Net - Eddie Davidson was convicted as a spammer. He was caught sending out spam promoting certain penny stocks as a good investment. Because of his involvement in the operation, Davidson was sentence to 21 months in a federal prison.

After serving only 2 months of his 21 month sentence, he escaped. Just 4 days after he escaped from the federal minimum security prison he was found dead from a self inflicted gun shot wound.

Davidson had been cooperating with the FBI and acting as a consultant prior to his escape.

Karma?

 

NY Comcast To Block Child Pornography

New York ISP, Comcast, is planning to sign an agreement stating that they will block access to all newsgroups and websites that have been found to distribute child pornography. The agreement was drafted by NY Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo and has been signed by all the big ISP's in the NY area. Comcast was one of the last ones to come on board. According to Mike Sachoff at WPN "...internet service providers including Verizon, Sprint, AOL, AT&T and Time Warner Cable, all signed an agreement to block access to Web sites that distribute child porn."

This is a significant step forward in policing our Internet and keeping it safe. However, the problem that I have with all this is that it's a misguided effort and isn't eliminating the source of the problem. All the sicko criminals have to do is put up a new site and it's business as usual. Evidently the Cuomo camp has done an extensive, undercover, investigation and identified numerous sites and newsgroups. Though these are identified now, this doesn't identify and block the new sites that will crop up. I appreciate all the hard work that everyone went through but it really seems ineffective to me. Again this is not cutting the snakes head off, just a small portion of it's tail.

Here's another thing that I didn't necessarily agree with. Cuomo apparently sent a letter to Comcast saying that they would take legal action if they didn't sign the agreement within 5 days. OK, here's where I have a problem. Comcast is NOT the one distributing the porn yet they were going to seek legal action against them. I DO agree with the blockade but holding an ISP accountable for what is on the Internet is absolutely asinine. It's like holing the Diamond Match Company liable for forest fires or gun manufacturers liable for gun crime (the anti-gun crowd actually tried this).

Now, if a hosting company is knowingly hosting a child porn site, then that is a different story and they SHOULD be held accountable. Granted we do a lot already to police the internet and try and protect our children, but what good did this last bit really do? Yeah, it blocked the other sickos from accessing the porn and potentially re-distributing it but were the dollars spent on the undercover investigation really effective? Did they really accomplish something significant here?

What say you?

 

It's Getting Foxy Around Here

Firefox 3.0 is out! OH, you aren't using the Fox yet? So what are you using, IE? Silly person, check out what you have been missing.

In case you need some more data, here are the numbers.

• In the first 24 hours over 8 million people downloaded FF 3.0 to set a new world record
• Firefox is said to have cured ringworm in 29% of the cases
• As of today almost 12 million have downloaded it since "download day" on June 17th
• Studies have shown that the installation of Firefox on a computer reduces the chance of ingrown toenails by 42%
  
• There have been almost 600 million downloads to date. The 500 million mark was hit on Feb 21st 2008.
• People who use FireFox are reported to have minor hair growth in areas where there once was no hair.

So there you have it. What are you waiting for.

 

Advertising In Things That Are Printed On Pulp

I am specifically referring to the newspaper and the yellow pages. How much do you spend on advertising in the yellow pages? Are there 2 or 3 yellow page books in your market and are you in all of them? Does the newspaper work for you?

I have published several posts about the death of newspaper and how the industry is in turmoil. Newspapers across the country have been taking hits in circulation and ad revenue for the last 10 years.

I was thinking about how information was disseminated recently, during all the flooding. People were desperately seeking information about weather, water levels, evacuations etc. Those that could, got online to find out the latest information. They didn't wait for the newspaper or turn on the TV. Granted this was a time of crisis and people needed information rapidly. I would propose that this instant need for information is not isolated to times of crisis. After all, we are in the age of instant information and a low deferment of gratification.

If consumers have to wait for information they are going to move on to the next source as fast as they can and we all know how the Internet has, well you know, a bunch of sources (reliability to be determined). For this very reason, companies that charge more for their services and don't have an auto attendant on their phone system will often times get more business. Customers want to talk to people, and they want information now.

But what about the yellow pages? Isn't this fast enough? There is still a following for the good ole' phone directory, but do you need a $3000 per month ad? I say NO. As part of a long term plan, we have been systematically pruning back every one of our client's yellow page ads with zero effect on the amount of calls they receive from the pulpy paperback. The dollars saved from this reduction have been allocated to other forms of advertising and marketing (mainly the web) and have been more successful from an ROI standpoint.

When I need a service, if I absolutely CAN'T find it on the internet, only then do I blow the dust off my 2004 yellow pages. Most of the generation behind me also operates this way. The bottom line? Take a leap of faith and cut your half page yellow page ad to a 1/4 page and track the results. You will be pleasantly surprised. BUT, you have to be disciplined to take the dollars saved and apply them to areas that WILL get you results. The same thing goes with newspaper. Limit your display ads to event or promotion based ads and see what you end up with.

If you get nothing else from this post take this one piece of information. Track your results. When someone buys something from you, ALWAYS ask them how they heard about you. Keep a log and evaluate your most effective means of advertising on an annual basis. Be diligent about this. So many business owners set out to do this but never end up following through. They are missing some valuable information by neglecting this simple little tool.

If you have a story about your reduction in yellow page spending or how you are handling your newsprint ads, let me know about your results.

 

People Don't Like Being Watched

According to a recent survey by Truste, people don't like to have their internet activities monitored. I think that this falls into the "that's obvious" category. That's like a survey reporting that an overwhelming majority of US citizens don't like ingrown toenails. Yeah, we kind of assumed that.

71% of the people in the survey acknowledged that companies track their Web browsing activities but 57% said they are NOT OK with the practice, even if they know that their browsing history can't be linked to their names. That is much lower than I expected. I guess more people are OK with big brother watching.

What can a person do to prevent tracking? One thing you can do is clear your cookies. I am not talking about the double chocolate, chocolate chip, chocolate frosted cookies in the 3 drawer on on the right, clear to the back (my wife hides them, but I found the stash). I am talking about your browser cookies. Run your AdWare/SpyWare software frequently and clean out your cookies for a more anonymous online experience.

Online Media Daily says that "...state lawmakers in New York and Connecticut are mulling legislation that would regulate online tracking, and as the Federal Trade Commission is considering new behavioral targeting guidelines." This raises a question in my mind. How much anonymity should we expect when surfing? Should we expect as much as we do when we make a purchase with case in a retail store? At least security cameras see you when you are in a store. I don't think I have an opinion yet on anonymous surfing. What do you think?

Oh and I recently learned that if you send an email from your Hotmail account, it logs the IP of the machine that you are sending it from and includes that in the email header. AND DON'T ASK ME WHY I KNOW THAT NOW.

Tune in tomorrow for the latest edition of "The Advertising of Yesterday."

 

Wonderful News About U.S. Broadband

As if it wasn't bad enough, the U.S. has now slipped to 15th in total broadband access. YES!

Twenty-six countries have advertised DSL speeds, putting the US just ahead of Mexico, Turkey, and Poland. Now, in addition to the billions of dollars in money that we give illegals, they can now experience a faster and less expensive Internet experience. Viva la telco!

Most of us remember the $200 million telco green weenie. Even now, as technology is getting cheaper, we are still engaged in a backslide.

"The fastest advertised download speed in the US was 50 Mbps, half of what is available in Finland, France, South Korea and Sweden, and dwarfed by 1Gbps available in Japan." - Via Jason Lee Miller

I am sorry if I continue to beat this dead horse. I am just tired of the lack of Internet options and the abysmal speeds that I have to put up with. It is only going to get worse until the US embraces a fundamental thinking shift and is willing to embrace a national technology policy and a large scope broadband integration policy. Until then, we will continue to fall short in our technology offerings and will continue to loose our advantage and our ability to compete in the global market.

OK, I am done ranting now. I am off to the woods for the weekend and I'll be back on Tuesday! I do have a post planned for tomorrow with a great ad from 1965 so make sure you check back. Have a good Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

 

So You Want To Start An Internet Business

Have I got an opportunity for you. I know that sounded like 1970 car salesman, but this is a serious opportunity. AND it will literally cost you nothing. No this isn't a get rich quick scheme or a "no money down" real estate program.

This is a legitimate online business selling a valuable and reliable online file storage product.

And it's called...



Stockade is a company that provides online file storage, data restoration and disaster recovery services. But here's the best part. For those of you interested in starting a business online, you can do it with Stockade. All you need to do is become a reseller and add this service to what you are already doing and you will earn 30% on all sales. AND you don't have to spend a dime to do it. You heard it right, it doesn't cost you anything. They will set you up with your own branded site, give you all the tools you need and they will do all the marketing for you. Folks, it doesn't get much better than that.

Not only are you making money as a reseller, you are providing some real value to the end users. This can be a revenue stream that supplements your existing services or you can work it full time. Either way you cut it, there are some real benefits of becoming a reseller.

• Provide a valuable service for your customers
• Generate a subscription-based, recurring revenue stream for your business
• No capital outlay for your business to get started
• Customized client software embedded with your reseller ID
• Stockade website and unique url for your new offering
• Easy to sell
• Easy for your customers to deploy
• Great profit margin
• Provided infrastructure and technical support

Every company, big or small, needs to have a off-site electronic file backup plan as part of a bigger disaster recovery program. Too often as a company grows, the need for a data restoration solution is often forgotten. This is where Stockade can help.

• Backups are stored off site in a secure, world-class data center
• Redundant copy stored in a second data center over 500 miles away
• Reduces human error through automation
• Eliminates the frustration associated with handling tapes
• All stored data is encrypted using 256bit AES encryption – only your customer has the passphrase to un-encrypt the data
• Addresses HIPAA, GLBA and Sarbanes Oxley offsite data storage compliance
• Easy restoration of data
• Economical

Stockade takes the worry out of backing up critical data. The Stockade solution takes the human element out of the process by automatically sending the compressed and encrypted backup files off site to a secure, world-class data center via the Internet. From there a customer has total control of their files. AND as an added bonus, stockade offers a risk free trial at no charge. Don't like it? Pay nothing. The customer has nothing to loose.

To find out how to become an online backup reseller, click the ad at the right and sign up for more information today.

 

It's Nice To Hear Someone Else Say It.

For years I have have been saying that less is more when it comes to advertising. Print ads, direct mail and corporate collateral need to have a minimalist approach when it comes to copy.

Get your message across and move on to the next touch. But nooooooo, people don't like to listen to Big Pappa. Maybe because I ate too many cream cheese danishes when I was a kid. Maybe they don't like my bald head. Bald chubbiness aside, you can now listen to me! Why? Because other people with big names are backing up what I have been saying all along.

Jakob Nielsen, referred to as the "guru of web page usability" by the New York times, claims that " On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely." Eye tracking studies only confirm what Nielsen is talking about. Headlines and keywords all get scanned very rapidly allowing the user to determine if they want to dig deeper.



One big stat in the cited research was the maximum amount of text that a user was even able to read. As it turns out, a web browser, is only able to read at most 28% of the text if they spend the "normal" amount of time on any one of your site's pages. But more importantly, "users read half the information only on pages with 111 words or less."

So what does this mean? Well, the way I see it, there are several things you can do to increase the probability that your content will get read.

• Focus on engaging headlines and "pull outs."
• Use "read more buttons" more frequently. This will give the user the opportunity to choose whether or not they want to go deeper
• Find out what your customers want to know and give them just a touch less than that. This will illicit a contact and that is where sales begin.
  

Some other fundamental concepts that I have been trying to convey for years - The newest generations of internet users want information as easy to get to as possible and they want it NOW. This same generation is typically lazy and won't read everything you intend for them.

The challenge of course is keeping your content short and maintaining the appropriate levels of keyword density.

"If you target a broader audience or have sales cycles that are shorter than 5 years, you'd be wise to put your word count on a strict diet," said Nielsen. Well said sir. You have once again restored my faith in humanity and have added legitimacy to the one they call Big Pops.

I know this is a random closing thought, but as I was looking through some of the research, I came across this 1999 article about the top 10 design mistakes. For some reason I am obsessing about #2. He says that you shouldn't have links open in a new window. Given the fact this was written in 1999 before the invention of tabbed browsing, I will give him a little slack.

I completely disagree with this point. Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I want things to open in a new window/tab. In fact, I am so used to using ctrl+T, ctrl+W and ctrl+left click in FireFox that I don't think I could go back to old school browsing.

I like it when PDF's open in a new window. I like to be able to open the first 10 results of a SERP in a new tab and hit ctrl+w when I realize that there is nothing of interest on that page. I like my original window to stay in tact and to be able to go back to it when I want to. Especially if the page has a LOT of links that I want to explore.

What do you think? Do you like to have links open in a new window/tab? Let your voice be heard. Big Pappa wants to know.

 

Online Ad Spending Is Up - No Kidding?

Is it really any shock to hear that Internet advertising is up again this year?

For the 8th consecutive year, the number of dollars spent on Internet advertising has again gone up. In fact, the amount of money that advertisers spent on Internet related ads was the leading increase with 18.9% more than any other media category increase according to Nielsen. The next closest thing to the Internet was national magazines with only a 7.6% increase.

Newspaper advertising has shown a steady decline year after year and in a post about the impact of the Internet on newspapers I wrote almost a year ago, I asked the question; "will we see the death of a media in our generation?" Again, there was a decline in newsprint ad revenue which equaled over 7.5% which is up from last year's 5% decrease.

The one big surprise for me in 2007 was the increased dollars that are being spent on outdoor advertising. Normally when I hear outdoor I immediately think of traditional billboards. Now there are these fancy new-fangled digital billboards that have the capability of switching out the message very quickly to accommodate sales or whatever may be an immediate and time sensitive call to action. I have noticed that companies are also spending more money on things like vehicle wraps. From city buses to company cars, this too can be considered outdoor advertising.

According to Forrester Research, online spending is expected to hit $204 Billion, this year. Yes I said billion. The 3 big "C's" are going to continue to dominate the online market; clothes, computers and cars. The 3 of those combined will account for over 1/3 of all online sales or $70 billion.

Here's another interesting tid-bit from the recent surveys. Free shipping, a big draw in past is garnering less interest on both the consumer and the retailer levels. With the increase in ad AND consumer spending, we may see free shipping go bye bye for a while. However, I do think that it will surface frequently. After all the .99 cents or 99 dollars on almost all consumer goods has never gone away.

One last fact about demographics and online behavior and then I will leave you to your day.

"The casual shopper goes online to look for the best price, leveraging the transparency of the Internet to save money. However, more affluent customers appreciate the convenience of shopping online and are not necessarily looking for the best deal. Retailers would be wise to recognize there are significant opportunities within both audiences and should market to them accordingly." Via Forrester

Yeah, I still think this Internet thing is a fad. You'll have to pry my CB radio from my cold dead hands.

 

Don't You Just Love Spam?

I have certain customers that love to sign up for "free offers" on the internet with their primary email address. About a week after they sign up for the "once in a lifetime deal", I get a call and listen to the woes of a person afflicted with self imposed "spamalotis." Yes I just made that up. Spamalotis is not really a word, but I bet The Big Bald Blog will index really well for it in a few days. But I digress.

Most of the time, I explain to them that all it takes is for their email address to get on one list, and it's all downhill from there. It seems like common sense but here are some things that you can do to avoid getting spam.

Don't take any "free IQ tests." This one seems to be the inbox killer that most people fall for. If you HAVE TO provide your email address to complete an online transaction or you want to sign up for something, USE AN ALTERNATE EMAIL. Go get yourself a Hotmail, Yahoo, or Gmail and use that email every time you are required to provide an email address. Save your primary email address for professional correspondence.

ITnews reports that a new spam site is found every 3 seconds. "New figures suggest that 92.3 percent of all email sent globally during the first three months of 2008 was spam." Yes you read that right. 92.3% of all the email sent was spam. Wow, what a staggering amount. "The data from the study also indicated that 23,300 new spam-related web pages were created every day during the period, or one about every three seconds."

I have a discussion board on another site and I always thought it was strange that I got a ton of spammy sign-ups from .ru domains. The ITnews report also said that, "...the number of spam messages sent from compromised Russian computers has more than doubled over the past year.

In the first quarter of 2007, Russia was in tenth position in the chart, relaying just three per cent of the world’s spam. Today this figure stands at 7.4 percent."

There are all kinds of free spam killer options out there as well as ones you pay for, but the more you protect your primary email address the better off you will be.

 

How Fast Do You Down?

Most of us know that the internet in the US is much slower than the rest of the world that has what we could call an equal amount of development.

Since the Telcos welched on their bargain to add those 200 billion (said with your pinky finger at the corner of your mouth) tax deferred dollars into the US infrastructure, we are behind most of the countries of similar status.

Here at the office I have a DSL by Qwest, it does OK and I regularly get about 2.5mbps down. This is not as good as the neighboring community who has a muni that offers 3 times that speed for a touch less than what I am paying.

So here's my question. What kind of internet do you have? Speed and ISP?

 

Using Non Domain Based Emails For Business

Here's my opinion. You want to hear it because I know everything, right? Not really, but I do have some strong feelings on this subject. Very similar to my feelings on printing your own business cards on the perforated Avery stock and using an ink jet printer.

IF you have a business, AND you have a website and your own domain, you should NOT be using a Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL or other free email service. I don't care if you have had your email address, mycoolcamaro49@hotmail.com for 15 years, DON'T use it when corresponding professionally with clients. This chips away at your legitimacy. Take an extra 10 minutes and set up an email address through your control panel or have your hosting company do it for you if you don't know how.

All I know is that if you send me an email from sirpimpsalot@aol.com and expect me to buy something from your company, you have already lost my business. (unless of course you are selling pimp hats.)

So tell me what do YOU think on the subject.

 

Hotlink Protection Engaged

You don't know what I am talking about? OK, here is a little background. Bandwidth theft or "hotlinking" is direct linking to a web site's files (images, video, etc.) so it will appear on your own site, eBay auction listing, weblog, forum message post, etc. as if it were your own.

Instead of having src="theimageonmysite.jpg" you have it like this: src="http://www.thisisnotmysite.com/theimage.jpg". This is not good.

There are several reasons that you shouldn't do this.
#1 - Hotlinking uses someone else's bandwidth to serve up the image on your page. This is bad form.
#2 - If all of your images on your site are from other websites it will take longer for your site to load. This too is bad form
#3 - The person you are hot linking to can take down the image or switch it with another image that is named the same thing. For example. This is the image that has been getting leeched on.



I COULD take this image called "sad-puppy-762578.JPG" and replace it with a file that is named the same but is a really naughty image or something that's really disgusting. AND, given the amount of people linking to this, it would take quite a while for everyone using it to realize what happened. However, since I am a nice guy and this would be bad form on MY part, I opted for a different route.

Yesterday I had to turn on my "hotlink protection." This prevents the aforementioned bandwidth theft. It's sad that I had to resort to this. The users over at Jappy.de ruined it for everyone by leeching my bandwidth. I was playing nice until, literally, 100's of people from Jappy.de started hotlinking to images on my blog. I had more hits from Jappy.de/whatevertheprofilewas than I could count.

If you had a link to an image or video hosted on my site and you are a "friend" let me know and I will allow you as a friendly site. I like to play nice, I really do. Do you still love me?

 

No More Domain Tasting

Domain tasting is NO MOE! YES!

I have always wondered why ICANN allowed this "try before you buy" policy in the first place.

What is domain tasting you ask? It is the process of registering (temporarily) a domain to determine it's "financial viability". Basically, you monetize the heck of it to see how well it does. If the domain didn't pass the test, the owner had a 5 day grace period in which he could get a refund. The ones that do good, are retained by the registrant.

Now, you all have seen these "financial viability test sites" pop up in searches. You are searching for your favorite whatever and perhaps you misspell the word or maybe you don't. Either way, included in your results page is a link to a page that has absolutely nothing to do what what you are looking for except that it may have your keyword on there as a link to something else.

Wikipedia states, "In April 2006, out of 35 million registrations, only a little more than 2 million were permanent or actually purchased. By February 2007, the CEO of GoDaddy reported that of 55.1 million domain names registered, 51.5 million were canceled and refunded just before the 5 day grace period expired and only 3.6 million domain names were actually kept."

According to ICANN, this whole process was initially designed to help people out who made a typo in the registration of their domain. Of course, as you can tell from the above numbers, people soon began to exploit this clause of generosity.

DotSauce.com reports that a unanimous vote of 13-0 turned the once flexible rule into a thing of the past.

"The discussion was sparked in response to the scandalous practice of Network Solutions hijacking domain searches in recent weeks. Oddly enough, the industry can be thankful to Net Sol for getting the snowball rolling on the end of domain tasting."

So what does this mean for regular Joe Surfer? Better quality results? I hope so but we will have to wait and see. One thing is for sure, there may be glut of "bad tasting" domain names that will soon come up for sale on the secondary market. And I bet that it will dramatically cut down on the amount of "typo squatting." (FYI - That anchor text is going to www.budwiser.com, an obvious typo.)

 

Hacking For Dummies

This post is being guest blogged by
computer engineer and published
author Steve Clark.

An interview with a pair of well-known security researchers uncovered an extraordinary view of the ecosystem that supports the phishing effort that plagues modern day financial institutions and their customers.

http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=1110&p=1

"The reality is pre-made, ready-to-deploy, turnkey sites are already created for practically every major organization that you can think of.
All a phisher has to do is purchase the latest kit and deploy, no technical expertise or coding skills are really required. All the phisher typically has to do is place their email address into one line of code and they have a ready to deploy phishing site."

Once the 'turnkey' code has been modified with the correct email address, the whole site is simply uploaded to a compromised host on the internet.

Users receive an email that looks like it comes from a well known company (paypal.com for example) requesting the user to update their account status or whatever. Instead of going to the real website, the link leads them to the compromised website (which looks identical to the real one due to the turnkey phishing software that has become readily available), and are tricked into entering their account info which then gets emailed back to the hacker.

There are other ways to trick people going to the phishing sites that do not even involve sending emails, such as modifying the user's 'host' file located in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc. This is a fairly easy hack is possible to do through back doors or vulnerabilities in many peer-to-peer file sharing programs (used for sharing mp3's and avi's). Still other methods involve monitoring the user's internet port itself and intercepting and bypassing a user's DNS queries - what's known as a 'man-in-the-middle' type of attack.

The good news is that there are ways to protect yourself. Microsoft has even started adding support for phishing attacks in its latest internet explorer version 7.0.

Microsoft Phishing Filter

It is alarming to me the ease and relative lack of computer skill that is needed to create one of these phishing websites - as well as how hackers are trading around our 'private' information like some kind of commodity.

I guess the bottom line is be careful of where you are going on the internet, it might not be where you think you're going!

Thanks for the information Steve!

 

Why Did I Get Hacked?

I didn't get hacked, I was just posing that as a hypothetical.

Most of you are familiar with the story behind David Airey's domain/site hijacking. To recap, some enterprising individual hacked his way into David's Gmail account through some exploit and proceeded to transfer away his domain and then hold it hostage. Thanks to the intervention of Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy, David was able to get his domain back from the offending party.

With that groundwork laid, what are you to do to protect your domain? Making sure your little piece of the web is safe is something that most of us take for granted. I know I sure do. Even as I sit here and look at this list of things to do, I am realizing that I am doing a few things that you are NOT supposed to be doing.

James Koole over at the TuCows blog has a list of things that you may want to pay attention to.

1. "Use WHOIS Privacy. It can protect you to a certain extent from this kind of theft. If the administrative email address that is listed with the domain name under WHOIS is exposed, then a potential domain thief has two pieces of information he needs – the domain name, and the email address used to manage it. The thief can then gain control of the email address, and then use that email address to gain control of the domain by having passwords emailed to himself. WHOIS Privacy offers some protection because it prevents the domain thief from finding out what the administrative email address is for the domain name.

2. If you can avoid it, don’t use free, web-based email addresses for your administrative contact. In this case, a security flaw in GMail allowed the hacker to gain control of the email account of the domain holder. Likewise, having your entire domain portfolio under a single administrative email account is another mistake. Never mind having one domain name stolen, if a thief gains control of your email account, he could steal your entire portfolio of names.

3. Your domain name is worth more to you than you might think. It may only cost you $10 a year to register the domain, but take a moment to imagine what the cost would be if you had to change domain names tomorrow. It could be as easy as reprinting business cards, or as difficult as re-branding your entire company.

4. Chose your Registrar wisely. Look for a Registrar with a solid Compliance team and a good record within the industry. They’ll have policy and procedures in place to protect you against domain name theft, and in the event your domain is taken from you fraudulently, you stand a better chance of getting it back with a solid registrar. Our CEO, Elliot Noss, has talked about this in the past. You can read his “Ten questions to ask before you pick your domain name Registrar” post for more information on how to make an informed choice."

I guess I have some work to do after reading this. It really doesn't matter what you do or how secure you think you are, there is always someone that is going to find a way into your stuff. But question is, what makes certain people a target? Traffic? Perceived worth? Did they anger someone? Or is it the thrill of randomly picking someone and hacking them just to see if you can do it? AND exactly how many licks DOES it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll brand Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.

 

Google is Expanding in Iowa

Even though my article on Google coming to Iowa didn't get "dugg" I was one of the first to write about it. Everything was confirmed later when I did the follow up post.

Now, some several months later, Google is in the Iowa news again. It turns out that Google was really impressed with the local talent pool that turned out for the interviews and may encourage an immediate expansion.

The Omaha World Herald reports that "Google has purchased almost 1,000 acres of rural land south of the city for a possible second site for its Council Bluffs operations, said Mark Norman of the Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce.

Part of the land is being graded and evaluated for construction, Norman said.

Google is developing other data centers across the country. But none of the announced sites is larger than the Bluffs site. The next largest site appears to be Pryor, Okla., where Google owns 800 acres. The company has 400 to 500 acres in Lenoir, N.C."

Just to give you an idea how big 1000 acres is - A square mile is only 640 acres. City officials say that " It's too soon to know how extensive Google's development will be..." but if Google is has bought up 1000 acres, I am sure they aren't doing it just to have the land. We will have to see. Regardless of the outcome, this is a good thing for Iowa. After all, this is in addition to the press we just got on American Chopper! Anyone see the ethanol powered chopper episodes?

 

Making Money Blogging

Believe it or not some people actually make money online by running a blog. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. However there are all kinds of people that do make money and lots of it. If you're a regular Joe reader of The Big Bald Blog you may not know who John Chow is, but if you are a fellow blogger, the chances are real good that you know the name. John Chow is a member of what some people call the "A List" bloggers. And quite a few of these A List bloggers make big money with their blogs through selling ads, affiliate income, paid reviews among a host of other income generating devices.

Some bloggers even post how much money they are making to substantiate their authority in the blogging niche of "making money online." John Chow, owner of JohnChow.com is one of those people. In a recent post Mr. Chow recounts his revenue received in November as well as the traffic that his blog is receiving.

John started his blog, simply as a personal blog and thought that it might be fun if he tried to make money from it. As it grew and grew, we come to where he is now, another record breaking month in revenue. Here are the numbers courtesy of John Chow's post Blog Income Report - November 2007.

Total income from November was: $27,240.83. This was broken down by category with the bulk of the dollars coming from private ad sale amounting to over $12k. Folks, this is some serious money for operating a blog. Granted this is a full time job by itself to maintain such a highly visited site, but it pays well. John also has other businesses that he owns.

I have seen big money makers like Chow and Shoemoney in the past talk about how much they are making but I always wonder what kind of traffic you need to have to sustain that type of income. Well, he addressed that too.

John reported that he was getting 323,572 page views with over 185 K visitors. He then goes on to break it down and shows that he is making over $80 per 1000 page views. ShoeMoney said that he was getting about 75 thousand uniques per day when he was sent his famous check from Google.



So there you have have it, it's all about traffic. Buy you have to network to get the traffic to come. Once you have the traffic, it's all down hill from there. But wait is it. As this post was sitting in the draft bin, Mr. Chow posted another article about this very thing. He says that "getting traffic is only half the battle and it’s not even the most important half." According to the post, John's income growth is not proportionate to traffic growth. It seems that it is all how you monetize your blog. He does say that "If your blog is new then building traffic is your number one goal."

Initially, the goal of The Big Bald Blog was simply to experiment with SEO and find out what blogging was all about. Thanks to all of YOU we have had the added bonus of traffic that continues to climb. With out YOU, the reader, TBBB would be nothing.

I keep looking for that one thing, the one thing that can really make a difference and possibly generate some income. Something as revolutionary as I discovered on Saturday. This last weekend as I was deer hunting I used what proved to be the finest innovation in hunting since the firearm.

Now I may get in trouble here from the anti-hunting crowd but for those of you who are deer hunters, you have to go and pick up something called the "Butt Out" field dressing tool. It is simply amazing and I wish I had invented it. I got it at Wal-Mart for about $10. You will have to Google it and watch the video as I don't want to post it here. Once you discover what it is, you too will agree that it is truly an innovation.

I know this was a long and rambling post, but again, I want to thank the readers of The Big Bald Blog for stopping by and making this a great adventure!

 

The Impact Of The Internet

Here's a few interesting factoids that I ran across about the Internet and how it impacts us.

• Music Albums are having a tough time going gold or higher (music "stealing")
  


• 2nd week movie attendance is dropping (from pirating I guess)
  


• Jobs are being found online for online jobs


• Declining dollars dedicated to yellow page and newsprint advertising
  

• Consumers are more knowledgeable when it comes to health care related issues
  


• People are meeting people in new and unusual ways that were never possible before
  

• Entertainment is increasingly centered around the computer monitor.
  

OK now seriously, I want to know. How has the Internet impacted you or the ones around you. I remember going to college and there wasn't anything called the Internet or email. I had to stand in line to schedule classes at one computer terminal.

What do you think. How has the Internet negatively or positively affected you?

Have a good weekend everyone. I am off to the woods to play.

 

Google: The Little Troublemaker

Back in June I did a post on how Google helped some bank robbers Crack a safe.

Now it turns out that Google can expose a deadbeat husband when he's trying to keep his lottery winnings from his wife.

The Miami Herald reports that "A woman whose husband has kept about $600,000 in lottery winnings from her says she has a number for him: half."

When Donna Campbell's husband stopped watching TV and disconnected their phone, she figured something was amiss. She finally took action when she received a post card congratulating them on their new house that she knew nothing about. Guess where she turned. Well I guess the headline gives it away. Yep Google. She searched for her husbands name and low and behold, he was in a group of lottery winners and his portion amounted to $600,000. Thanks to her sleuthing on Google, she is now filing suit against her husband to get half, or $300.000.

When confronted with, "Do you have any news you want to share with me" the husband acted ignorant and denied everything. Once the suit is won, Donna plans to file for a divorce.

Ahhhhh the power of Google!

 

Firefox Passes Internet Explorer.

Well at least in MY stats report. For the first time since I have been blogging, the browser that has accessed my website the most is Firefox.

So far this month Firefox users have hit my site 8890 times and IE users have accessed it 7379 times. I wonder what this means. I knew that Firefox was gaining ground with over 400 million downloads but I have never seen my stats reflecting the Fox as #1.



I am curious, what are you seeing on your stats? Let me know.

 

Make Money With Stockade Online Backup

Today is a historic day for The Big Bald Blog. Everyone put your hands together and welcome our very first sponsor; Stockade!

What do they do you ask. Well friends, let me tell you.

Stockade is a company that provides online file storage, data restoration and disaster recovery services. But here's the best part. For those of you interested in making money online, you can do it with Stockade. All you need to do is become a reseller and add this service to what you are already doing and you will earn 30% on all sales. AND you don't have to spend a dime to do it. You heard it right, it doesn't cost you anything. They will set you up with your own branded site, give you all the tools you need and they will do all the marketing for you. Folks, it doesn't get much better than that.

Not only are you making money as a reseller, you are providing some real value to the end users. This can be a revenue stream that supplements your existing services or you can work it full time. Either way you cut it, there are some real benefits of becoming a reseller.

• Provide a valuable service for your customers
• Generate a subscription-based, recurring revenue stream for your business
• No capital outlay for your business to get started
• Customized client software embedded with your reseller ID
• Stockade website and unique url for your new offering
• Easy to sell
• Easy for your customers to deploy
• Great profit margin
• Provided the infrastructure and technical support
  

Every company, big or small, needs to have a off-site electronic file backup plan as part of a bigger disaster recovery program. Too often as a company grows, the need for a data restoration solution is often forgotten. This is where Stockade can help.

• Backups are stored off site in a secure, world-class data center
• Redundant copy stored in a second data center over 500 miles away
• Reduces human error through automation
• Eliminates the frustration associated with handling tapes
• All stored data is encrypted using 256bit AES encryption – only your customer has the passphrase to un-encrypt the data
• Addresses HIPAA, GLBA and Sarbanes Oxley offsite data storage compliance
• Easy restoration of data
• Economical
  

Stockade takes the worry out of backing up critical data. The Stockade solution takes the human element out of the process by automatically sending the compressed and encrypted backup files off site to a secure, world-class data center via the Internet. From there a customer has total control of their files. AND as an added bonus, stockade offers a risk free trial at no charge. Don't like it? Pay nothing. The customer has nothing to loose.

The online backup services provided by Stockade are not only guaranteed to pump up your revenue generation, but it will provide some real value to your customers.

To find out how to become an online backup reseller, click the ad at the right and sign up for more information today.

 

Internet Ad Spending

Once again the reports are out and they are showing BIG numbers. According to the IAB 3rd quarter spendings set a new high at - are you ready for this - $5.2 billion. Some are claiming that the internet is on pace to break $20 billion in revenue by the end of the year. Out of the total spending, paid searches comprise 41% of the revenues.

"The continued robust growth of the industry indicates that marketers increasingly understand and appreciate the benefits of interactive advertising," said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. "Marketers large and small have come to accept digital media as the fulcrum of any marketing strategy."

With so many people having the internet at their fingertips through mobile devices and ever expanding WIFI locations, you can rest assured that this number will continue to climb until it passes most traditional forms of media.

Has the shift in your advertising budget occurred yet?

 

FIrefox Is Getting Big

Not long ago I wrote an article about Firefox reaching the 400 million download mark. This was an impressive feat and an even more impressive story. Even though it is an open source browser the frisky little fox is making some serious bank. According to an article in The New York Times, Firefox reported $66 million in revenue, 85% of which came from Google.

From Google? Yep, they have a royalty contract with Firefox that has allowed this huge influx of cash. The New York Times is asking if the money and the success could spoil the principles that Mozilla was founded on. Currently the Mozilla corporation has in excess of $74 million in assets and they don't seem to be giving too much away in the form of grants. Other than paying their CEO $500,000 + annually, what are they, a non-profit organization, going to do with all that cash? "When the connection with Google was revealed more than a year ago, the question on popular tech Web sites like Slashdot.org was whether Mozilla was acting as a proxy in Google’s larger war with Microsoft and others." So is Mozilla hording a war chest to launch some kind of big initiative? At the point where Firefox overtakes IE as the preferred browser maybe we will know what is actually in store.

Tim Wu, a law professor from Columbia University says, "“We’re living in a cold war between open and closed systems, and Google is happy to lend support to entities that it sees as allies...”

With Google gaining ground every day in terms of search numbers, stock price and revenue, it will be interesting to see what develops in the Firefox camp over the next 5 years.

Your thoughts?

 

Page Rank - Can We Stop Relying On It Already?

Page rank, page rank, page rank. It is getting tiresome to keep hearing about it. Unfortunately we live under the umbrella of Google and we have to follow their rules. Andy Beard just wrote about an article called Digg Favorites Slapped By Google. It lists several websites that, evidently, got penalized by Google for some reason or another. Paid links missing the "no follow" attribute? Who know what's behind the "best" algo in the world. Most of the sites that Andy lists are very good sites with reliable content. I guess it's a big mystery.

After all the websites penalties have been dished out for whatever reason, the average decrease in page rank was 3 points. That is a pretty big jump for someone with a PR of 6. The least shocking was John Chow getting hit again. He has been on the outs will Google for some time now. I happen to love his blog and I know he has some serious links coming in. I don't think that his traffic will suffer due to his decrease in page rank. Want to know how I know? Uhh, 16,000 RSS subscriber and growing is a good indication.

Obviously, Google still has a page rank of 10 and I have seen a bunch of PR 8 sites and a few with a PR of 9. But I ask you, have you ever seen a PR 10 website other than Google? I don't ever remember seeing one.

Is this an unobtainable number? Are they reconfiguring the web? Is a revolt on the horizon? Conspiracy theorists unite?

Just kidding. Seriously though, has anyone ever seen a PR 10 site. If you have let me know.

 

Google AdSense is Gone

Since I use Firefox, sometimes I don't see what others are seeing in IE. Yesterday it was brought to my attention that an IE user was seeing a "page can not be found" in some of the AdSense locations. So I dusted off my IE and went in and looked. Yep, sure enough, there it was.

I know that Google will only allow 3 ads per page to display. I have 10 posts showing on the home page and since I had the AdSense code in the header above each post, only the first 3 ads would show. Up until now there has been no effect on the other 7 posts that show up on my home page. Evidently something has changed. The second three posts were showing up with the "page can not be found" error in the header.

So I decided to venture out and take a look at some of my other favorite blogs. I went on over to JohnCow's site and it was doing the same thing in IE. Obviously I am not getting a fraction of the traffic that the Cow is but nonetheless, it looks bad. And that, boys and girls, is why I decided to take the AdSense off. If they get it fixed I will put it back up. It's not like I was making any money from having them anyway. With over 36,000 page views in the last three and a half months, I had only made $5.63. I can't even think of anything clever to say that I would buy with that.

 

The Top Secret GPhone

Most of you have heard that Googe's stock has bulldozed it's way past the $600 mark. Obviously this is an effect of the widely anticipated and top secret GPhone that is building momentum.

Adding legitimacy to the whole upward trend of Google's stock, the search giant announced its acquisition of an obscure Finnish start-up, Jaiku, holder of key Short Message Service patents. SMS is text messaging, the technology that enables the exchange of short messages between billions of ordinary cellphones.

Obviously Google is not discussing anything about the GPhone, but USA Today reports; "Trip Chowdhry, analyst at Global Equities Research, says Google also has already begun designing an advanced GPhone model, equipped with a Google browser optimized to display Google services such as Gmail and YouTube.

Aimed at young users, a browser GPhone would probably sell at a fraction of the price of an iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Treo or Microsoft Windows Mobile smart phone, Chowdhry says. One major hitch: Cellphone carriers are insisting on a cut of ad revenue. "The carriers want money any time the phones are turned on, especially if the call is to Google," Doherty says."

The hardware has already been developed. The only thing Google needs to do now is sign an agreement with a carrier. Once this is done, the phones could hit the market in a matter of weeks. When it happens, it going to happen fast.

It also sounds like it is going to be faster, cheaper and more powerful than the iPhone.

 

Finally - Spammers Get What They Deserve!

The Associated Press reports that, Jeffrey Kilbride, 41, of Venice California, and James Schaffer, also 41, of Paradise Alley, Arizona, were sentenced to 72 months and 63 months in prison, respectively, fined $100,000 and were ordered to pay $77,500 in restitution to AOL. They also were ordered to forfeit over $1.1 million in commissions they made spamming inboxes with pornographic emails.

They sent millions of unsolicited e-mails, prosecutors said. During nine months in 2004, Kilbride, Schaffer and an associate transmitted more than 600,000 spam messages advertising pornographic Web sites, according to court documents. Even after Congress passed the law called the CAN-SPAM act, the 2 perps continued sending email via remote servers in Amsterdam. The authorities were able to track the spam back to the individuals in Phoenix.

To prove that there is no honor in spamming, 3 other individuals that were involved, turned on Kilbride and Schaffer and testified against them in court to in order to avoid prosecution themselves.

YES! I love to hear stories like this. Obviously there is some big money to be made in spam, I have always wondered how much people make spamming and why they do it. Now that those 2 are going to be in a prison cell for quite some time, someone needs to go to the door of their cell every 5 minutes and scream at the top of their lung, "Click here to see the hottest girls on the net."

 

The Shoemoney Show.

Here's a video from Shoemoney's website asking a big question. "Does Yahoo Even Matter Anymore?"



What's your thoughts?

 

Google Is Reading Your Gmail?!

I was perusing Webpronews website this morning and read a article by Doug Caverly called, "Microsoft CEO Says Google Reads Your Mail."

The article says that Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, accused Google of reading email that is housed in their Gmail system. Why would he make this accusation? Maybe he was playing some dirty pool to promote their Windows Live Hotmail system especially after the fact the that they had just re-done the monetization.

Looking a little deeper the article on Webpronews references a write up on CRN.com by Ed Moltzen. This article says that, "...Google reads customer email as part of a failed bid to drive ad-based revenue. Ballmer isn't the first to fire salvos at Google's Gmail privacy policy. Privacy advocates have been critical over the policy almost since the beginning, but the popularity of the service has skyrocketed nonetheless."

To date, the big G has not come forward to defend themselves against these accusations. Google does publicly admit that they "processes personal information" on their servers but they never come out and explicitly say that they are reading your email. They haven't said that they aren't reading your email either.

So what do you do? Just like any other email system, whether its a free service or a hosted email service, don't send anything that would need to be kept private or secure. I am not real convinced that if you are exchanging recipes via email with a buddy, Google will step up and start spamming you with Pampered Chef and recipe oriented direct emails.

This whole thing is interesting nonetheless.

What say you?

 

Faster Internet For All - The Fiber Way

I was going to title this post, "More Fiber For Regular Traffic" but I didn't think that would catch someones attention if they were only an RSS subscriber. Anyway, back to the news at hand.

According to the Fiber to Home Council, in 2006, 1 million U.S. homes had direct access to the Internet from their homes with fiber. NOW, just a year later, 2.14 million homes have the fiber to home access. With the number over doubling in the last year it is apparent that "...American consumers want what only fiber can deliver – and that is a pipe big enough to handle the high-bandwidth Internet and video applications of the future,” said Joe Savage, President of the FTTH Council."

"Now in its seventh year, the Fiber-to-the-Home Council is a non-profit organization established to help its members plan, market, implement and manage FTTH solutions. Council membership includes municipalities, utilities, developers, and traditional and non-traditional service providers, creating a cohesive group to share knowledge and build industry consensus on key issues surrounding fiber to the home. Communities and organizations interested in exploring FTTH options may find information on the FTTH Council web site at www.ftthcouncil.org."

This is a great thing they are doing. It's too bad that we had to leave it up to a non-profit to further the interests of the U.S. people. After all the BIG Telcos did get a HUGE take break to the tune of 200 million that was supposed to be earmarked for this very thing. Where did that money go? Oh yeah, in their pockets. I think that those same companies that realized the tax breaks should have to give a certain percent of their sales to organizations like the FTTH council.

 

Chinese Censorship V2

Reported by Ars Technica, the Chinese Government has started blocking certain sites like Blogspot and Word press. For "the Great Firewall of China, there are certainly many interpretations of what is and isn't allowed through the country's cyber connection."

" Savvy Internet fans in the people's republic have known for a long time, however, that there have been simple ways to get forbidden information. One of those ways was the magical gift of Real Simple Syndication, or RSS. The Great Firewall can block specific web sites all it wants, but as long as there's an RSS feed, many Chinese surfers can use feeds to access otherwise forbidden information."

The Chinese Government eventually got wise to this and started banning all forms of RSS feeds. Any URL that started with "feeds", "rss", and "blog" are now on the blacklist. Basically with the blanket RSS ban in effect, they have eliminated all, approve and non-approved, site syndication.

This is just like when the "Great Firewall" came in and shut down an entire data center because it was hosting one blog that contained some "non-approved" information.

China - HA. They must be doing something right. We buy so much product from them through their official intermediary - WalMart.

 

Google Makes The Rules And You Better "NoFollow"

If you own a site or blog with a high page rank and you have links or paid advertisements going to another site, be careful. You might wake up one day and Google will no longer include your site in their index.

Here's the very abridged version of it so pay attention. By no means is this information new, but for quite some time now Google has been cracking down on links (especially paid links) that don't follow their rules. You can have paid links, sponsors or advertisers on your site but you need to have the, Google mandated, "rel=nofollow" tag in the link. The Reason? This prevents the passage of page rank to the receiving site.

Why does the big G pitch such a fit about this? Simple, they want to try and keep the searches as pure as possible(remember this statemement for later). Google is even encouraging people to turn in offending paid links. The coveted Pagerank is calculated by a number of factors, including the amount of incoming links. Google's problem is not with making money by selling links on your site, their problem is with people gaming the algorithm and selling non-relevant links on a big PR site.

To over simplify it, if you have a high ranking website in Google's index and you sell links on your site, you will pass along a certain amount of your page rank to the recipient's site even if it is not relevant to your site. This is the primary reason for the "NoFollow" tag. It tells the search engines NOT to follow that link and will require physical clicks for the link to get visited.

There have been many people that have been beat down by Google for not following the rules. The infamous John Chow is a prime example. Even if you search for his name, "John Chow" he doesn't come up in the top 50 results.

There is much more information out on the net that will answer the questions you may have. This brings a whole new dimension to paid link advertising. Even though it shouldn't, this forces site owners to rethink the relevance of links. After all, if you have gaming site, you want to send people to gaming related sites and not pharmaceuticals, right? If you have a website or a blog, you should want people to go to a site that would interest them. Google thinks this type of linking is better for the Internet as a whole. Proper or "white hat" SEO is a longer process but in the end will achieve better results. Keep on Google's good side, provide relevant useful links. You'll be much better off.

But wait - What about keeping the results pure from above? I have a question. Is banning someone from the SERPs because you violated their policy really a pure thing to do? If someone searching for John Chow and can't find John Chow, is that a pure result? John Chow has 100's of thousands of visitors to his site per month, and he writes about making money online and do you think that you can find him for those keywords? Nope. So if you mess with Google who currently has about 63% of the searches in the US, you can get kicked from their pure listings. Someone once said that if you "do a Google on Google" you don't get any of disparaging comments. Kind of reminds me of moderating comments on a blog. :) This leads me to the question; How much power can one entity have?

The other side of the coin is that Google is a business. A very large and profitable business. If you want to play in their yard, you should have to follow their rules, right? I read somewhere that some people think Google is just some free software that comes with the computer. I don't know what side I am on yet. The "anti-Google, ALT Search engine" crowd or the "let them do what they want" group.

All that being said, I think that it may get worse before it gets better. As shown historically, Absolute power, corrupts absolutely. Your thoughts?

 

Are People Ignoring Online Ads?

Banner Blindness - A term that refers to web users and how they ignore online ads. According to Jacob Nielson's August 20th Alertbox, eye tracking studies reveal that most online user never look anything that appears to be an ad. Even if it's not an ad, if it looks like an ad, users will still ignore it.

"At all levels of user engagement, the finding is the same regarding banners: ...almost no fixations within advertisements. If users are looking for a quick fact, they want to get done and aren't diverted by banners; and if users are engrossed in a story, they're not going to look away from the content."

What is an online advertiser to do? Eye tracking studies indicate that there are 3 things that will divert people's attention from content.

1. Plain Text
2. Faces
3. Cleavage and other "private" body parts.

These top 3 formats, especially #3 may not be applicable to your site. However there is a 4th format that Jakob calls an "unethical path to ad fixations." If you make your ad look like content, it will attract attention.

• "The more an ad looks like a native site component, the more users will look at it.
• Not only should the ad look like the site's other design elements, it should appear to be part of the specific page section in which it's displayed."

Keep in mind the cautionary lesson to be learned here. If you trick your readers into clicking on an ad they think is content, they aren't going to be very happy with you and may begin looking elsewhere.

How can we use this information to make a better online ad? You need to beware of fancy formatting. Big words, bold colors and text design all make content look like promotion and ends up getting ignored. Nielsen did a study where a number of people were given question that could be answered by looking at a website. The answer was clearly indicated in big red numbers in the upper right hand corner of the homepage. 86% of the users failed to find the information requested. Even though the section contained the exact information they were looking for, over half of the test subjects saw the information but didn't use it to answer the question. Over 1/3 of the users didn't see the information at all. "The reason? The information resembled a promotion."

I recently conducted an informal survey on a web development forum. The question, "Do you click advertisements on website?" yielded similar results. The majority responded that they seldom click on ads and if they do it has to be extremely relevant to what they are looking for.

Bottom line?

• Use clean design with little or no fluff.
  
• Focus on the user's needs and why they are visiting the website you are advertising on. In other words, advertise on a site relevant to your service offerings.
  
• Make sure the user knows exactly what's going to happen when they click on your ad.
• Provide some real value when they click on your ad.
• Have a properly formatted landing page with a call to action to maximize conversions.
• Don't trick users.

As online advertising continues it's record setting climb, it becomes more important to refine the way we advertise. Internet information seekers are becoming more savvy and are less affected by online ads compared to 6 years ago. Remember, keep your ads clean, useful and honest. If you follow these simple guidelines you will be able to maximize your ad's effectiveness.

I am curious what you think. Do you click on ads or sponsored listings when browsing? In your opinion, what is the most annoying thing about online ads?

Let me know your thoughts.


Other interesting reading on the subject:

• Firefox users ignore online ads
  

 

Eye Tracking - What A User Is Looking At.

What are people looking at when they are on your website? I just read a new study on eye tracking in relationship to websites. This has always been an area of interest for me. Years ago they did this same type of study with drivers. They would track where a driver was looking as they were going down the road in order to improve sign placement. Today, similar technology is used to track where a person's eyes are focused when they are viewing a website.

So what are people looking at when they are on your site? "Using statistical analysis and eye tracking data across a broad-spectrum demographic provides the researcher with numerical sums based on number of observations and length of observations of different elements on any site page." Yeah, OK, so what did they find out?

"Single-variant testing is the simplest to initiate and track. However it's time-consuming and may lead to unsubstantiated conclusions. Multi-variant testing is a more efficient means of determining which site appearances and features deliver optimum results, i.e. the highest conversion rate." Uhhhhh OK, so what did they find out?

"However, multi-variant testing is more complex than changing a single variable and waiting to gather the A/B test results. It could take months to optimize a site for conversion. Further, single-variant testing often requires the tester to make certain assumptions that may or may not be true." YAwnnnnn - OK, this is getting pretty tiresome. Can't I just read the last page to see the results? NO I can't because the report concluded nothing about what people are looking at. In fact it went on and on just like the excerpts above do. All it did was go on about the proper methods of measuring and how to establish baselines. What a total waste of my time. They owe me money or something! Talk about link bait.

Anyway here's what other researchers have found and can pretty much be summed up in a few bullet points.

• Top left 1/4 of the screen is prime real estate
• If you want people to read and not scan, use smaller fonts
• Headlines make or break articles as well as click trough rates
  
• Users overwhelmingly look at a website is an "F" pattern

Here's a great video from YouTube showing a typical eye tracking test. Seth Godin also has a video of an eye tracking session on his website.

Looking at these videos, it gives you a better understanding on how people browse. Like Seth says, "...websurfing is a hunting activity." You need to make sure that what you have to offer is readily available to the hunters.

 

Dial-Up Is Better?

J.D. Power and Associates just release a new Internet customer satisfaction study yesterday.

The study surveyed Internet users to determine if they are happy with their current ISP. The findings were pretty shocking. Overall, dial up customers reported a higher level of satisfaction versus high speed subscribers. Customer satisfaction of high-speed users has steadily declined since 2006

So I wasn't the only one disgruntled with my high speed connection. Recently I switched from a cable provider to a DSL service and am much happier. The broadband internet that I had would fluctuate so severely that, often times, I would get speeds as slow as 800k down. I did battle with the cable company for 8 months with no resolution. I was paying $60 a month for speeds slower than the slowest DSL. They couldn't understand why I was so upset. I should have been getting between 3.5 and 5 mbps. After all, I DID have a cable modem. My DSL, although slower, runs at a consistent 1.8m down. I couldn't be happier.

"The cost of high-speed Internet is up nearly $2 per month since 2006" with no significant increase in speeds. "Yet dial-up service costs have dipped $0.12, averaging $17.81. As long as high- speed Internet prices continue to rise and dial-up providers offer a viable level of service at a low price point, significant market opportunity will continue to exist for dial-up service."

“Although high-speed subscriptions continue to increase annually—to 65 percent of the market in 2007—more than one-third (35%) of Internet service subscribers still use a dial-up service,” said Frank Perazzini, director of telecommunications at J.D. Power and Associates.

The study also found that Internet service subscribers are more likely to use other Web-based email from a third-party provider, such as Google Gmail, MSN Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or AOL Mail, as their main email service instead of the email from their ISP. This is due in part to a subscribers ability to change their ISP without loosing a long-standing email address.

Interestingly, not one of the classified regions in the study ranked AOL in the top dial up providers. No KIDDING!?! Those of you who have heard the AOHell phone call from Vincent Ferrari you know the pain that someone can go through with AOL.

 

So You Want To Start A Blog?

As daunting as it sounds, anyone can start a blog. If I can do it, so can you. Someone looking to start a blog can almost drown in the sea of options out there. Keep in mind, there are many people in the blogosphere that are WAY more knowledgeable than I am on the topic. However, with the understanding that I am an amateur, there are a couple of thing that I have picked up in the short time that I have been doing this. As you consider starting a blog, there are some questions that you need to ask yourself.

• What do you want to accomplish with your blog?
• Who are you targeting with your blog?
  
• Do you want to make money with your blog or "monetize" it?
• If so, what are the best sources of income for your blog?
  
• What blogging software do you want to use?
• How are you going to promote your blog?
• How do I promote my RSS feed?
  
• What are the best places to let people know about your blog?
• Do I host my own blog or use a free service?
  

The list of questions literally goes on and on. Here are a few things that I have learned.

Listen to the pros. Read blogs by "A list" Bloggers. People like John Chow and his making money online blog is a great source of knowledge. Darren Rowse from ProBlogger and Mark from ProBloggers Matrix provide useful information on what it takes to effective get your blog off the ground. Another great site is Jeremy Schoemaker over at Shoemoney. Take a look at it if you are interested in making money and promoting your blog. This guy has made some serious money with his blog. One great example of a start-up blog is Ben Cook's Blogging Experiment. He is chronicling his 365 day blogging journey with the goal of making it his full time job within a year. Ben's blog is definitely worth checking out.

Update your blog. If you are going to dive into the blogosphere, you have to blog. Updating your site regularly is key. Make sure you have the time and are willing to commit for the long haul. Blogging isn't worth doing if no one is reading what you have to say. Regular updating equals readers. Write something everyday. Before you know it you will have a large list of posts that, if your lucky, may get referenced on other sites. Also, make it easy for your readers to subscribe to your blog. Remember, search engines AND subscribers love fresh content.

Get Involved. Involvement can take on many different forms. Contribute to other blogs and encourage comments on your site. Like Mark over at ProBloggers Matrix says, "Not only is it important to comment on other blogs within and outside of your niche, but it’s important to respond to comments on your own blog. Participate in the conversation! ENGAGE the other commenters if possible!" You also need to play an active role in promoting your site on the various social sites like Reddit, Digg and StumbleUpon. These type of sites can send large amounts of traffic to your site if you have a post that others see as interesting.

Honestly, there is so much information available out there, much more than can be covered in this short post. Unique Post URL's, anchor text, post disclosure, link baiting, paid links and the "no-follow" rule among other topics are all things you will need to take a look at if you are going to be serious about blogging.

These were just a few topics off the top of my head. Do your research and, like myself, realize that you have a lot to learn. Darren Rowse over a ProBlogger recently ran a series called 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. This is a must read for anyone looking to start a blog.

On a side note, thanks to Mark over at ProBloggers Matrix for the link love.

 

Firefox - 400 Million Downloads Later

In November of 2004, Firefox began it's grassroots campaign to build a better, faster and safer web browser. Nearly 3 years later, the proud little fox is boasting a record 400 million downloads.

Currently there are estimates that Firefox has a market share of 17.5 percent to 25 percent depending on who is doing the reporting. Microsoft is still the leader of the browser market with 63.9 percent but Firefox is steadily gaining ground. Contrary to these figures, as of today, my site stats are showing Firefox users have hit this site 2264 times so far this month with IE coming in second at 2071. The balance of browsers being Netscape, Safari, Mozilla, Konqueror, Galeon and Opera with 69, 59, 58, 21, 11 and 11 hits respectively.

With a host of plugins available and features that were ahead of the IE curve, Firefox's stable platform will no doubt continue as the preferred browser by those who have tried it. Now all that needs to be done is to get Dell and other manufacturers to deliver Firefox equipped computers.

Congratulations Firefox!

 

It's Nice To Live In America - Chinese Censorship

An article on Cnet Asia reports that an entire data center was shut down by the Chinese Government. This action due to a few blogs that reportedly contained anti-political content.

Numerous business with sites hosted on the data center's server were being effected. RFA reports: "Participatory Web sites, forums, and blogging platforms came under strict new rules last week. But in an unprecedented move, the authorities have begun switching off entire Internet data centers (IDCs), which are home to thousands of servers.

This means that if one site doesn't meet government approval, because it contains pornography or politically sensitive material, all are taken offline. Of the 10,000 affected web sites, many of them are government and business web sites. "

It seems that the Chinese Government would rather close down thousands of web sites that are conforming to the strict political policies than allow a single blog post containing what the government has deemed as illegal information.

Regardless of your political stance, Conservative or liberal, religious or atheist, you would have to agree it's better living in the U.S. I may not agree with you on many different levels, but I still respect your right to express your opinion. And due to the fact that I have this platform for expressing my opinion, here comes one now.

Today is 9/11. This date means different things to so many. To me it is the anniversary of a senseless attack initiated by a group of radical, mixed up idiots who value death and destruction over acceptance and compassion. The same people who came to this country, exploited it's freedoms and attempted to crush our resolve. Take a moment today and remember those that were lost in the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor.

Freedom of speech, oh how often we take it for granted.

 

Taxing The Internet?

Expiring in November, the Internet Tax moratorium is receiving a lot of industry attention. "The current Internet tax moratorium is one policy that Congress has enacted to help make the internet a universally accessible, free, and open platform capable of delivering a rich variety of services to consumers." - From Google's Public Policy Blog

Amazon.com, Yahoo, eBay and Google are joining forces with the crew at Don't Tax Our Web
a group that is dedicated to 3 main principles:

"1. Keeping Internet access services free of all federal, state and local transaction taxes;

2. Preventing the imposition of duplicative and discriminatory taxes on e-commerce; and

3. Avoiding the imposition of hidden taxes on consumers of Internet access."

The moratorium currently in place "...prohibits three things: state and local taxation of Internet access, multiple taxes on a single e-commerce transaction, and taxes that discriminate against online transactions."

Google's public policy blog states: "Keeping Internet access tax-free is also another way that government can help further the growth of the web to all corners of the U.S. At a time when American policymakers are working to increase broadband penetration rates and improve the quality of broadband services to consumers, we believe that increasing barriers to access -- whether they are created by the government or by the private sector -- will only frustrate our common goal of greater access to better broadband for all consumers."

OK, here's my 2 cents worth. Google and all the other major players in the Internet game are all for the surface issues that stir up instant emotions with the general public. Buzzwords like an "internet tax" will sure get the natives restless, especially when they are paying $60.00 a month for broadband service from the only provider they have to choose from.

But wait! Isn't the cost of Internet the big issue here. What about the slow broadband speed America has to endure compared to the rest of the world? Aren't we really talking about Net Neutrality. You can't pick and choose what element of Net Neutrality you're willing to participate in. You have to support the entire package or not at all. If you are going to promote the non-taxation of the Internet, then you need to be out there lobbying for the expansion of broadband access to US consumers.

Remember the $200 million dollars in tax breaks the telecom industry received for the purposes of developing the infrastructure in the US? Ohhh yeah, they pocketed that money as profits. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why you only have 2 poor choices of Internet access in most locations. This is why your broadband connection only operates at 3.5 down. One could argue, "...that extending the moratorium should come with conditions to motivate investments in technology that will reach more people, including the rural population, with real broadband service.

To Google, AT&T and all the other big players, I say don't cherry pick what you want to support. Be a part of the solution.

What do you think?

 

A Daily Diversion - Just Because

I "Stumbled" upon this site. I am not going to tell you the secret, you will have to figure it out all by yourself. If you have nothing better to do right now you can click the picture to go to the site.
Let me know if you discover the hidden message.

 

Radio's Reign Coming To A Close?

In terms of audio, "by 2008, online advertising spending in the US is projected to surpass radio advertising spending for the first time."

An article by eMarketer " estimates that US online ad spending will reach $21.7 billion this year, while radio spending will grow only slightly to $20.4 billion."

Granted, the radio listening audience is still very large and can not be discounted. After all, the radio ratings company, Arbitron still has to make money. Surprisingly, in the study Arbitron conceded the fact that radio is less important is people's live than the Internet or TV. "Data from a number of researchers indicates that traditional radio is losing its significance in people's lives. US adults are spending more time each day on the Internet and watching TV than listening to the radio."

Given these trends, it is critical for the radio industry to adapt quickly in an attempt to fend off the market share loss to the Internet. A lot of progressive radio stations have already integrated the Internet into their broadcast through the use of podcasts and online streaming media. This type of integration gives listeners additional options. However loosing listeners may be inevitable and radio industry may see itself in the same position as the newspaper industry.

The final words of wisdom - "Marketers should not abandon radio in favor of the Web—they should combine both mediums to take advantage of the unique attributes of both."

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What Do People Use The Internet For?

Consumers are using the net for email, entertainment, communication, research and relationship development just to name a few right? Well, according to the Online Publishers Association, it's content that Internet users are seeking. The results of an extensive 4 year study were released earlier this month which charted the amount of time Internet users spent with e-commerce, communications, content and search.

At the end of the study conducted by Nielsen/Net Ratings, almost half of the Internet users were using the web to visit content. This is dramatic increase compared to the 34% content driven use just 4 years ago.

"The dominant role of content is driven by several important factors. The first is the online transition of traditionally offline activities, such as getting news, finding entertainment information or checking the weather. Consumers spend considerable time with social networking sites, which serve not only as places of content but are also increasingly important communications vehicles."

The cliche' phrase, content in king, traditionally refers to how search engines are indexing and viewing relevancy of websites. It now appears that content is clearly more important to consumers as well.

The study identifies the things that are contributing to the increased time spent with content online:

• More access to high speed internet
• Increased popularity of online videos
• Better search capabilities
• Increased total content on the web
• The rise of instant messaging now allows a much more convenient messaging medium versus standard email

The last bullet in the list is the primary reason that consumer Internet use for communications has dropped by an incredible 28% over the last 4 years.

Let's hear your comments. What do you do online? Do you spend most of your time online at work or at home?

 

Does Google Control The Internet?

"Google is the 800 pound gorilla and is pretty much going to get what it wants until there are legitimate competitors. Being the biggest and baddest has its advantages and allows Google to set its own parameters." - Referring to the current trend in paid link advertising this is a quote from the comments section in Andy Beard's blog post about the FTC and Google.

Scenario:

• Google's share of Internet searches goes from 55% to 90% thus controlling vast amounts of information and how it is viewed.
• Company A does something that Google doesn't like or refuses to pay to be listed in some new directory.
• Company A gets shunned from Google and access to their company information is virtually non-existent on the Internet.

Do you think that it's possible for a company like Google get too big and control too much of the information flow. How would that impact the economy? Some say that this is already happening and are advocating the use of alternate search engines.

Google appears to be on the forefront of Net Neutrality support. However other Net Neutrality proponents are claiming that most proposed legislation for true net neutrality focus around telcos and ISPs and would allow for loopholes with which a search engine could exploit it's position on the web. Someone once told me, "Try googling Google and see what comes up." There isn't a lot of negative karma out there for the big G, even if you go hundreds of pages deep. Is this because Google is that awesome and everyone likes it? Or is it because they control the information?

It's no secret that Google engages in acts of censorship, such as wiping Vice President Dick Cheney’s residence from satellite maps, and bowing to political pressure to eliminate content from sites in different countries. Neutrality?

Claims have been made for years that the media controls information, letting you see only what they want you to. Now, as Google continues to take over market share, will the available information on the net be what Google wants you to see?

Don't get me wrong, I am not an anti-Google person. I've just been reading a lot about this. I am curious as to what you think.

google

 

Viral Marketing Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the basics of viral marketing. There is some new information regarding the older generation of online users and shoppers. There is a certain segment of online consumers that has been identified as brand advocates. Findings are showing that over two thirds of brand advocates do their product research online. This niche group of online users are identified by their purchase behavior and their elevated rate of online use. A brand advocate's online use is characterized by their tendency to leave product reviews, and their inclination to leave more negative reviews than most online shoppers. Typically, a brand advocate is someone who will only make a purchase after extensive research has been done. Brand advocates are also more likely to be a subscriber of Consumer Reports.

According to Jupiter Research, this high level of online use suggests that the influential brand advocates should be at the forefront of brand promotion. To the contrary, instead of promoting brands through the use of social media, they are using their online time to do research.

"This group is more likely to read a blog for information rather than create their own; advocacy toward a product or service is most likely to be generated by word-of-mouth. Marketers will have an easier time of attracting more brand advocates if they target this group with the right tactics," said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch.
Behavioral and content targeting are likely to attract brand advocates, since more than half of this segment is likely to pay attention to online ads that fit their interests or current activity."

Emily Riley at Jupiter Says, "Brand advocates should not be considered catalysts for a viral campaign or a brand awareness campaign..."

So how do you attract this market segment that neither contributes to, nor is influenced by social media and viral marketing? Jessica Tsai from CRM Magazine says:

• "Given that 53 percent of brand advocates respond to online advertisement that fit their interests and 29 percent on ads that fit their current activity, behavioral and content targeting are highly valuable.


• Purchase search keywords that match brand messaging and link to rich product information.


• Continue to use traditional forms of database marketing such as sweepstakes (response rate of more than 50 percent by brand advocates) and email newsletters (more than 33 percent)."

Even though this market segment can't be considered catalysts for viral marketing, you should never discount the power of an educated brand loyalist. Caution - Opinion Ahead. Whether researchers are willing to admit it or not, brand advocates DO spread information about goods and services that they view as valuable. They may not convey their opinion online, but they spread their knowledge nonetheless. People commonly ask others in their circle of influence when they are considering a purchase. Family and friend's opinions DO contribute to buying decisions.

Again, how do you market to such a niche segment? Because value and quality are big for brand advocates, you should focus your marketing efforts in the arenas of professional product reviews, awards, certifications and dedicated product micro sites that can be viewed as authoritative.

Hmmm, this sounds like some of the commonly accepted strategies that you implement to increase your conversion rate doesn't it?

 

Another "Sometimes on Saturday" Post

Domain Name News just posted an interesting bit of history on their site. The post, called "The first 100 Domain Names on the Internet, lists the first 100 domain names ever registered. Dating back to March 15th of 1985, the list contains some companies that were obviously thinking ahead. Missing from the list are some names that have recently sold for millions. In a June post, I reported on a domain name that sold for $9.5 million and another one that sold for $12 million.

It's actually pretty amazing to see what is NOT on the list. But then again, domain name speculation wasn't a concept back in the mid 80's. Listed below are the first 30 names from the list and the dates when they were registered.

1. 15-Mar-1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
2. 24-Apr-1985 BBN.COM
3. 24-May-1985 THINK.COM
4. 11-Jul-1985 MCC.COM
5. 30-Sep-1985 DEC.COM
6. 07-Nov-1985 NORTHROP.COM
7. 09-Jan-1986 XEROX.COM
8. 17-Jan-1986 SRI.COM
9. 03-Mar-1986 HP.COM
10. 05-Mar-1986 BELLCORE.COM
11. 19-Mar-1986 IBM.COM
12. 19-Mar-1986 SUN.COM
13. 25-Mar-1986 INTEL.COM
14. 25-Mar-1986 TI.COM
15. 25-Apr-1986 ATT.COM
16. 08-May-1986 GMR.COM
17. 08-May-1986 TEK.COM
18. 10-Jul-1986 FMC.COM
19. 10-Jul-1986 UB.COM
20. 05-Aug-1986 BELL-ATL.COM
21. 05-Aug-1986 GE.COM
22. 05-Aug-1986 GREBYN.COM
23. 05-Aug-1986 ISC.COM
24. 05-Aug-1986 NSC.COM
25. 05-Aug-1986 STARGATE.COM
26. 02-Sep-1986 BOEING.COM
27. 18-Sep-1986 ITCORP.COM
28. 29-Sep-1986 SIEMENS.COM
29. 18-Oct-1986 PYRAMID.COM
30. 27-Oct-1986 ALPHACDC.COM

 

Internet Ad Spending

According to the IAB, "Internet advertising revenues for the first quarter reached $4.9 billion, representing a 26% increase over the first quarter of 2006..."


Jupiter Research says that it is estimated that online advertising will reach $35.4 billion in 2012.

There is no doubt in my mind that this growth will continue until online ad spending surpasses all other forms of media. Is your company being proactive in your Internet marketing efforts? What is your action plan for advertising in the new mass media?

 

Win A Complete Blogging Package

For those of you thinking about starting a blog to veterans that want to take their blog to the next level, have I got a contest for you. If you ever wanted to know how to make money blogging, this contest is right up your alley.

The owner of the Blogging Experiment has an aggressive goal. He wants to go from $0 in income to a full time job blogging. I don't know how many times this has happened in the past, but it will be interesting to track the results.

If you win, you can learn everything you need to know about blogging, from creation to promotion. Check out the Blogging Experiment , it's definitely worth a look.

To keep up-to-date on industry news and other "sometimes useful" information, be sure to subscribe to The Big Bald Blog.

 

The Internet Used For Health Care Information

We all know that consumers are becoming more savvy on just about every topic under the sun. Consumers, in their continuing quest for knowledge, are turning to the Internet for information on Health Care information.

According to Harris Poll #76, in 2007, 160 million online users have turned to the web for Health Care related information. This new data reflects a dramatic increase over 2006 where a reported 136 million used the Internet for health related information. In this poll the term "cyberchondriacs" was coined to describe users that repeatedly turn to the Internet for health related information. Here are some other interesting statistics that the poll uncovered:

• "On average, a cyberchondriac searches the Internet almost six (5.7) times per month
• Fully eighty-six percent of cyberchondriacs say that the health information they found online was reliable (26% "very reliable" and 60% "somewhat reliable"). Of special note, the percentage of those who indicate that online medical information was "very reliable" has declined substantially from 37 percent in 2005 to the current 26 percent.
• Two thirds (66%) of adults online say that they have looked for information about health topics often (26%) or sometimes (40%), an increase of five percentage points from 2006 (61%)
• The number of U.S. adults who have ever gone online to look for health or medical information has increased to approximately 160 million up from about 136 million last year. The reasons for this increase are that the total number of Internet users has increased somewhat and the percent of people online who have looked for information has increased as well. Cyberchondriacs now represent 84 percent of all online adults, up from last year’s 80 percent, and 72 percent in 2005
• Cyberchondriacs are not only using the Internet to educate themselves, many are also using it to assist in their conversations with their physicians. A 58 percent majority of adults who have gone online to get health information say that they have discussed this information with their doctors at least once in the last year."
  

This last bullet indicates just how much impact the Internet has had on the patient-doctor relationship. For years patients have been encourage to ask more questions during a medical encounter, now more than ever, consumers are armed with readily available information allowing them to better evaluate their choices and make better decisions regarding their health care. There's no question that this trend will continue as the younger generations move into the stage of life that require increased medical services.

 

How People Use The Internet

"Woa, they have the Internet on computers now." - Homer Simpson

The rest of the world may be a tad bit ahead of Homer. In taking a look at how people use the Internet and what consumers deem as most influential in their information gathering, the Internet continues to climb the charts. An Edison Media research study conducted by Arbitron in January and February of 2007, revealed that over a third of consumers saw newspapers as "least essential."



Larry Rosin of Edison Media Research said, "It is not a stretch to say that the Internet has become just as important as television as an important source of information and entertainment in the lives of Americans."

In a release from the Center for Media Research, broadband Internet users are spending almost HALF of their free time on the Internet pursuing activities related to entertainment and communication. Just to give you an idea on the numbers, more than 90 million Americans have broadband connections. These people are using half their free time surfing the Internet.

But TV is still the strongest player right? The simple answer is yes with some qualifications. When you see an ad on television that references a website, do people write that down and check it later? Well, according to eMarketer research, 25-30% are "multitasking." This means that they are on the Internet while they are watching TV. An increasing number of consumers are viewing several media sources at once.



Why would anyone find these results shocking? After all, directing consumers to the web has been the goal for most advertisers for quite some time. Does this cause a problem for advertisers? Not any more than TIVO or a DVR's, which are estimated to climb to 50% of subscribers by 2010 (this is a whole other topic to be discussed at a later date).

A good friend of mine has a computer tied right to his TV and accesses it with a wireless keyboard. When the need arises, browsing is instantaneous and as a result, some of the commercials are missed.

So where does this leave advertisers? It leaves them with the understanding that a direct and aggressive approach to online advertising is critical. Keep your online message clear, clean, authoritative and integrate a clear call to action.

 

Elton John Wants to Close Down the Internet

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I really can't stand this guy. Yes it is true, Elton John wants to kill the Internet because it is "destroying music." This is being said in the aftermath of iTunes topping the 3 billion download mark.

But wait there's more. "...the flamboyant singer has embraced the web in other ways.
The 60th birthday concert Sir Elton played to a 20,000-strong crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden was streamed live over the Internet.
The singer also announced earlier this year that his entire back catalogue of albums would be made available for digital download."

OK, so what it is Elton? Embrace it when it can make you money?

Sorry for the digression. A post that actually means something will be coming soon.

 

3 Billion Songs on iTunes

According to Apple's latest press release, iTunes has sold over 3 billion songs. This is just one of many ways for you to get your music online. It is no wonder the recording industry is struggling with their hard music products. Record albums are reportedly having trouble going gold or higher. Don't get me wrong, I am not feeling sorry for the recording industry, they make their money as evidenced by the lifestyles of top recording artists.

This leads us to the illegal downloading of music from file sharing sites. Searchviews reports that, "A survey released today by Entertainment Media Research correlates social media sites to the growth of illegal music downloading. The 2007 Digital Media Survey credits social networking sites like MySpace and Bebo for allowing more people to discover music online rather than via television or the radio. Like other industries that deal with the 13 - 30 demographic, the music industry is inevitably changing with the growth of social networking online."

My thought on downloading of music are this: Pay for it! This is what these people are doing for a living, its their creative work and if you are a fan, you should want to support them.

This is just another example of how Social Media is having a HUGE impact on the way people interact online. From music and videos to social interaction sites, participation in social media will continue to grow exponentially. To put this growth trend into perspective, iTunes has 5 million songs online, they just hit the 3 billion download mark. This means, for example, that 10 million people have downloaded over 300 each. To give you an idea on how fast this is growing, iTunes surpassed its first billion in February 2006. January of this year they broke 2 billion and this week it is over 3.

Bottom Line? If you are not proactive in the way you market to this new generation of consumers, you may be out in the cold.


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Yahoo Releases YSlow

Yahoo has just released their new web performance tool called YSlow.

YSlow measures individual web page performance based on the best practices outline.

"YSlow has three main views: Performance, Stats, and Components. Performance view scores the page against each performance rule, generates an overall YSlow grade for the page, and lists specific recommendations for making the page faster. Stats view summarizes the total page weight, cookie size, and HTTP request count. Components view lists each component (image, stylesheet, script, Flash object, etc.) in the page along with HTTP information relevant to page load times. It also contains several tools including JSLint."

I installed this yesterday and it provides great information about your sites. Specifically I was interested in the rating that it gave me for ETags, CDN and expiring headers. All the other things listed in the report are excellent little tools that can help you increase the speed at which your sites load.

Give it a try and let me know your comments.

 

MySpace Cleans Up Sex Offenders

In July, MySpace decided to to a little house cleaning. MySpace deleted the accounts that had been created by registered sex offenders. Apparently there were over 29,000 registered sex offenders that had created profiles. A figure 4 times more than the original estimate offered by MySpace. This number reflects the sex offenders that signed up using their real names. The number is expected to be higher as individuals may have used fake names or other identies.

A July 24th release from North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper proposes 6 changes in social networking sites to better protect our children from sexual predators. As always, parents are strongly encouraged to police their children's Internet activities but the rules proposed in this new release would require parents to authorize an account before a child would be able to post. It would also allow parents to see what their children are posting.

MySpace does not want to see its younger user base threatened, but also resists such verification measures likely because they could push current and potential users away from MySpace to competing websites. I wonder how they will feel when legal action is brought against them like what happened to the tobacco companies?

For more information on how to keep your kids safe on the Internet, visit some of these sites:

Internetchildsafety.net
ProtectKids.org
SafeKids.com
The FBI's Safe Kids Guidelines
LoveOurChildrenusa.org
CyberPatrol.com
NetNanny.com
CyberAngels.org
Microsoft's Family Internet Safety Guidelines
WiredSafety.org

There are many more available by looking through the Child Safety and Internet Safety for Kids Google Directories.

 

Conversions Are Taking Longer

What is a conversion anyway? It is the action of converting the user from a "clicker" to a customer.

According to MarketingSherpa a new study claims that customers are delaying their purchases 34+ hours from the time they initially come to a site. This is a huge increase over the 2005 findings that reported a 19 hour conversion time.

It seems that the consumers "are comparison shopping more, rather than buying at the first place they click to."

So how do site owners and marketers improve conversions?

• Increase your product reviews - Consumers love this information


• Offer more exclusive bonuses if they buy now


• Give your visitors more content than the competition


• Have a properly formatted and optimized landing page


• Display plenty of certifications and authoritative logos


• AND obviously, make sure everything in your site is working. Broken links and non functioning elements dramatically diminishes your conversion potential.

 

A Big Happy Birthday to The Smiley

This year we are celebrating 25 years of the smiley. Initiated by Scott Fahlman of Carnegie-Mellon, the first recognized use of the smiley dates back to September 16th, 1982.

So without further adieu, we salute the original smiley...

:-)

 

Firefox Vs. Internet Explorer - UFD

Over the past couple of years, as a matter of personal curiosity, I have been tracking the Firefox users vs. the IE users on the sites that we host. The numbers have been showing that Firefox is gaining slowly on industry leading IE. Just as I was wondering what the rest of the world was seeing, OneStat released findings that indicated that Firefox was climbing the ladder. FF is gaining about 1% per year.

Reported numbers are saying that Microsoft still has about 85% of the browser usage market and Firefox is at almost 13%. FF is showing a little bit better than what I was seeing but the numbers are real close. Typically I am seeing that FF is at about 10.5% of all searches with the understanding that the site demo dramatically changes the numbers.

Another UFD completely unrelated to the headline but I thought that I would throw it in anyway. In the US, is seems that browser resolutions are overwhelmingly 1024x768. The stats from all the research that I have done, indicate that anywhere from 53% to 81% of people have their monitors set at 1024 x 768. Only one source reported the 81% and I am willing to discount that one. The majority agree that 53% to 58% of browsers in the US are using the 1024 x 768 resolution.

Oh, and by the way, UFD in the headline = Useless facts of the day.

 

Net Neutrality Part 2

Last week I wrote about what Net Neutrality was and asked the question; "How can there be true Net Neutrality with no competition?"

"First, the broadband market suffers from a pronounced and intractable lack of competition. At best, consumers have a choice today between a telephone company and a cable company. The Congressional Research Service has described the current market as a “broadband duopoly,” where telephone and cable companies face little real competition. The FCC’s own skewed July 2006 figures still showed an overwhelmingly concentrated broadband market, with telephone companies and cable companies controlling access to 99.6 percent of all U.S. consumers. The share of alternative broadband platforms also has been decreasing steadily over time, from a less-than-impressive 2.9 percent in 1999 to an anemic 0.4 percent today."(1)

As it stands today, some smaller markets don't have a choice in broadband ISPs. The FTC claims that everything is just fine. Net Neutrality advocates are in disagreement with the FTC, claiming that the status quo has the country in a stranglehold. Here are some interesting points that Jason Miller, a WebProNews writer, brings up.

1. There was a default on $200 billion in taxpayer contributions to build out broadband services. ISPs were supposed to reinvest ear-marked profits to expand the broadband infrastructure and services, but this never happened.
2. Broadband prices are 40 times cost.
3. There is a median download speed of 1.97 megabits per second in the US and Japan has 61 megabits per second.
4. There is a current telco/cable duopoly whereby nearly 100 percent of the public has two choices of (slow) broadband providers.
5. New providers experience enormous cost barriers to entry into the broadband service market.
6. Efforts to block competition by ensuring the soon-to-be-available 700 MHz wireless spectrum (ideal for true wireless broadband) is bought up and hoarded by incumbents."

A great example of this is happening here locally. Less than 5 miles away there is a local utility that provides 5-7mbps download broadband for about $40 per month. Here, 3-5mbps will cost you $110 per month. So where does this leave the American people? What is the future of ISPs and broadband connectivity? We will have to see.

1.Courtesy of Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel on the Google Public Policy Blog

 

Do You YouTube?

Well apparently someone is. Jason Miller just reported on WebProNews that "YouTube Comprises 10% of all Internet traffic."

Social media like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other similar sites are getting more and more traffic every day. As Generation Y moves up in years, they are continually turning to the Internet for entertainment. The transition from simple web browsing to viewing streaming media will continue.

I agree that this trend will continue and lead the way for new applications, transforming the way we use the Internet.

According to Jason Miller, this recent YouTube traffic trend has surpassed, the once leading, P2P traffic in bandwidth consumption.

 

How Many Computers?

Forrester Research has reported that there will be over 1 billion personal computers in use by the end of 2008. 186 Million of which will have high speed Internet. It is estimated that 2 billion PCs will be in use by 2015. Still say you don't need a website?

I wonder how yellow page and newspaper publishers are preparing themselves for the death of their traditional media?

 

Google Coming to Iowa?

The DesMoines Register reported that Gov. Chet Culver plans to announce a "major economic development project" on Tuesday.

"An economic development official who asked not to be identified, but who is familiar with the project, said Friday that Google has told the state that it will build its next server farm in Council Bluffs."

The proposed data center that would house the big G has an estimated construction cost of $600 million. This is a huge break for the Tall Corn State with an estimated 100 jobs created that would pay between $50k and $130k annually.

We will find out tomorrow for sure. Keep your fingers crossed Council Bluffs.

 

Internet Safety

According the US Department of Justice, the month of June has been designated as National Internet Safety Month.

There are over 1 billion Internet users worldwide and in the United States alone, 35 million children, k-12 have Internet access. More stats that contributed to the development of this resolution can be found here.

"According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Internet “provides unparalleled opportunities for socially beneficial endeavors—such as education, research, commerce, entertainment, and discourse on public affairs—in ways that we may not now even be able to imagine. By the same token, however, individuals who wish to use a computer as a tool to facilitate unlawful activity may find that the Internet provides a vast, inexpensive, and potentially anonymous way to commit unlawful acts …” (Credits, 2000).


"Fortunately, despite all of the opportunities for criminals to use the Internet to prey on their victims, there are also many techniques and precautions that Internet users can take to avoid victimization." Make sure you are aware of your child's Internet use and do your diligence in implementing the Internet safety protocols you have at your disposal.

 

The New Mass Media

According to Jupiter Research 86 million households will have broadband by the year 2012. Statistics are now showing that people are spending as much or more time on the Internet for personal use vs. watching TV. The Internet is where people are going to get news, product information, special pricing, and other consumer related information. People aren't even writing letters to the editor anymore, they are starting blogs.

Did you know that in the US, 69% of consumers are interested in products that allow them to block, skip or opt out of advertising and marketing messages?

So what does this mean to a marketer? It means that you need to position your company as an authority and have the Internet presence to support that position when consumers begin their research. A January, 2007 survey from Accenture finds that the majority of consumers use the Internet to research products but prefer to make the purchase offline. The report said that 67% of consumers prefer to make their purchase in a brick and mortar establishment. This number is much lower than it was just 5 short years ago. Eventually there is going to be a shift in consumer behavior. As the younger generation become consumers, more and more purchases are going to be made online. So what can you do now as a business owner? Make sure you web presence is optimized for maximum conversions. Get the most out of your site when people come to do their research.

Companies that understand and embrace the new mass media will be poised to capture future business as well as the current Gen Y market that is already web exclusive.