Internet Marketing Course BLOG

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 10, 2007

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): This change by Nielsen/NetRatings in how Web site property popularity is judged is something to keep your eye on. It is more than a simple change in how site popularity is measured – it reflects fundamental changes that are occurring in the way Web content is presented and viewed.

“NEW YORK (AP) — A leading online measurement service will scrap rankings based on the longtime industry yardstick of page views and begin tracking how long visitors spend at the sites.

The move by Nielsen/NetRatings, announced Tuesday, comes as online video and new technologies increasingly make page views less meaningful.

Although Nielsen already measures average time spent and average number of sessions per visitor for each site, it will start reporting total time spent and sessions for all visitors to give advertisers, investors and analysts a broader picture of what sites are most popular.

Currently, sites and advertisers often use page views, a figure that reflects the number of Web pages a visitor pulls from a site.

However, Yahoo Inc. and others are increasingly using a software trick called Ajax to improve the user experience. It allows sites to update data automatically and continually, without users needing to pull up new pages. Page views decline as a result.

Page views also drop as people spend more time watching online video at sites like Google Inc.’s YouTube.”

Read the entire news release at:

Nielsen Scraps Web Page View Rankings

Technorati Tags:Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing

Lisa Phillips
Senior Analyst
eMarketer

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): The “digital” slice of the pharma marketing pie just keeps getting bigger each year, as this article highlights with some very interesting details about where the digital marketing dollars are being spent.

“The endless text of pharma disclaimers is at home on the Web.

Web sites are getting pharmaceutical marketers’ interactive budgets this year, according to a new study by the Medical Broadcasting Company (MBC) and CBI Research.

A plurality of pharma marketers said site spending would be most likely to get their budgets this year.”

Read the entire article at:

Digital Pharma Marketers Keep It Simple

Technorati Tags:Business, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing

Google, Microsoft, Ask.Com Quietly Use Spinoff Sites To Test New Features, Solicit Feedback; Pulling Up Videos

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO
Wall Street Journal
January 17, 2007; Page D1

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Take a peek at the major search engines’ ideas for the next generation of search via this Wall Street Journal Online article. Why should Web Marketers care? Because with expanded search results will come expanded methods of marketing to these searchers. You’ll need to be a WSJ Online subscriber to read the article.

Here are the links to the main next-generation search engines discussed in this article:
SearchMash.com (Google property)
Ask X (Ask property)
AllTheWeb Live Search (Yahoo property)
MsDewey.com (Microsoft Windows Live property)

“Kevin McCarty, long a devout Google user, recently discovered a search engine he often finds more helpful. It’s called SearchMash.com, and unlike Google and other major search sites, it pulls up video, images and text all at the same time.

“I absolutely hate having to go from page to page to get a combination of image and Web results,” says Mr. McCarty, a 42-year-old computer consultant in Nashville, Tenn. “SearchMash saves lots of time.”

It turns out, though, that SearchMash is Google. In recent months, the top search engine and its main rivals have stealthily set up a new generation of search engines where they try out new tools and features on consumers — without putting their tried-and-true formulas at risk. If something proves to be a hit — the combined search results that Mr. McCarty likes so much, for instance — it could eventually be folded into the parent site. For now, though, these sites provide an entertaining and even useful glimpse into the evolution of Web, and in particular, search engines, which in their basic operation haven’t changed much in years.”

Read the entire WSJ article by clicking on the following link (you’ll need to be a WSJ Online subscriber):

In Search of Better Ways to Search

Technorati Tags:Business, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing

by Dave Ingalls
Internet Marketing Course Blog

Now that you know the major problem with your business Web site is that it doesn’t have a champion – a single “owner” charged with the mission of making that Web site and associated online marketing activities pull its weight – what do you do about it?

Find a Web site/online marketing champion! Let’s start the search by trying to define the qualities of an ideal candidate. In my opinion, the perfect business Web site/online marketing champion has the following KEY characteristics:

This person KNOWS the Internet/Web. Maybe he/she has a personal Web site, or blogs about a passion of theirs. In other words, he/she is ALREADY immersed in this form of communication – that’s important because any potential Customers you are able to attract to your Web site are also completely comfortable with learning thru this medium.

This person KNOWS your market segment’s Customers or, based on his/her previous experience, can quickly “learn” your Customers. Why? Because your Web site/online marketing champion needs to know how Customers like yours find information on the type of products/services you sell.

This person KNOWS how to write! If you’re going to give your Web site a single “voice”, it better be one that your Customers, prospects, employees and media want to hear!

More to Follow…

Technorati Tags:
Business, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing

by Dave Ingalls
Internet Marketing Course Blog

That’s right – NO ONE OWNS IT!

The worst death a business/corporate Web site can suffer is that no one person is given the responsibility (and authority!) to make the Web site grow and contribute to the overall marketing goals of the business.

Your Web site needs a CHAMPION. You, as VP/Director of Marketing, need to find that person within your existing organization, or hire someone from outside. And I do mean that PERSON – one person totally committed to the success of the Web site, and preferably, to ALL aspects of your company’s online marketing effort.

If you “hire from within”, don’t make the mistake of making the success of the company’s online marketing effort one of a dozen “most important” objectives for the person you put in charge of it. The online marketing effort should not be positioned as a one of many task – if you want it to succeed, you need to give it the resources it needs, and the FIRST step in that process is making it someone’s KEY responsibility.

More to follow…Part 3

Technorati Tags:
Business, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing