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Maximize
a Site Before the Media Blitz
Everything’s ready. The financing’s long been in place. The technology,
supplier relationships, and distribution channels are set up. The
media strategy’s laid out. The site is launching tomorrow, and so
is the media blitz. Sound like a plan? Not so fast. In all the excitement
leading up to a launch, it’s easy to get carried away. Be sure you’ve
taken steps to maximize a site BEFORE the media blitz. Adam tells
you why and how.
Web
Domain Sales Averaging $24,000
While some companies may be cursing their dot-com distinction, this
hasn’t had any affect on the Web domain biz. According to GreatDomains.com’s
September figures, the average sales price for a domain name was
$7,216, a 29 percent increase from the previous month, bringing
the average price for a Web domain to-date to more than $24,000.
The sales activity breakdown for the month was 3 percent of
the names sold for more than $100,000; 30 percent sold for between
$5,000 and $100,000; and 67 percent sold for under $5,000. Research
found the most popularly traded extension continues to be dot-com,
accounting for 92.5 percent of all sales.
Arguments
I Keep Losing
Ever since Dana started covering the Internet full-time in 1994,
certain practices have just ticked him off. Like "front doors"
that make visitors scramble to find the "skip" button.
Or the bizarre absence of "contact info." Why do so many
sites seem to do their best to turn visitors off... or just plain
turn them away?
What
Can P2P Do for B2B?
As the courts and Shawn Fanning wrangle over copyright issues, the
service behind Napster brings up thoughts of some interesting possibilities
in the B2B e-commerce space.
Performance
Anxiety
The days of static, hand-coded Web pages are long gone. Most online
businesses today display pages that are created on the fly, drawing
text and images from various back-end databases. Dynamically
assembling all these pages can take time, meaning slower page-load
times for Web site visitors. Site performance seems a no-brainer,
but surprisingly it’s often overlooked.
Seattle-based
PostPoint software was one of the first companies to address the
issue by caching dynamic pages. Now SpiderCache, a Canadian firm,
is weighing in with a solution. Like PostPoint’s
Xcache, SpiderCache sits alongside a company’s Web server software,
storing pre-assembled copies of the most frequently requested pages.
The SpiderCache software starts at $3,000 per processor and,
according to the company, has already given customer Investment.com
a page-loading performance that’s 37 times faster than the norm.
Doubleclick
Debuts Email Tools
Following in the footsteps of competitors such as 24/7 Media, online
ad giant DoubleClick announced a suite of e-mail products on Monday
to help online direct marketers serve targeted ads in text and HTML
e-mail messages. Called DoubleClick eMail, it is expected to be
available internationally at the end of the fourth quarter of 2000.
The move follows the company’s agreement earlier this month to buy
NetCreations to gain access to its 22 million e-mail addresses.
Line
of Site Advertising
AdReady, a next generation advertising tool, turns idle time into
ad time. Launched in August, 2000, adPointer was created to help
advertisers reach their target audience; help publishers increase
ad revenue by creating new "prime real estate" space and
introduce a valuable navigational tool; and provide consumers with
a new method of receiving advertisements online. adPointer works
through proprietary code that detects when a user’s cursor is stationary
on a Web page-appearing where the cursor is positioned. The user
then receives a postage-sized pop-up ad, next to the cursor position
(the adPointer is download-free and requires no plug-ins).
Does
E-Commerce Need Search Engines?
I’m convinced that the more a person shops online, the less he or
she relies on search engines. We become creatures of habit, running
a well-worn path toward the e-tailers we deem worthy of our money.
Over time, we learn to speak -- or type -- the language of the Net.
In fact, it’s often faster and easier to find a company’s Web site
through the guess method than it is by plugging in a word to a search
engine that returns hundreds or thousands of responses about Road
Runner cartoons.
The
Internet has plenty of sites that reduce the need for random searching.
Sites like Suite101 and About.com have morphed into portals that
feed users their desired slice of the jumbled information pie. At
these portals, information is catalogued, organized and ranked at
reference sites that have already done all that searching for you.
The useless pages full of typos, outdated information and dead links
get discarded before you even see them.
Will
CTR Kill Online Advertising?
Are you sick of hearing that online advertising is dead and that
no one clicks on banners anymore? Everyone outside the industry
seems to think that the click-through rate (CTR) is the best success
metric. But simply judging success by CTR is not what it’s all about.
Some companies make it easier for advertisers and agencies to get
a handle on these measurements, but custom success metrics have
not yet made it into the mainstream. Here’s what advertisers can
do.
Marketing
Important for Dot-com Survival
Cutting costs may not necessarily lead to profitability for dot-coms
according to new research from Getzler & Co. In a study of 213
technology and dot-com businesses, Getzler & Co. found 57 companies
had cut costs, particularly in the area of sales and marketing.
But the absence of those areas has not helped the failing companies.
According
to Brian Mittman, vice president of Getzler & Co., the loss
of sales results in stagnation: "We’ve heard time and again
how dot-coms are reducing costs in order to become profitable. But
what we’ve learned is that, rather than help the company, cost-cutting
reduces sales growth so drastically that profitability becomes nearly
impossible."
What’s
Hot? Some Steamy Start-ups in a Cold World for Ad Companies
Venture capitalists may not be the best predictors of the future
of the online advertising and marketing industry, but taking a look
at where the dough is going may shed some light on areas that may
become the hottest growth areas of the business.
Much-abused
banner gets a respectful nod
What if the thing that doesn’t work isn’t the banner ad itself but
the idea that the click-through rate is a meaningful metric? A new
study by Forrester Research suggests just that by showing that banner
ads for certain types of products can and do increase sales volume.
Mapping
Customer Attitudes
Many marketers could benefit from a map of customer attitudes. Using
a perceptual map, marketers can create more compelling ads, refine
media selection, and tailor content on web sites and in email messages.
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