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Archive for the ‘Internet News’ Category
Wpromote Sponsor’s US Olympic Hopeful Forrest Gay
Mike Stone | October 5th, 2007
Wpromote is sponsoring 2008 Olympic Sailing hopeful, Forrest Gay. Forrest is in the process of competing at the 2007 Olympic Trials in the Finn class. The Finn Olympic trials are currently taking place at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club in Balboa California. With 41 boats, the Finn Class will be the largest fleet at the Trials. Forrest recently placed 8th at the Finn North American Championship that took place September 21-23rd at the Coyote Point Yacht club. Forrest of course is favored to win at the Olympic trials, at least by the odds makers at Wpromote. How could he not with this sleek looking boat? For the past year Forrest has been dedicating himself to chasing down his Olympic dream and has the full support and admiration of everyone here at Wpromote. Way to go Forrest! We are pulling for you. Save this Post!
Google Tackles Television
Michael Block | October 4th, 2007
You have to hand it to Google; they never quit. Even with the world at its feet and with an unbelievable market share in search, they never rest on their laurels. Even with the best, most intuitive search engine on the planet, they continue to look for ways to make it better. Even with by far the best search advertising platform of the big three firms (including Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN adCenter), they never cease researching and developing new ways to shock their clients with their seemingly limitless ingenuity. That’s not to say that Google hasn’t had help. Like a good scholar, Google has learned from history. Many argue that Yahoo! was in a similar situation to Google’s present state before the Internet stock crash and that Yahoo! even survived the ordeal pretty well. Perhaps, they survived too well since a glaring criticism of Yahoo! was that it grew lazy and stagnant, sufficiently pleased by what it had accomplished. This is a mistake that Google will not be making anytime soon. With varying degrees of success, Google has expanded beyond the medium of search into more conventional media of advertising. Through your standard Google AdWords interface, you can advertise to people not only on search engines, but also in blogs, on content sites, in newspapers and even with audio ads on the radio. Google has never missed an opportunity to use its trove of wealth and human talent to try and capitalize beyond its normal aegis of search. Now, Continue reading…
The Great Click Myth
Theodore Cohen | September 28th, 2007
One of the most common things that people interested in internet advertising get consumed by is how much overall traffic or “clicks” we can get for their website without much or any relevancy to the quality of traffic. When people call our firm asking for specific numbers I usually can’t give them the answers they are looking for. You may ponder why, why an advertiser trying to promote someone’s website would not be able to tell a client such such vital information, but the reason is simple. It’s that the word “click” has become such a buzz word that people have lost site of the real goal of advertising, conversions. Internet marketing is unfortunately saturated with a lot of unethical companies that guarantee, or claim to guarantee, a certain number of “clicks” that will be driven to your site. Honestly though, it is crucial for people to detach from this sort of logic. From here, one must ask, what’s important? What’s important for a person trying to embark down the road on internet advertising is targeted traffic. Clients will watch their hits, or clicks, or Alexa rank and form opinions about their performance by these metrics which may have little correlation with the true success of their business. In the end, it depends on the goals of your site. If your site is a content site, and your goal is to sell advertising, maybe this is a fair calculation, or one of a handful, that are relevant. However, if your Continue reading…
Google Encourages Privacy Protection
Michael Block | September 24th, 2007
Today, Google announced that the international community hasn’t done nearly enough to promote privacy protection for Internet users. Google’s global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, was quoted as stating that serious advances in the field of privacy protection need to be made very quickly, i.e. within the next five years. This story is striking as it finds Google arguing from a standpoint that is either very suspicious or very refreshing. As the world’s preferred search engine and as the purveyors of arguably the largest cache of personal information in history, Google is in a position to financially benefit from the exploitation of such information more so than any other online player; the announcement that more needs to be done to protect this data is surprising coming from Google. So far, Google has done well by its users. Considering how much Google knows about us, we should probably consider ourselves lucky that Google has shown as much restraint as it has through the present. To this end, Google’s vocal distaste with the lack of privacy protection should be reassuring that Google has no plans on changing its policies anytime soon. Perhaps, the fact that this announcement comes in the wake of MySpace’s decision to use personal data for advertising purposes is no coincidence. If Google can’t/won’t benefit from the use of personal information, maybe they feel that no one else should either. If this is the case, then I applaud Google, as I believe that we should always err to the side Continue reading…
The Importance of Appearance
Mike Stone | September 19th, 2007
According to the State of Retailing Online report released today, Online retailers plan major investments in improved web site design. “88% of the 150 retailers responding to the survey have prioritized improving product detail pages, 80% adding online images and 76% A/B testing of offers and promotions. In fact, 14 types of web site improvements were rated investment priorities by more than half of the merchants participating in the survey.†This movement is welcomed here at Wpromote, as we are constantly stressing to our clients the need for a site that captures user attention and landing pages that convert at a high rate. Often users who are new to Search Marketing ignore the aesthetics and move right into the “how much traffic can I get and what does it take to be number one?†I constantly encounter greenhorns and professionals alike that are too eager to increase visibility and efficiency to take a step back and look at the actual site they are promoting. By taking a portion of your marketing dollars and putting them towards site improvement, you are ultimately increasing the worth of each dollar you put towards marketing in the future. Today’s users are becoming increasingly savvy and competition in the search engines is growing daily. Your customer is only a back button away from your competition at all times. By keeping your site up to date or ahead of the times you are able to create buyer confidence and generate return visitors. When talking to potential Continue reading…
MySpace Targeted Ads: Friend or Foe?
Michael Block | September 18th, 2007
If the Internets were so inclined, they could probably write a pretty good biography on you. They know which pages you browse, which searches you run, which products you buy, which pictures and movies you look at, which blogs you read and more, not to mention the fact that they have your social security number, credit card number, home address and other scary-specific private information floating around somewhere inside them. They know what you like; they know what you don’t like; they know who you are. Perhaps the only reassurances that we, as users of the World Wide Web, have are the following: 1) We browse with at least some anonymity through our IP addresses, which, hypothetically could be being used by anyone, 2) Many companies promise-promise-promise that the information that you submit will never be used for the forces of evil, 3) There are millions of us browsing billions of sites… nobody would single us out, right? Well, the news today is that MySpace is going to begin using personal information to advertise to its users. Do you like movies? Prepare to see a lot more Netflix ads when you login. Are you a big sports fan in Philadelphia? What a coincidence because ticket brokers in your area and stores that sell Eagles merch are going to be all over your home page! MySpace–under the guise of getting better, more interesting ads to its users and providing a more targeted audience for its advertisers–is going to begin using the Continue reading…
