The below was sent to me by Google AdSense.
Hi there,
As the holiday season approaches, advertisers are preparing new campaigns and internet traffic is likely to increase. To help you take advantage of this, in this issue, we've put together the top tips for making your site more visible. You’ll also find updates on:
* Improving page load speed in DFP Small Business
* Using Google+ Pages for brands and businesses
Make your site more visible!
Be relevant
Do you know how users find your pages? Webmaster Tools provides you with detailed information on the top queries for which your site ranks in Google search results. Use this information to make sure that the content users find most interesting is most prominent.
Be social
As we mentioned in our last newsletter, by implementing the +1 button on your pages, you can give users an opportunity to share their opinion with you and guide you to what is most interesting for them on your site. Webmaster Tools now also allows you to track the search impact of +1’s on your pages.
Be fast
A faster site increases user satisfaction, so speed is an important factor in the Google search ranking. Page Speed Online analyzes the content of a web page and generates suggestions to make that page faster. Let Maile Ohye from the Developers Program Team tell you more about the importance of your site’s performance:
Site Speed Performance For Webmasters (VIDEO)
Check how fast your website loads !
UpDates:
Google+ Pages for businesses and brands
Google+ Pages are a way for brands and businesses to have a presence on Google+. Pages bring you closer to your audience, letting you have real conversations with the right people, connecting you face to face with your site’s visitors, and letting current fans recommend new ones.
Giving your business a home on Google+ lets you directly interact with your users, while giving them more chances to share your content with their friends. Create a page today and connect with your audience!
I hope the above information is of help to you.
Anthony,
Your Internet website marketing partner at ProNetUSA.com
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Yahoo Site Explorer Coming Offline
The below information as received from Majestic SEO.
Yahoo Site Explorer was launched in September 2005 to mixed acclaim but became the main source of link analysis data in the world for several years. It is now being retired as we speak and its architect, Tim Mayer laments its demise.
Majestic SEO does not – and never has – used Yahoo’s data. Whilst we expect an increase in the Free services that Majestic offers as a result of this closure, we have already planned for this eventuality within our infrastructure and see no issues in handling the increased traffic to our site.
Majestic crawls the web independently of any search engines and we surpassed Yahoo’s data set many years ago.
We would like to say thank you to Yahoo for Yahoo Site Explorer’s contribution to Internet Marketers everywhere.
I hope the above information has been of help to you.
Anthony,
Your Internet website marketing partner at ProNetUSA.com
Yahoo Site Explorer was launched in September 2005 to mixed acclaim but became the main source of link analysis data in the world for several years. It is now being retired as we speak and its architect, Tim Mayer laments its demise.
Majestic SEO does not – and never has – used Yahoo’s data. Whilst we expect an increase in the Free services that Majestic offers as a result of this closure, we have already planned for this eventuality within our infrastructure and see no issues in handling the increased traffic to our site.
Majestic crawls the web independently of any search engines and we surpassed Yahoo’s data set many years ago.
We would like to say thank you to Yahoo for Yahoo Site Explorer’s contribution to Internet Marketers everywhere.
I hope the above information has been of help to you.
Anthony,
Your Internet website marketing partner at ProNetUSA.com
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Web Page tips from Google
The below was sent to me by Google AdSense.
Hi there,
As the holiday season approaches, advertisers are preparing new campaigns and internet traffic is likely to increase. To help you take advantage of this, in this issue, we've put together the top tips for making your site more visible. You’ll also find updates on:
* Improving page load speed in DFP Small Business
* Using Google+ Pages for brands and businesses
Make your site more visible!
Be relevant
Do you know how users find your pages? Webmaster Tools provides you with detailed information on the top queries for which your site ranks in Google search results. Use this information to make sure that the content users find most interesting is most prominent.
Be social
As we mentioned in our last newsletter, by implementing the +1 button on your pages, you can give users an opportunity to share their opinion with you and guide you to what is most interesting for them on your site. Webmaster Tools now also allows you to track the search impact of +1’s on your pages.
Be fast
A faster site increases user satisfaction, so speed is an important factor in the Google search ranking. Page Speed Online analyzes the content of a web page and generates suggestions to make that page faster. Let Maile Ohye from the Developers Program Team tell you more about the importance of your site’s performance:
Site Speed Performance For Webmasters (VIDEO)
Check how fast your website loads !
UpDates:
Google+ Pages for businesses and brands
Google+ Pages are a way for brands and businesses to have a presence on Google+. Pages bring you closer to your audience, letting you have real conversations with the right people, connecting you face to face with your site’s visitors, and letting current fans recommend new ones.
Giving your business a home on Google+ lets you directly interact with your users, while giving them more chances to share your content with their friends. Create a page today and connect with your audience!
Anthony,
Your Internet website marketing partner at ProNetUSA.com
Hi there,
As the holiday season approaches, advertisers are preparing new campaigns and internet traffic is likely to increase. To help you take advantage of this, in this issue, we've put together the top tips for making your site more visible. You’ll also find updates on:
* Improving page load speed in DFP Small Business
* Using Google+ Pages for brands and businesses
Make your site more visible!
Be relevant
Do you know how users find your pages? Webmaster Tools provides you with detailed information on the top queries for which your site ranks in Google search results. Use this information to make sure that the content users find most interesting is most prominent.
Be social
As we mentioned in our last newsletter, by implementing the +1 button on your pages, you can give users an opportunity to share their opinion with you and guide you to what is most interesting for them on your site. Webmaster Tools now also allows you to track the search impact of +1’s on your pages.
Be fast
A faster site increases user satisfaction, so speed is an important factor in the Google search ranking. Page Speed Online analyzes the content of a web page and generates suggestions to make that page faster. Let Maile Ohye from the Developers Program Team tell you more about the importance of your site’s performance:
Site Speed Performance For Webmasters (VIDEO)
Check how fast your website loads !
UpDates:
Google+ Pages for businesses and brands
Google+ Pages are a way for brands and businesses to have a presence on Google+. Pages bring you closer to your audience, letting you have real conversations with the right people, connecting you face to face with your site’s visitors, and letting current fans recommend new ones.
Giving your business a home on Google+ lets you directly interact with your users, while giving them more chances to share your content with their friends. Create a page today and connect with your audience!
Anthony,
Your Internet website marketing partner at ProNetUSA.com
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Google+1 button will begin to appear on AdSense for Content and AdSense for Mobile Content
As received from Google on 9-21-2011
"Hello,
In the next month, we'll introduce the +1 button and personal recommendations to display ads. The +1 button will begin to appear on AdSense for Content and AdSense for Mobile Content display ad formats -- image, animated gif, and Flash. +1s will be one additional signal to help determine an ad's relevance and we'll continue to show the ads that will generate the most revenue for you.
We previously launched the +1 button on Google search and for publisher sites to make it easier for people to share and discover content across the web. Soon, your users will be able to endorse specific ads and make the ads more likely to appear to their social connections. We believe that these recommendations could help your readers notice ads on your site more, leading to higher returns for you over time.
If you prefer not to show the +1 buttons on display ads on your pages, you can opt out in your account. For more information please visit the Inside AdSense blog.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense team"
+1 gets conversations going. Click the +1 button to give something your public stamp of approval. Then, if you want to share right away, add a comment and send it to the right circles on Google+.
The next time your friends and contacts search on Google, they could see your +1. You’ll help them find the best stuff on the web – and you might just start up another conversation!
Click here to go to Google+
Anthony,
Your Internet website marketing partner at ProNetUSA.com
"Hello,
In the next month, we'll introduce the +1 button and personal recommendations to display ads. The +1 button will begin to appear on AdSense for Content and AdSense for Mobile Content display ad formats -- image, animated gif, and Flash. +1s will be one additional signal to help determine an ad's relevance and we'll continue to show the ads that will generate the most revenue for you.
We previously launched the +1 button on Google search and for publisher sites to make it easier for people to share and discover content across the web. Soon, your users will be able to endorse specific ads and make the ads more likely to appear to their social connections. We believe that these recommendations could help your readers notice ads on your site more, leading to higher returns for you over time.
If you prefer not to show the +1 buttons on display ads on your pages, you can opt out in your account. For more information please visit the Inside AdSense blog.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense team"
+1 gets conversations going. Click the +1 button to give something your public stamp of approval. Then, if you want to share right away, add a comment and send it to the right circles on Google+.
The next time your friends and contacts search on Google, they could see your +1. You’ll help them find the best stuff on the web – and you might just start up another conversation!
Click here to go to Google+
Anthony,
Your Internet website marketing partner at ProNetUSA.com
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Google Analytics Time on Site, Length of Visit and Bounces
Bounce as described by Google;
“Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality – a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.”
OPINION Comment
To know how long a visitor has spent on a web page Google needs two things:
1 ) The time you arrived on a specific web page
2 ) The time you requested another web page on the SAME website.
Read # 2 again… “The time you requested another web page on the SAME website.” You have Google Analytics installed on your web site but if the visitor leaves your website for another page for any one of the following reasons; entering an URL in the address bar, closing the browser, clicking on advertisement or an outgoing “self target” link etc… Google Analytics does NOT get triggered again and it cannot calculate the time on that page. So… it defaults to 00:00:00.
Therefore in theory someone could land on a web page and stay on that web page for 10 minutes and get the info they were looking for, then close the browser and Google will count as 00:00:00 time and that equals as a bounce.
How to view your BOUNCE RATE?
If you have a Google Analytics account connected to your website you can view the bounce rates for your website by going to the Bounce Rate report under Visitors > Visitor Trending > Bounce Rate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time on Site as described by Google;
“Time on Site: Time on site is one way of measuring visit quality. If visitors spend a long time visiting your site, they may be interacting extensively with it. However, Time on site can be misleading because visitors often leave browser windows open when they are not actually viewing or using your site.”
OPINION Comment
This method of calculating Time on Site is also not 100% accurate because even the reported time on site is faulty to begin with. Time on Site is nothing but the sum of Avg. Time on Page for all web pages. And we know that the reported Time on Page is not 100% accurate because Google Analytics does not record time spent on page for exits and bounces.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Length of Visit as described by Google;
“Length of Visit (Visitor Behavior): Length of visit is a measure of visit quality. A large number of lengthy visits suggests that visitors interact more extensively with your site. The graph allows you to visualize the entire distribution of visits instead of simply the ‘Average Time on Site’ across all visits. Keep in mind that ‘Average Time on Site’ is skewed by visitors leaving browser windows open when they are not actually viewing or using your site. You can see whether a few visits are skewing your ‘Average Time on Site’ upward or whether most visits to your site have a high average time.”
OPINION Comment
The only way for someone to register a visit for more than 0 seconds is if they go to a SECOND page. The reason for this is that Google Analytics can only tell how long someone has been there if they have more than one page view – it uses the timestamps (date and time record) of each page view and “subtracts” them to get the time that someone was on one page. For this reason; you will not know how long someone stays on the FIRST and only page visited and you will never know how long someone was truly on your site because you can’t tell how long they were looking at the LAST page they were on (in both instances there isn’t a next page for Google Analytics to subtract time from).
Till the next time,
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and Friend at ProNetUSA - WebSites and Internet Marketing
“Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality – a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.”
OPINION Comment
To know how long a visitor has spent on a web page Google needs two things:
1 ) The time you arrived on a specific web page
2 ) The time you requested another web page on the SAME website.
Read # 2 again… “The time you requested another web page on the SAME website.” You have Google Analytics installed on your web site but if the visitor leaves your website for another page for any one of the following reasons; entering an URL in the address bar, closing the browser, clicking on advertisement or an outgoing “self target” link etc… Google Analytics does NOT get triggered again and it cannot calculate the time on that page. So… it defaults to 00:00:00.
Therefore in theory someone could land on a web page and stay on that web page for 10 minutes and get the info they were looking for, then close the browser and Google will count as 00:00:00 time and that equals as a bounce.
How to view your BOUNCE RATE?
If you have a Google Analytics account connected to your website you can view the bounce rates for your website by going to the Bounce Rate report under Visitors > Visitor Trending > Bounce Rate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time on Site as described by Google;
“Time on Site: Time on site is one way of measuring visit quality. If visitors spend a long time visiting your site, they may be interacting extensively with it. However, Time on site can be misleading because visitors often leave browser windows open when they are not actually viewing or using your site.”
OPINION Comment
This method of calculating Time on Site is also not 100% accurate because even the reported time on site is faulty to begin with. Time on Site is nothing but the sum of Avg. Time on Page for all web pages. And we know that the reported Time on Page is not 100% accurate because Google Analytics does not record time spent on page for exits and bounces.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Length of Visit as described by Google;
“Length of Visit (Visitor Behavior): Length of visit is a measure of visit quality. A large number of lengthy visits suggests that visitors interact more extensively with your site. The graph allows you to visualize the entire distribution of visits instead of simply the ‘Average Time on Site’ across all visits. Keep in mind that ‘Average Time on Site’ is skewed by visitors leaving browser windows open when they are not actually viewing or using your site. You can see whether a few visits are skewing your ‘Average Time on Site’ upward or whether most visits to your site have a high average time.”
OPINION Comment
The only way for someone to register a visit for more than 0 seconds is if they go to a SECOND page. The reason for this is that Google Analytics can only tell how long someone has been there if they have more than one page view – it uses the timestamps (date and time record) of each page view and “subtracts” them to get the time that someone was on one page. For this reason; you will not know how long someone stays on the FIRST and only page visited and you will never know how long someone was truly on your site because you can’t tell how long they were looking at the LAST page they were on (in both instances there isn’t a next page for Google Analytics to subtract time from).
Till the next time,
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and Friend at ProNetUSA - WebSites and Internet Marketing
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Website load speed affects search engine rankings ?
Site speed - how long it takes a web page to load and show up for people in a web browser window - is now one of Google's ranking factors. That means Google takes site speed into account when deciding how high a site should show up in search results. Very slow sites will have a much harder time beating out its competitors.
If visitors have to wait too long for your site to load, they're more likely to leave quickly, and less likely to do what you want them to do - like buy your product or service, contact you for a quote, sign up for your newsletter, or download your e-book.
You can test how long it takes your site to load with various tools. One favorite is Pingdom's site speed test, and Google also has the new Google Page Speed Online tool. If you use Google Webmaster Tools, look under "Labs" and click "Site Performance."
In my opinion, a website that loads within 2 seconds is doing well. A site that loads in 2 to 4 seconds isn't really fast, but is acceptable if you have a bunch of relative information on the web page.
A website that takes more than 5 seconds or more to load is likely to push potential visitors on to the next web page viewing option which could very well be your competitors, and may be suffer a lower ranking. If your site takes more than 7 seconds to load, you really need to speed it up.
Till the next time,
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and Friend at ProNetUSA - WebSites and Internet Marketing
If visitors have to wait too long for your site to load, they're more likely to leave quickly, and less likely to do what you want them to do - like buy your product or service, contact you for a quote, sign up for your newsletter, or download your e-book.
Check how fast your website loads !
You can test how long it takes your site to load with various tools. One favorite is Pingdom's site speed test, and Google also has the new Google Page Speed Online tool. If you use Google Webmaster Tools, look under "Labs" and click "Site Performance."
What's considered slow?
In my opinion, a website that loads within 2 seconds is doing well. A site that loads in 2 to 4 seconds isn't really fast, but is acceptable if you have a bunch of relative information on the web page.
A website that takes more than 5 seconds or more to load is likely to push potential visitors on to the next web page viewing option which could very well be your competitors, and may be suffer a lower ranking. If your site takes more than 7 seconds to load, you really need to speed it up.
For more information on how to improve your site speed,
read AboutUs's 6 Easy Ways To Improve Your Site Speed, for SEO.Till the next time,
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and Friend at ProNetUSA - WebSites and Internet Marketing
Monday, August 1, 2011
External backlinks (inbound links for Google Page Rank)
External backlinks are the most focused-on off web page aspect of SEO. Backlinks (or “inbound links”) are a fundamental pillar of search engine optimization. On-page optimization is limited in scope — there is only so much you can do with on-page optimization. The rest of your rankings will rely heavily on your off web page backlinks and how many pages and the quality of those pages that are linking into your web page(s).
Webmasters tend to keep track of Page Rank, which helps in measuring the effectiveness of backlinks to their website or blog. The biggest question is how many backlinks do you need to move your page rank up. It’s not only the amount of backlinks, but the quality of those backlinks as well
Although nobody can determine the exact Google PageRank values, the table below gives a fair representation of how many backlinks, of certain PageRank values are required to achieve a certain Google PageRank.
I know a lot of people don’t know what it takes to increase their Page Ranking using backlinks. Here’s a good graph to help explain to you how many backlinks are needed for that highly sought after page rank increase.
Till the next time,
Anthony,
Click here to page rank chart.
Webmasters tend to keep track of Page Rank, which helps in measuring the effectiveness of backlinks to their website or blog. The biggest question is how many backlinks do you need to move your page rank up. It’s not only the amount of backlinks, but the quality of those backlinks as well
Although nobody can determine the exact Google PageRank values, the table below gives a fair representation of how many backlinks, of certain PageRank values are required to achieve a certain Google PageRank.
I know a lot of people don’t know what it takes to increase their Page Ranking using backlinks. Here’s a good graph to help explain to you how many backlinks are needed for that highly sought after page rank increase.
Till the next time,
Anthony,
Click here to page rank chart.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Encouraging Customer Reviews: Tips to Get People Talking About Your Small Business
Small businesses have the opportunity to make a name for themselves as something really special. Soliciting customer feedback can play a crucial role in building this reputation. Here are some customer feedback tips to keep in mind as you encourage your own customers to review your business:
1)Give your customers a reason to review your business or service. Offer them a coupon or discount off their next purchase if they go to Google, Yelp, Citysearch, EZlocal or any other online internet directory and leave a review.
2)Link your business directory profiles from your own website to your specific directories. Don't count on customers tracking down your online directory listing. Add links to your website for each profile and further encourage customers to go leave reviews.
3) Encourage a constant stream of reviews. Keep the reviews trickling in, this serves two important purposes. First, it looks better. If you are visiting a profile whose reviews are all clustered around 3 or 4 dates, it looks questionable, a little bit planned and spammy. A constant stream of reviews spread across all dates looks much better and will build more trust with potential customers.
4) Don't discourage less than perfect reviews. We don't live in a perfect world and no one expects your business to bat 1.000. In fact, if your business has nothing but 5-star reviews across the board it might strike consumers as a bit suspect, is anybody that perfect? Also, negative reviews offer a golden opportunity for you to prove yourself, to go above and beyond. The Consumerist actually has an entire category dedicated to incidences where businesses stepped up and made things right after something went wrong.
The strength of small businesses often lies in customer service and attention to detail. If a bad review falls on your doorstep, rejoice—you have a chance to showcase your talents and turn a negative review into a positive experience, something they will be impressed with and tell their friends about. This word of mouth will prove to be incredibly valuable to your business.
Till the next time,
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and Friend at ProNetUSA - WebSites and Internet Marketing
1)Give your customers a reason to review your business or service. Offer them a coupon or discount off their next purchase if they go to Google, Yelp, Citysearch, EZlocal or any other online internet directory and leave a review.
2)Link your business directory profiles from your own website to your specific directories. Don't count on customers tracking down your online directory listing. Add links to your website for each profile and further encourage customers to go leave reviews.
3) Encourage a constant stream of reviews. Keep the reviews trickling in, this serves two important purposes. First, it looks better. If you are visiting a profile whose reviews are all clustered around 3 or 4 dates, it looks questionable, a little bit planned and spammy. A constant stream of reviews spread across all dates looks much better and will build more trust with potential customers.
4) Don't discourage less than perfect reviews. We don't live in a perfect world and no one expects your business to bat 1.000. In fact, if your business has nothing but 5-star reviews across the board it might strike consumers as a bit suspect, is anybody that perfect? Also, negative reviews offer a golden opportunity for you to prove yourself, to go above and beyond. The Consumerist actually has an entire category dedicated to incidences where businesses stepped up and made things right after something went wrong.
The strength of small businesses often lies in customer service and attention to detail. If a bad review falls on your doorstep, rejoice—you have a chance to showcase your talents and turn a negative review into a positive experience, something they will be impressed with and tell their friends about. This word of mouth will prove to be incredibly valuable to your business.
Till the next time,
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and Friend at ProNetUSA - WebSites and Internet Marketing
Monday, June 20, 2011
Icann increases web domain suffixes / dot extensions
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) plans to dramatically increase the number of domain endings from the current 22.
Internet address names will end with almost any word and be in any language.
Icann will begin taking applications next year, with corporations and cities expected to be among the first.
"Icann has opened the internet's addressing system to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination," said Rod Beckstrom, president and chief executive officer for Icann.
"No one can predict where this historic decision will take us."
There will be several hundred new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs), which could include such addresses as .google, .coke, or even .BBC.
There are currently 22 gTLDs, as well as about 250 country-level domain names such as .uk or .de.
Applications will start on 12 January.
It will cost $185,000 (£114,000) to apply for the suffixes, and companies would need to show they have a legitimate claim to the name they are buying.
Analysts say it is a price that global giants might be willing to pay - in order to maximise their internet presence.
The money will be used to cover costs incurred by Icann in developing the new gTLDs and employing experts to scrutinise the many thousands of expected applications.
A portion will be set-aside to deal with potential legal actions, raised by parties who fail to get the domains they want.
The vote completes a six-year negotiation process and is the biggest change to the system since .com was first introduced 26 years ago.
Icann said it was beginning a global communications programme to raise awareness of the new domain names.
Continue reading the main story
Existing Generic TLDs
.com : companies, now broader
.edu : educational institutions
.gov : government institutions
.int : international organisations, e.g. Interpol
.mil : military organisations
.net : networking technologies, now broader
.org : non-profit organisations
.arpa : first ever domain, now technical use
.aero : air travel industry
.biz : business alternative to .com
.coop : co-operatives
.info : information, but open for general use
.museum : museums
.name : personal names - johnsmith.name
.pro : professionals, e.g. doctors
.asia: Asian websites
.cat : Catalan language
.jobs : employment websites
.mobi : mobile phones
.post : postal services
.tel : telecoms
.travel : travel
Source: Icann
High standards
Companies and organisations seeking one of the new gTLDs will have to meet high technical standards, according to Bruce Tonkin, chief strategy officer at Melbourne IT, a domain registry service.
"You need IT robustness and you need intellectual property protections beyond what is available in the dot com space.
"You have to have 24/7 abuse team. You have to have mechanisms where a trademark holder has first right to get their name," he said.
The higher standards, said Mr Tonkin, meant the application process would be extremely rigorous.
"Using a real estate analogy, it would be roughly the equivalent of getting approval to build a sky scraper.
"There's roughly 50 questions, roughly 2-3 pages per question. Icann will then use experts in each field to evaluate them.
"The concern that some people have is that the standards of these buildings will be so high, that they will never get built. It will be too expensive," he said.
Article Credits given to the BBC
Till the next time,
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and Friend at ProNetUSA WebSite Marketing
Internet address names will end with almost any word and be in any language.
Icann will begin taking applications next year, with corporations and cities expected to be among the first.
"Icann has opened the internet's addressing system to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination," said Rod Beckstrom, president and chief executive officer for Icann.
"No one can predict where this historic decision will take us."
There will be several hundred new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs), which could include such addresses as .google, .coke, or even .BBC.
There are currently 22 gTLDs, as well as about 250 country-level domain names such as .uk or .de.
Applications will start on 12 January.
It will cost $185,000 (£114,000) to apply for the suffixes, and companies would need to show they have a legitimate claim to the name they are buying.
Analysts say it is a price that global giants might be willing to pay - in order to maximise their internet presence.
The money will be used to cover costs incurred by Icann in developing the new gTLDs and employing experts to scrutinise the many thousands of expected applications.
A portion will be set-aside to deal with potential legal actions, raised by parties who fail to get the domains they want.
The vote completes a six-year negotiation process and is the biggest change to the system since .com was first introduced 26 years ago.
Icann said it was beginning a global communications programme to raise awareness of the new domain names.
Continue reading the main story
Existing Generic TLDs
.com : companies, now broader
.edu : educational institutions
.gov : government institutions
.int : international organisations, e.g. Interpol
.mil : military organisations
.net : networking technologies, now broader
.org : non-profit organisations
.arpa : first ever domain, now technical use
.aero : air travel industry
.biz : business alternative to .com
.coop : co-operatives
.info : information, but open for general use
.museum : museums
.name : personal names - johnsmith.name
.pro : professionals, e.g. doctors
.asia: Asian websites
.cat : Catalan language
.jobs : employment websites
.mobi : mobile phones
.post : postal services
.tel : telecoms
.travel : travel
Source: Icann
High standards
Companies and organisations seeking one of the new gTLDs will have to meet high technical standards, according to Bruce Tonkin, chief strategy officer at Melbourne IT, a domain registry service.
"You need IT robustness and you need intellectual property protections beyond what is available in the dot com space.
"You have to have 24/7 abuse team. You have to have mechanisms where a trademark holder has first right to get their name," he said.
The higher standards, said Mr Tonkin, meant the application process would be extremely rigorous.
"Using a real estate analogy, it would be roughly the equivalent of getting approval to build a sky scraper.
"There's roughly 50 questions, roughly 2-3 pages per question. Icann will then use experts in each field to evaluate them.
"The concern that some people have is that the standards of these buildings will be so high, that they will never get built. It will be too expensive," he said.
Article Credits given to the BBC
Till the next time,
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and Friend at ProNetUSA WebSite Marketing
Monday, March 14, 2011
Affiliate Marketing Compensation Methods, Pros and Cons !
Merchants favor affiliate marketing because in most cases it uses a "pay for performance" model, meaning that the merchant does not incur a marketing expense unless results are accrued (excluding any initial setup cost). Some businesses owe much of their success to this marketing technique, a notable example being Amazon.com. Unlike display advertising, however, affiliate marketing is not easily scalable.
Implementation options:
Some merchants run their own, in-house affiliate programs using popular software while others use third-party services provided by intermediaries to track traffic or sales that are referred from affiliates (see outsourced program management). Merchants can choose from two different types of affiliate management solutions: standalone software or hosted services, typically called affiliate networks. Payouts to affiliates or publishers are either made by the networks on behalf of the merchant, by the network, consolidated across all merchants where the publisher has a relationship with and earned commissions or directly by the merchant itself.
Affiliate management and program management outsourcing:
Successful affiliate programs require significant work and maintenance. Having a successful affiliate program is more difficult than when such programs were just emerging. With the exception of some vertical markets, it is rare for an affiliate program to generate considerable revenue with poor management or no management such as "auto-drive".
Uncontrolled affiliate programs did—and continue to do so today—aid rogue affiliates, who use spamming,trademark infringement, false advertising, "cookie cutting", typosquatting and other unethical methods that have given affiliate marketing a negative reputation.
The increased number of Internet businesses and the increased number of people that trust the current technology enough to shop and do business online allows further maturation of affiliate marketing. The opportunity to generate a considerable amount of profit combined with a crowded marketplace filled with competitors of equal quality and size makes it more difficult for merchants to be noticed. In this environment, however, being noticed can yield greater rewards.
Recently, the Internet marketing industry has become more advanced. In some areas online media has been rising to the sophistication of offline media, in which advertising has been largely professional and competitive. There are significantly more requirements that merchants must meet to be successful, and those requirements are becoming too burdensome for the merchant to manage successfully in-house. An increasing number of merchants are seeking alternative options found in relatively new outsourced (affiliate) program management (OPM) companies, which are often founded by veteran affiliate managers and network program managers.[19] OPM companies perform affiliate program management for the merchants as a service, similar to advertising agencies promoting a brand or product as done in offline marketing.
More on affiliate marketing the next time we meet.
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and friend at ProNetUSA
Implementation options:
Some merchants run their own, in-house affiliate programs using popular software while others use third-party services provided by intermediaries to track traffic or sales that are referred from affiliates (see outsourced program management). Merchants can choose from two different types of affiliate management solutions: standalone software or hosted services, typically called affiliate networks. Payouts to affiliates or publishers are either made by the networks on behalf of the merchant, by the network, consolidated across all merchants where the publisher has a relationship with and earned commissions or directly by the merchant itself.
Affiliate management and program management outsourcing:
Successful affiliate programs require significant work and maintenance. Having a successful affiliate program is more difficult than when such programs were just emerging. With the exception of some vertical markets, it is rare for an affiliate program to generate considerable revenue with poor management or no management such as "auto-drive".
Uncontrolled affiliate programs did—and continue to do so today—aid rogue affiliates, who use spamming,trademark infringement, false advertising, "cookie cutting", typosquatting and other unethical methods that have given affiliate marketing a negative reputation.
The increased number of Internet businesses and the increased number of people that trust the current technology enough to shop and do business online allows further maturation of affiliate marketing. The opportunity to generate a considerable amount of profit combined with a crowded marketplace filled with competitors of equal quality and size makes it more difficult for merchants to be noticed. In this environment, however, being noticed can yield greater rewards.
Recently, the Internet marketing industry has become more advanced. In some areas online media has been rising to the sophistication of offline media, in which advertising has been largely professional and competitive. There are significantly more requirements that merchants must meet to be successful, and those requirements are becoming too burdensome for the merchant to manage successfully in-house. An increasing number of merchants are seeking alternative options found in relatively new outsourced (affiliate) program management (OPM) companies, which are often founded by veteran affiliate managers and network program managers.[19] OPM companies perform affiliate program management for the merchants as a service, similar to advertising agencies promoting a brand or product as done in offline marketing.
More on affiliate marketing the next time we meet.
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and friend at ProNetUSA
Friday, February 18, 2011
Affiliate marketing
Today I will take the time to explain what affiliate marketing is.
As defined by Wikipedia; Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. Examples include rewards sites, where users are rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the network, the publisher (also known as 'the affiliate'), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity to warrant a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third parties vendors.
Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.
Affiliate marketing—using one website to drive traffic to another—is a form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers. While search engines, e-mail, and website syndication capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers' marketing strategies.
Historic development
Affiliate marketing has grown quickly since its inception. The e-commerce website, viewed as a marketing toy in the early days of the Internet, became an integrated part of the overall business plan and in some cases grew to a bigger business than the existing offline business. According to one report, the total sales amount generated through affiliate networks in 2006 was £2.16 billion in the United Kingdom alone. The estimates were £1.35 billion in sales in 2005. MarketingSherpa's research team estimated that, in 2006, affiliates worldwide earned US$6.5 billion in bounty and commissions from a variety of sources in retail, personal finance, gaming and gambling, travel, telecom, education, publishing, and forms of lead generation other than contextual advertising programs.
Currently the most active sectors for affiliate marketing are the adult, gambling, retail industries and file-sharing services. The three sectors expected to experience the greatest growth are the mobile phone, finance, and travel sectors. Soon after these sectors came the entertainment (particularly gaming) and Internet-related services (particularly broadband) sectors. Also several of the affiliate solution providers expect to see increased interest from business-to-business marketers and advertisers in using affiliate marketing as part of their mix.
The Next time I meet with you on this blog I will discuss compensation methods, pros and cons etc.
Until then
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and friend at ProNetUSA
As defined by Wikipedia; Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. Examples include rewards sites, where users are rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the network, the publisher (also known as 'the affiliate'), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity to warrant a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third parties vendors.
Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.
Affiliate marketing—using one website to drive traffic to another—is a form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers. While search engines, e-mail, and website syndication capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers' marketing strategies.
Historic development
Affiliate marketing has grown quickly since its inception. The e-commerce website, viewed as a marketing toy in the early days of the Internet, became an integrated part of the overall business plan and in some cases grew to a bigger business than the existing offline business. According to one report, the total sales amount generated through affiliate networks in 2006 was £2.16 billion in the United Kingdom alone. The estimates were £1.35 billion in sales in 2005. MarketingSherpa's research team estimated that, in 2006, affiliates worldwide earned US$6.5 billion in bounty and commissions from a variety of sources in retail, personal finance, gaming and gambling, travel, telecom, education, publishing, and forms of lead generation other than contextual advertising programs.
Currently the most active sectors for affiliate marketing are the adult, gambling, retail industries and file-sharing services. The three sectors expected to experience the greatest growth are the mobile phone, finance, and travel sectors. Soon after these sectors came the entertainment (particularly gaming) and Internet-related services (particularly broadband) sectors. Also several of the affiliate solution providers expect to see increased interest from business-to-business marketers and advertisers in using affiliate marketing as part of their mix.
The Next time I meet with you on this blog I will discuss compensation methods, pros and cons etc.
Until then
Anthony,
Your Website Marketing Partner and friend at ProNetUSA
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
