Internet Marketing Design Innovation ...

The Summer effect on Web Site Visitors

Well its in french but the gist is that july and august suck in web traffic

Read it all : http://www.xitimonitor.com/fr-fr/comportement-internaute/frequentation-des-sites-web-juillet-2007/index-1-1-2-105.html

Xiti is a user centric measurement tool

how to invite friends

"Interface Compare: Inviting Friends on MySpace & Facebook I'm introducing a new type of post here at Bokardo called "Interface Compare". I'll use it to compare interfaces from different services to highlight interesting things designers are doing (or not doing). The first installment is comparing the Invite screens on MySpace and Facebook. "

More on : http://bokardo.com/archives/interface-compare-inviting-friends-on-myspace-facebook/

Adwords changing

" Tonight the Inside AdWords blog announced that Google is going to change the ad placement algorithm, replacing actual CPC as a factor with maximum CPC.

How does this affect advertisers? Well, by Google's estimation, this is a GOOD thing for advertisers:

Actual CPC is determined, in part, by the bidding behavior of the advertisers below you. This means that your ad's chance of being promoted to a top spot could be constrained by a factor you cannot influence. By considering your ad's maximum CPC, a value you set, you will have more control over achieving top ad placement.

In addition to increasing control for advertisers, the improved formula increases the quality of our top ads for users. This is due to more high quality ads becoming eligible for top placement, thereby allowing our system to choose from a larger pool of high quality ads to show our users. "

More on : http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/08/google-just-keep-getting-richer-new-change-to-adwords-announced.html

Chuck Norris facts

When will Steven Seagal do the same thing ?

" Here are a few of my favorites:

"When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris."

"Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants."

"Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris."

More on : http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52567

The end of frontiers between offline and online retail ?

"

The stampede to online continues, with online sales this year expected to top $211 billion, according to Shop.org. Consumers are not abandoning offline channels, but instead adopting more complex multichannel behaviors that maximize convenience — 55 percent of consumers adopted cross-shopping, up 8 percent, according to Forrester Research. The trend seems fairly obvious, yet marketers on the whole remain surprisingly behind the curve. Forrester surveyed 108 database marketers last year and found that Web site behavior data was missing from an astounding 82 percent of customer databases. And, only 17 percent could claim that their campaigns were very integrated across multiple channels. While online marketers are making strides with multichannel data, one-third still don't track online marketing impact on offline conversion and only half track online and offline channel data together, according to another Forrester report. "

More on : http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-opinion/columns/42015.html

Google changes Algo - Hold your breath!!!

" Answers.com CEO Bob Rosenschein revealed this week that his site lost 28% of its traffic in a week, thanks to a change in Google's indexing algorithms. That news should send a shiver down the spine of anyone who depends on the search engine for traffic and revenue.

And, as it turns out, Answers.com isn't the only site suffering from a traffic drop: Technorati's reach of internet users, as measured by Alexa, is also down by 25% in the last two weeks. There's good reason to cast a skeptical eye on Alexa's skewed and often downright inaccurate measurements, but Compete's analysis also shows significant drops in the traffic to both sites: Visitors to Answers.com were down by 10% in June, and at Technorati, visitors were down by almost 14% in June, according to Compete. Ouch."

More on : http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/08/google-giveth-g.html

When Not to Normalize your SQL Database

" Database normalization is a formal process of designing your database to eliminate redundant data, utilize space efficiently and reduce update errors. Anyone who has ever taken a database class has it drummed into their heads that a normalized database is the only way to go. This is true for the most part . However there are certain scenarios where the benefits of database normalization are outweighed by its costs. Two of these scenarios are described below. "

More on : http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2007/08/03/WhenNotToNormalizeYourSQLDatabase.aspx

A crowded space - online payments

" Look for a launch announcement by Amazon this week or next of a new web service around payments, adding to their S3 (storage), EC2 (virtual server) and other services. They've been quietly testing the service, which will compete with PayPal and Google Checkout, for a few weeks. It is an extension of the existing Amazon Payments, which allows third parties selling items on Amazon's extended network to receive payments from buyers.

We hear that for now at least this is a redirect service only, like Google Checkout. Users will be redirected to Amazon's servers to complete the payment and then returned to the original site. PayPal also offers an integrated solution that allows users to remain on the original ecommerce site, an attractive feature for larger partners. The service will also allow sites to use Amazon to manage payments between users, and receive confirmation of transactions. This will be particularly useful for the new crop of online money management services.

PayPal, owned by eBay, still dominates this space, and the spats between them and Google are becoming legendary. "

More on techcrunch.com