| LED Digest 2279: The Sweet 16 |
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Business strategy and ethics in the Sweet 16: Principles for Succeeding in Business on the Internet. A Click Fraud updated from David Yancey, Marketing on the Web and strategic planning, and Wordpress! ================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Registration from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. November 1, 2006 Issue no. 2279 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== <Moderator Comment> --== Click Fraud Update ==-- ~ David Yancey "...the sooner this mess is cleared up, the better for the entire interactive industry..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Blog Experiments ==-- ~ Brett Simpson "I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to blow the money on these other [Wordpress] systems..." --== It's not WEB Marketing ==-- ~ Rae Deisler "[Increasing] your credibility, authority, etc [is an] important overall strategy if you ask me." --== The Sweet 16 ==-- ~ Barry S Mills "Please let legitimate companies communicate normally with their customers unmolested..." ~ Mike Banks Valentine "Serendipity plays a huge role in both our personal and business lives." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --= What About Ajax? ==-- ~ John Smart --== New Browsers: Firefox 2 and IE7 ==-- ~ Michael Drucker ~ Tom Aman ========== NEW =================================== <Moderator Comment> The Sweet 16 is getting lots feedback. Maybe I should start ordering you to click on things in every issue (note to self: new advertising idea). Just kidding. Thanks for the comments and insights. You'll find a select few published today and the rest right here: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1286/174/#jc_allComments Also - for those of you who got 500 errors trying to access the SEM glossary. Looks like the site can't handle the traffic! pair.com is working on getting things straightened out (fatter pipes and a dedicated server). In the meantime it should be serving pages without errors now. Sorry about that. SEO/M Glossary: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1295/174/ Adam -------------------- From: David Yancey Subject: Clickfraud Update Here's the latest update on clickfraud, as larger companies begin to realize that they are being had by the search industry: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/technology/30adco.html (Access for the next 10 days or so is free, but you need to be registered on the New York Times site) In spite of ever more public evidence of fraud, and ever-better understanding of how the search industry is either in denial of the problem or is in complicity to some degree with the bad guys, there will be those who persist in saying that clickfraud is not a serious issue. These will argue that the % of fraudulent or simply useless clicks is not important, if the remainder of clicks produce sufficient conversions with adequate profit margins to pay for the PPC program and make some money. From the perspective of an advertiser, however, if a PPC medium charges for X amount of clicks, when Y% of those clicks are not valid for some reason, this is a case of non-delivery, just as if a magazine claims A readers when an audit actually shows A minus B readers, or a when CPM-priced web publication "under delivers" on the promised number of ad impressions in a given month. Sooner or later the search industry, along with online publishers who are (innocently or not) benefiting from the fraudulent behavior, will have to own up to the reality, as this article makes clear. Stockholders in Google and the other companies whose revenues and earnings are tainted by clickfraud scams may take a hit, along with the companies. But the sooner this mess is cleared up, the better for the entire interactive industry: eliminating clickfraud scams and anti-competitive behavior will remove one of the main barriers currently preventing millions of smaller businesses from using PPC and related advertising. David Yancey http://www.tootoographic.com "See us now in Amazon.com too!" ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Brett Simpson Subject: Blog experiments Hi Gary, > We now use WordPress for all our blogs, > to keep total control over them. - Gary Mawdsley, LED Digest 2274 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1277/55/ I wonder about what template / package you use if any? I'm finally exploring blogs myself and want to use WordPress, I set it up in 5 mins, then came the hard part, according to template systems such as SemioLogic Pro ($295): http://www.semiologic.com/software/ and technologies such as Blog & Ping, and software such as Blog Equalizer ($147): http://www.bloggingequalizer.com I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to blow the money on these other systems, or if running Word Press out of the box will handle issues such as no 'trackback links', and other anomolies, do you have any 'words of wisdom' Gary, anyone? Thank You, Brett Simpson http://www.thedreamtime.com -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Rae Deisler Subject: Marketing on the Web > I like to summarize this by saying, "It's not WEB Marketing; > it's MARKETING on the Web." From that perspective, I state > a simple model of the five factors... - Michael Linehan, LED Digest 2278 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1297/55/ This is a great post. I agree w/ the overall sentiment - strategic planning should be the net that holds all the little pieces of business together. But I do have a couple problems here-- > Let's consider the critical tasks a website needs to > accomplish -- bring people to the site, make the sale > and develop relationships with prospective and current clients. ... and increase your mindshare in the target audience. Increase your credibility, authority, etc - important overall strategy if you ask me. > What accomplishes these three critical tasks are the > information, products and services offered, how well > the language of the site captures people's attention > and make the sale, and the actions that promote > the site and bring people there. Okay, but isn't info, products / services offered, isn't this good design and usability? We're back to technology. How well the language of the site - copywriting is critical - and that's marketing, I agree. > Strategic Planning, Content, Design, Technology and Promotion The technology must come before content and design, but yes these are good first principles. How about this: Strategy > Technology > Design > Content > Marketing ...I really am feeling nitpicky today! Rae Deisler Comments? http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1296/172/ -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Barry Mills Subject: Sweet 16 > There is an inherent contradiction between Principle #1 > (Maintain Absolute Integrity) and the pro-spamming example > about the launch of Adventive.com touted as being 'good > business' in Principle #3 (Put the Power of Inertia on Your Side.) - Trevor Johnson, LED Digest 2278 No Way Trevor, I'm not having that. John Audette was / is one of the great anti-spam champions of the internet industry. He hates spam with a passion. So did most of his subscribers - I know this because I moderated I-sales for a while and every time the subject came up we were bombarded with posts. Absolutely no-one felt they were being spammed by Adventive, or by John. Spam is a bad thing, and fighting it is good, but some perspective and common sense are needed. If a computer supplier sends a (printed) catalogue to random addresses, that's junk mail. If they send a specific offer of an accessory to people who've previously bought from them the type of computer the accessory is for, that's not junk at all, it's just good customer service and good business communications. Similarly, sending a sample publication to existing regular subscribers of a sister publication is not spam by any legal definition I know of (certainly it would be 100% legal in the UK, and we have strong anti-spam laws) nor by any rational one. It isn't unsolicited, there is an existing business relationship, and there is a very strong reason to believe that readers of one publication would be interested in the other. Most readers of I-sales or other publications, myself included, saw the Adventive.com list as a useful addition that helped us get more out of our subscription by summarising the key topics of the week and providing a sign-board to the full discussions on issues we might have missed. The handful that didn't like it would have had no concerns about unsubscribing, since they would have known that Adventive was a well run organisation who would act immediately on their unsubscribe request, and treat their data and privacy with respect. It's very important that people in the internet industry continue to give mind share to the combating of spam, as unchecked it is a genuine threat to the usefulness of e-mail as a communications medium. But the pathological defining of virtually any business e-mail as spam is almost as destructive to the medium as spam itself. Normal people WANT companies we deal with regularly to communicate with us, and we EXPECT them to do so, without us having to go to the trouble of pro-actively requesting each and every individual communication. Please let legitimate companies communicate normally with their customers unmolested, and don't confuse them with real spammers in your arguments, or you will simply discredit the argument in the eyes of most people and reduce the chances of authorities and the wider public ever taking the spam issue sufficiently seriously to address it. Barry S Mills Netstep Corporate Communications http://www.netstep.co.uk Comment? http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1286/174/ -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Mike Valentine Subject: Truths of Business Commenting on the Sweet 16 is like commenting on many other things considered "Truths" because you just can't get a handle on anything you disagree with beyond minor semantics. Although someone inevitably disagrees with the meaning of a phrase (as in the spamming comments above - first attacker, then defender). Agreeing in a "me too" fashion with those 16 principles is rather pointless as well and doesn't contribute to a conversation either. All we can do is nod our heads as we read. We should occasionally revisit and reread and nod some more, then contribute thoughts as they relate to new developments in online business. Many of the latest developments in online business have much to do with community (#14) with the label of "Social Media" applied to them. Social bookmarking, tagging, photo sharing, review sites... So at times, one principle or another is emphasized as the latest success and everyone goes stampeding toward that principle to the detriment of the others. (Hey, there's a new principle - #17 Don't over-emphasize any one principle to the detriment of the others.) While I agree with the 16 principles, there is one thing I believe is a bit understated: "I wish I was smart enough to have thought all this through when I launched I-Sales. I wasn't. Fortunately there are times in life when serendipity plays a large role in things -- and this was one of them." We simply can't know everything or deal with every aspect, regardless of our thorough business plans. Serendipity plays a huge role in both our personal and business lives. We simply need to choose a path, pay attention to events and adapt to them with Integrity (#1), then see how that fits our Passion (#2). The rest (#3-16) each follow in their place. Mike Banks Valentine http://realityseo.com Comment? http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1286/174/ ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: John Smart Subject: Ajax Ajax -- Looks like fun. I purchased a book "Ajax for dummies" (the 1st dummies book I ever purchased!) and I have to say I find the book frustrating, I like the "Bible" books and the Wrox publications. Which leads to two discussions: What are you doing with Ajax, is it as good as the hype? What books are worth reading? On anything in this industry -- I can recommend some excellent PHP books "Wrox Beginning PHP 4 is fantastic! As is Converse Parks PHP 4 Bible. I also often refer to my Sams PHP and MySQL Web Development. Another book I am playing with at the moment is the Wrox RSS and Atom Programming book which breaks the subject down very well indeed. John Smart InternetDesign.com - A Human Touch in a Digital World -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Michael Drucker Subject: New browsers > With IE7 I did lose my "home" button. You can just launch > a new tab to get to your home page, but I do miss the button. - John Smart, LED Digest 2278 I just loaded the new IE7 and the Home button is on the third task bar, the fifth button from the right. The buttons are: Home, RSS, Print, Page, Tools, and >>. Selecting >> opens a drop-doww box with: Help, Create Mobile Favorite, and Messenger. I am running version 7.0.5730.11. Michael H. Drucker www.mhdconsulting.com -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Tom Aman Subject: New browsers John, how did you lose the "home" button? I started using IE7 when they made RC1 (Release Candidate 1) available and, just this morning, installed the actual release. The "home" button is still there, just in a different place (would love to know the reasoning behind moving it). On my IE, at least, it is just above the display area on the right side of the browser, along with things like the Print button, etc. Of course the selection of buttons can be customized so perhaps you inadvertantly removed "home" - right click in the menu area, select Customize Command Bar / Add or Remove Commands and you can put it back. Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2006 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "How closely tied to luck is skill, never to the fool occurs. If he had the philosopher's stone, I swear it! The stone has no philosopher." - Shakespeare |
