Thursday, October 9, 2008The BlackBerry Strikes Back
Posted by Nathan Denny in Consumer Tech, Industry News: Players | Leave a Comment
A common question facing a lot of business owners and managers these days: BlackBerry or iPhone?
BlackBerry has been the dominant business phone for years, but the iPhone has made a solid push into their territory in recent months with strong efforts to make their notoriously consumer-oriented product more business-friendly.
As a response to this invasion of its territory, the makes of the BlackBerry are incorporating into their soon-to-be-released latest version some of the features that makes the iPhone such a consumer favorite — in particular, the iPhone’s famous touch-screen feature, which the new BlackBerry seeks to not only copy but improve upon.
From the Associated Press:
Research in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, is taking on Apple Inc. with a touch-screen phone that puts a new twist on the technology.
RIM is known for its e-mail-oriented phones with large keypads. With the new model being announced Wednesday, the Storm, RIM is for the first time giving up the physical keypad in favor of a large screen, just like the one on Apple’s iPhone.
But RIM has listened to users who find the iPhone’s glass screen awkward to type on because its virtual buttons provide no tactile feedback. The Storm’s whole screen is backed by springs, and when pressed, it gives under the finger.
The long-rumored Storm will be available from Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and from Vodafone Group PLC overseas before the holidays, the companies said. No price has been disclosed yet.
Read the full story by the AP’s Peter Svensson here.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008eCommerce a “Bright Spot” in Uncertain Economy
Posted by Nathan Denny in Industry News: Trends | Leave a Comment
A news release was issued earlier this month stating that online retailing remains a “bright spot amid a struggling economy.”
“Online retailers are expecting average annual growth this year of 25%, and 35% say they expect to perform better than initially expected through the first half of next year,” states the article, which can be found on Internet Retailer, a news website dedicated to following the ins and outs of the online commerce industry.
The story cited a recent nationwide poll of 125 retailers, stating that “Five percent of respondents said they believe their online businesses will perform substantially better than expected during the coming 12 months, 30% said slightly better than expected, 33% the same as expected, and 32% slightly worse than expected.”
Retailers reported positive trends in conversion rates and profitability, though many still face challenges in selling across channels including the web, stores and catalogs, the study says.
81% of respondents said their e-commerce business was profitable in 2007, and 75% said e-commerce was more profitable in 2007 than in 2006.
Many retailers are still struggling to increase sales by integrating order and inventory systems and coordinating marketing and merchandising efforts across channels, the report says. The report notes that many retailers continue to operate each retail channel as a separate silo and have not been able to justify investments in multi-channel systems. 51% of respondents indicated, however, that their online customers are active in at least one other retail channel.
Since it follows recent trends pretty closely, this news doesn’t come as a big surprise, perhaps, but it’s good to have the strength of online selling reaffirmed yet again — especially in the face of the recent dramatic ups and downs that the American and world economies have been going through. Internet commerce’s complete domination of the way shoppers worldwide find products and spend their money has never been more dramatic. And, as times get tougher, the ease and inexpensive nature of online shopping is looking better and better for everyone.
Read the original article here. The report from Shop.org referenced in the article can be found here. (It’s not free, unfortunately.)
Monday, October 6, 2008Banner Ad Advice from the Pros
Posted by Nathan Denny in Tips and Advice | Leave a Comment
MarketingSherpa, one of the absolute best online resources for all things web marketing, recently offered an article with a fresh take on the art of building results-driven banner ad campaigns, breaking down click rates by size and effectiveness.
“When it comes to banner ads, asking about click rates actually misses the point,” states the article. “As this chart demonstrates, response rates for online ads are typically low, no matter what their size. Ironically, low clicks don’t necessarily mean the ads aren’t working.”
Online ads are branding tools. Direct clicks are simply a happy byproduct. In the context of direct response, online ads appear to be, at best, moderately successful.
Given this moderate success, it’s important to maximize response — because ads that garner any clicks are likely doing a good job fulfilling their real purpose: strengthening brand and catching the eye.
(Click here to view the chart being referred to in the article.)
Sunday, October 5, 2008Google-Yahoo Ad Merger Delayed
Posted by Nathan Denny in Industry News: Players, Industry News: Trends | Leave a Comment
The Washington Post’s Post IT tech blog tells us that the highly anticipated (and a little dreaded, in some quarters) merger between Google and Yahoo — called “Goohoo” by some — has been delayed to allow time for the U.S. Justice Department to further review the deal.
The announcement delays slightly (less than a month, according to the article) a huge deal that has far-reaching implications to the world of online business. These two companies have been negotiating a deal for months now, and have even tested programs together.
Combined, Google and Yahoo would comprise an enormous majority of the online advertising marketshare. Google’s software, which places text ads in conjunction with results on its hugely trafficked search engine, succeeds more than does Yahoo’s. It’s believed that Yahoo wants to use that software to boost its own earnings and avoid another acquisition threat, such as that attempted by Microsoft earlier this year.
Federal overseers have been taking their time approving the deal, amidst very real concerns about monopoly. Hence, the slight delay announced last week isn’t a huge surprise.
From the Post IT article:
When the cooperative agreement was announced on June 12, Google and Yahoo said they would give the U.S. Department of Justice about three and a a half months to review the deal. That time period has lapsed, however, and after meetings with Justice Department officials today, Google and Yahoo lawyers have agreed to delay its implementation.
Under the agreement, Google will provide advertising to run alongside some queries conducted on Yahoo’s search engine.
Google and Yahoo said consumers will benefit because Google has a better way of matching relevant advertising to search queries. But critics said the deal would allow the two companies, who rank number one and number two in the booming search advertising industry, to operate as a monopoly.
What do you think? Would this semi-merger create more opportunities for online ad revenue, or less? Would it be best if the two companies remained competitors, or would you prefer that they merged ever further for the sake of convenience?
Read “Goohoo Delayed To Allow Justice Department More Time To Review” by Peter Whoriskey here.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008Think Global and Expand Your Sales Potential
Posted by Nathan Denny in Tips and Advice | Leave a Comment
Writing for the U.K.’s e-consultancy.com Internet business website, Greig Holbrook explains why you should think internationally when you’re mapping our your online sales strategy and optimizing your site for SEO.
“English-only websites are a thing of the past,” writes Holbrook. “They overlook 95% of the potential market (since only 5% of the world’s population speaks English).”
So, it’s in your best interests to think on a global scale, even if you’re running a small start-up online business. Everyone knows that shoppers use search engines to find what they’re looking for need online. And search engines are international, so in theory, you may already be getting international traffic. Why limit your sales potential by ignoring this huge market segment?
Holbrook tells us more:
Last year saw 147.1m Chinese participate in e-commerce (source: MasterCard Worldwide), a higher number than the total population of all but the world’s eight most populous countries.
In less than two years, this number is projected to triple.
Across the ocean, Brazil is also seeing incredibly strong e-commerce growth.
Online spending there is predicted to grow by one-third in 2008. Brazil’s rapidly growing population of online buyers are among the most active retail e-commerce users in the world (source: e-Marketer).
Considering the current credit crunch we’re facing here in the U.S. (a similar crunch is also happening in the U.K.), broadening your sales horizons seems like a no-brainer.
Click here to read “The wonderful world of multilingual SEO” by Greig Holbrook.
Sunday, September 28, 2008Write Articles, Drive Traffic
Posted by Nathan Denny in Tips and Advice | Leave a Comment
California’s American Chronicle online magazine recently ran a very informative article outlining an often-overlooked way to drive traffic to your website: Writing articles for other sites, and linking the content back to your own. It’s a win-win strategy for both parties — you get traffic, and the other website gets fresh and unique content. Indeed, this is a a growing trend in an online landscape where original content is becoming an increasingly valuable commodity.
” … [A]rticle writing is one of those powerful ways to drive targeted traffic to your website,” writes B. Hopkins in an article for the paper dated September 27, 2008.
One way of getting traffic to your website is to write articles for other people’s websites. Not for blogs or websites where there are already a number of other writers, but a website where you are the only other person to supply content. This technique may not be as difficult as you might think because most website owners are struggling to keep their site fresh and if you provide the solution to their problem of having fresh quality content, many website owners will jump at the offer. This strategy sets you apart because you can now get links back to your website without competing with other web site owners. You also stand out more in the eyes of the visitors to the website you are writing for so when they come to your website, they are more interested in what you have to offer. This strategy does require original articles that are written by you and are of good quality because it will be a tough sell to get someone else to put your crappy spam on their website.
,,, You can also use your articles as part of an auto-responder series to continue to drive traffic back to your website. If you write a series of articles on the same topic or in the same niche, you can put one article per message in the auto-responder series. Your message would include a compelling call to action after the article to send the reader back to your website. This method works very well to build trust with your readers, who will then be more willing to buy from you because they now feel like they can relate to you.
Read “The Overlooked Ways Of How Article Writing Can Drive More Traffic To Your Website” here.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008Check out the Aplus.Net Forum
Posted by Nathan Denny in Aplus.Net, Tips and Advice | Leave a Comment
We’re happy to introduce the Aplus.Net Forum, a new blogging, networking and online chat and communication service created exclusively for the Aplus.Net community.
The new website, located at http://forum.aplus.net, is the perfect spot to trade tips, advice, and insight about everything from building a small business to mastering e-commerce. It’s also the new official location for customers to receive information directly from Aplus.Net, should there be anything important to announce.
If you have a question about web design, content management systems, sales markets or service providers, or even something off-topic, this is the place to get together with other members of the Aplus.Net community to talk about the best solutions. It’s a great way to network on all topics regarding running and maintaining a successful online business in today’s volatile marketplace.
Check it out today! Click here to go to the Aplus.Net Forum.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008MyHostNews Gets a New Look
Posted by Nathan Denny in Industry News: Trends | Leave a Comment
One of the web hosting industry’s premium directories just got a facelift. Click here to see MyHostNews.com’s new look.
MyHostNews is a great resource for online businesses. It offers a variety of articles aimed at giving consumers every advantage when choosing a web host, going beyond superficial aspects like price to some of the more in-depth matters such as eCommerce and reliability. If you haven’t checked it out, we recommend heading over there and taking a look.
You’ll always find Aplus.Net’s latest news at MyHostNews, too.
Thursday, September 18, 2008Domain name registration rules “about to get a lot crazier”
Posted by Nathan Denny in Industry News: Trends | Leave a Comment
Lately, we’ve been discussing the world of domain names and domain name registration a lot here at the Aplus.Net Blog — how to successfully buy and sell domains, how to structure them, even how you can make money from the domain names you own but aren’t using.
And all of this discussion has revolved around the most fundamental domain naming strategy: attaching an effective name to an available suffix — also known as the TLD, or “top level domain,” the .net in aplus.net, for example, or the .com in amazon.com. In recent years, we’ve seen the TLD market grow by leaps and bounds. Where you could once only buy basic TLDs like .com, .net, and .org, there are now dozens to choose from, ranging from the affordable and accessible like .info to the expensive and highly specialized, like, say, .museum.
But, according to a recent article by TechNewsWorld.com’s Renay San Miguel, all this will soon change, in a revolutionary way. In an article entitled “ICANN Approves Dot-KitchenSink Internet Address Policy“, Mr. San Miguel tells us that ICANN has recently approved a new policy that allows organizations to name their domain name anything they want. Their TLD doesn’t have to be a preset suffix, it can be their company brand, like .coke or .nike.
From the article:
The Internet is about to get a lot crazier. Anyone who’s willing to fork over a fairly grand sum, possibly in the $100,00 ball park, will be able to buy the rights to a branded domain. That means no one who’s anyone will be a lowly dot-com anymore — and the practice of snatching up domain names with the hope of selling them for big bucks later will be a lot less lucrative.
The universe of Internet domains will soon experience a Big Bang, thanks to Thursday’s vote by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Latest News about Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approving a new system for handing out Web addresses.
Corporations and other public and private entities will no longer be limited to Web extensions like .com, .net or .org; for a fee that will likely start at US$100,000, a company can register a more personalized top-level domain (TLD) with its own brand name extension, such as .coke, .apple or .prada. Cities will be able to apply for .newyork, .berlin or .moscow.
ICANN also voted for the first time to allow non-Roman characters in Web addresses, which means that Chinese companies can register suffixes in Mandarin script, Russian companies in Cyrillic, and so on.
Beginning in spring 2009, the Internet address possibilities will truly be .endless.
Although this opens up a whole new world of legal headaches (with cybersquatting about to get a lot more lucrative), the possibilities it allows are nothing short of world-changing as far as online business is concerned. Some say it will make the value of existing domain names plummet; others say it will add value to the old .com standards. Obviously, ICANN wouldn’t have approved the process if they weren’t confident that it would have a positive effect. But given the dramatic nature of this change, it’s hard to say for sure just what the ultimate impact will be.
Either way, the plan (which is still not 100 percent carved in stone) would go into effect in the second quarter of 2009, according to the current proposal. (Read the official ICANN news release on this topic here.)
What do you think? Is it a good idea to make the domain name system this changeable? Will this new policy endanger an important fundamental of the World Wide Web, if suddenly any brand name can become a TLD? Or is the logical next step in a marketplace where TLDs already number in the dozens (or hundreds, if you count country code TLDs)?
Wednesday, September 17, 2008More Advice on Picking the Right Domain Name (plus other tips)
Posted by Nathan Denny in Small Business Matters, Tips and Advice | Leave a Comment
Despite weathering some well-known difficulties in recent years, the Los Angeles Times has still managed to maintain its status as one of the nation’s leading newspapers, and in particular, a reliable source of info for the business community. And no small part of that reputation comes from an author who’s been penning the newspaper’s small business advice section since the early ’90s, Karen E. Klein.
An accomplished online entrepreneur in her own right, Ms. Klein’s question-and-answer column at the L.A. Times has accumulated an incredible amount of small business management info over the years, covering everything from marketing to balancing the books.
One of Ms. Klein’s recent articles touched on a subject that we’ve been spending a lot of time discussing here at the Aplus.Net Blog — and that we’ll soon be spending a lot more time talking about: What’s in a domain name?
Picking the right domain name
Dear Karen: My preferred domain name is taken. How do I create another one?
Answer: Identify the keywords your target customers will search and use those words in your domain name, putting your most important keyword first. “Keep it short. Use no more than three or four short words – 55 characters, max – in your domain name,” said Caroline Melberg, founder of Small Business Mavericks.
Consider using hyphens between the words, which makes your domain easier to read. “If your main keyword choices are taken, consider making one a plural or singular version,” Melberg said. “Or try adding numbers to find a clever, catchy domain name.” You could also add supporting words, such as “online” or “pro,” to your keywords.
“Imagine you are giving your website address over the phone to someone who does not have a pen and paper handy, or over the radio where people are listening in their cars. If your domain makes sense to your prospects, they are much more likely to remember it and type it in once they get to their computer,” Melberg said.
Read the original article here. Klein also writes for The Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, and BusinessWeek. Check out her L.A. Times column here.
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