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Feeds for Marketing/Ecommerce Research [Ecommerce, web marketing and development news and research by Michael Bloch of Taming the Beast.net ]

1. Animated gifs in email
Email can be pretty dull at times as it lacks some of the vibrancy that’s possible on web pages through the use of animation and video - but animated gifs can be used in emails effectively… sometimes. I’ve just finished reading a couple of reports where online retailers have significantly improved clickthrough rates using animated gifs. [...]

2. Thumbnail patent lawsuit
Using thumbnails on your web site? Watch out. Straight from the “you’ve got to be kidding me” file contained in the “only in America” folder comes this little ripper from the US legal world; where law, justice, fairness and ethics are often entirely different beasties. It seems that Indiana based Cygnus Systems is suing Microsoft, Apple, [...]

3. US online big spenders
So where do all the big spending online shoppers live? Nielsen has some insights. Around 25% of American adults are now spending $500 or more a year online on average, but there’s a few standout cities with seemingly deeper pockets. According to Nielsen’s 10 Lists For 2008 (PDF), Top U.S. markets for adults who spent more [...]

4. TV news an endangered species?
Results from a survey published last week show that the Internet is taking an ever increasing slice of attention when it comes to news… and television news is being the hardest hit. According to a study from the Pew Research Center, the Internet has surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national [...]

5. Disputing PayPal transactions
Before disputing PayPal transactions using PayPal’s dispute features, contact the person you paid - it can save you embarrassment and save you both time, hassle and bad feeling. I’m not used to seeing PayPal dispute notifications in my inbox. I’ve been with the service for 7 years and during that time have only recieved 2 - [...]

6. Dead affiliate links
Given it’s a relatively quiet period online for many, the holiday break is a great time for some affiliate housekeeping that can translate directly into more cash for you. Often an affiliate’s focus will be on more - more traffic, more offers. Sometimes though, less can be better if you use the time you’d spend chasing [...]

7. What is spear phishing?
While the term has been around since at least 2006, I hadn’t heard it before and I guess that others haven’t either. So what is “spear phishing”? Spear phishing, also known as whaling, is just a targeted form of phishing. Normal phishing usually involves an email message with a link to the login interface of what [...]

8. Unsubscribe means unsubscribe
I unsubscribed from a list a few weeks back and I’m still receiving emails from the company. This isn’t an uncommon situation according to a recent survey, nor is making the subscriber jump through now-illegal hoops. According to Return Path’s report, some companies are still requiring that the subscriber log in to an account to unsubscribe, [...]

9. Deep linking to YouTube videos
When linking to YouTube videos, there may only be a certain part of the video you’d like people to see. Here’s how to make it easier. A couple of months back, YouTube implemented a feature to allow for linking directly to a specific time within each video. All you need to do is to append this [...]

10. Icy weather boosts online holiday shopping
The recent wintry weekend in the USA has boosted online holiday shopping sales to twice what they were the same weekend last year. According to ComScore, a mix of fewer shopping days than last holiday season and severe cold and snowstorms affecting much of the northern half of the country has contributed to the surge. Overall though, [...]

11. PPC bargains still to be had
While tough times has seen bid prices on PPC ads drop, popular terms continue be out of reach for the little guy. But there are still bargains if you’re prepared to do a little work and get the focus of your ads right. According to a Google representative, the company is finding that consumers are very [...]

12. Clever vs. obnoxious marketing
Always beware an Internet marketer who says “I’m not going to BS you” and if you get one who mistakes being clever with being a utter prat; teach him a lesson by not buying whatever he’s hawking. I’m on a lot of lists as I like to keep in touch with what’s happening around the traps. [...]

13. Paying to join an affiliate program
A question I get asked quite often is whether you should have to pay to join an affiliate program. The short answer is no. Here’s why. If you have to pay, it’s not a true affiliate program, but another type of partner program such as a high end reseller partner program; but it’s quite often an [...]

14. IE users - get ready for critical update
Microsoft has announced an update for a critical flaw in Internet Explorer will be released 1PM Wednesday USA Eastern Time (early morning Thursday Australian time). ComputerWorld states Microsoft has confirmed that all versions of Internet Explorer, including IE5.x, IE6, IE7 and IE8 Beta 2, contain the bug. It was initially thought that only IE7 had the [...]

15. Xmas email greetings tips
Before you send out that obligatory Xmas greetings email to your customers and subscribers, which usually will contain some sort of marketing spiel, here’s a few quick tips you should perhaps keep in mind. You’re not the only one I’m getting on average around 20 emails full of Christmas cheer daily at the moment - all of [...]

16. Outsourcing and ISO accreditation? Pffft.
Considering outsourcing online work to a design company or services provider? Are they touting ISO accreditation? Yawn. Accreditation standards are a funny thing. They are a nice concept, but don’t really work too well in the real world. I once worked in an organization that was aiming for a rather prestiguous accreditation and what they did on [...]

17. Merchants - challenge those chargebacks
The tenth annual CyberSource Corporation survey of ecommerce fraud has revealed online merchants expect to lose a record $4 billion to fraudulent transactions during 2008. Furthermore, it appears that many merchants are generally taking chargebacks on the chin, rather than challenging them. In relation to the fraud figures, the loss rate has been 1.4% of revenue [...]

18. Will people pay for ad-free sites?
While consumers will often comment that web sites have too much advertising, it seems few are prepared to pay for ad-free sites. Adage recently ran a survey asking how much people would be prepared to pay for access to ad free version of their favorite sites. 84% of respondents said they’d be unlikely or not at all [...]

19. Internet filtering - Australians fight back
Australia’s Communications Minister has started blogging and his first post didn’t meet with much of a warm welcome. In fact, hundreds of Australians have blasted him about the government’s plans to censor the Internet through its ‘Clean Feed’ program. Blogging certainly isn’t for the faint of heart and Stephen Conroy must be asking himself “what the [...]

20. Firefox vs IE SSL warnings
Most web developers tend to use FireFox and sometimes forget that the majority of the world still uses Internet Explorer. They might test a site extensively in FF, but not thoroughly in IE. If the site owner also uses Firefox exclusively, a common security warning related issue may be missed for a very long [...]

21. How not to run surveys
On one of my favorite sites over the last few months they’ve been running a survey - pretty badly. Given the way it’s been implemented, I doubt the the data they’ll receive will be of much value. To start with, a box has been popping up intermittently the home page - with no close button. The [...]

22. Black Friday fizzes, Cyber Monday booms
While merchants were bemoaning that US Black Friday online sales were only 1% more than on Black Friday last year, Cyber Monday helped to turn those frowns upside down. According to ComsCore, the Friday after Thanksgiving saw $534 million in online spending, up 1 percent over 2007. For the combination of Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, [...]

23. Beware of PPC bidding wars
With the holiday shopping season in full swing, pay per click (PPC) advertising is picking up and the competition is feverish, with bidding wars breaking out all over the place. I’m watching an interesting situation in an industry sector at the moment whereby a company with oodles of cash is spending up big on keywords that [...]

24. Privacy policies - a waste of time
Just about every web site has one (or should have), but privacy policies appear to be a complete waste of time - potentially up to 44.3 billion hours worth per year. Those were the findings of a recent study by Carnegie Mellon CyLab researchers Lorrie Cranor and Aleecia M. McDonald in their paper on “Cost of [...]

25. Lycos who?
Lycos Europe appears to be on the chopping block. I always get a twinge of nostalgia when these old online names crop up and it also gets me thinking on the definition of success in the online world. If you haven’t heard of Lycos, you wouldn’t be the only one - but back in the day [...]

26. Fear equals PPC conversions?
A tactic I’m seeing used increasingly in PPC ads is the cultivation of fear. I’m seeing this strategy being used in relation to business to business products such as software and also many consumer products. It’s pretty simple and goes something like this: “Don’t buy product X until you read this” “Scam alert - most product X’es [...]

27. Cyberchondria and online health info
I’m a little hesitant to dig too deep when researching health information on the web as a sniffle and a sore throat can wind up being ebola. I’m a big fan of the medical comedy/drama, House - Hugh Laurie would have to be one of the best actors around - but after watching a few [...]

28. Black Friday morons
Jeez, I *hate* this time of the year. It’s incidents like this that remind me how close we are to our prehistoric, uncivilized roots, how thin a facade civilization is.. and the sometimes fatal impact of marketing. It’s been reported that earlier today, a worker at Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, New York, died after shoppers [...]

29. Ready for holiday shopping fraud?
While many merchants are worried about how the economy will affect this year’s holiday sales; something you can bet on is that the fraudsters will be out in force; shopping until they drop - or get caught. As technology and strategies evolve to prevent fulfilling fraudulent transactions, the fraudsters aren’t giving up; evolving their own new [...]

30. Hiding prices from online shoppers
I was out online shopping for a futon today, ready to buy, and noticed that many of the local suppliers didn’t list pricing. In my opinion, this is a fatal mistake for any merchant hoping to use the web to drive sales. Out of the ten or so I visited, I think only 4 had pricing [...]