Friday, May 25, 2007

Why Gender Matters in E-Commerce Strategy  

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Why Gender Matters in E-Commerce Strategy

By- Michael Vorel


As a developer of e-commerce stores, we analyze a variety of factors when deciding upon an internet strategy to appeal to men or women and have broken down some interesting gender facts.. But first let me tell you about..
Excerpts From a Business Week Article – “I Am Woman, Hear Me Shop” – Feb 14, 2005
Rising female consumer power is changing the way companies design, make, and market products — and it’s about more than adding pastels.

Who’s the Target?
It’s not free-spending teens or men 25-50. It’s women, thanks to purchasing power and decision-making authority. Working women ages of 24-54 — of whom the U.S. has some 55 million — have emerged as a potent force in the marketplace, changing the way companies design, position, and sell their products.

Women earn less money than their counterparts
78 cents for every dollar a man gets. But they make more than 80% of buying decisions in all homes. And they shop differently from the way men do: Females research more extensively and are less likely to be influenced by ads. “Today’s woman is the chief purchasing agent of the family and marketers have to recognize that,” says Michael Silverstein, principal at Boston Consulting Group and author of Trading Up: The New American Luxury.

Women’s decision-making authority
Has grown in part because more households are headed by women– 27% at last count, a fourfold increase since 1950. Their buying power has grown, too. In the past three decades, men’s median income has barely budged — up just 0.6% — while women’s has soared 63%. Some 30% of working women out earn their husbands, notes Martha Barletta, author of Marketing to Women How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market Segment. And 75% of them with the title of vice-president or higher at Fortune 500 companies out earn their husbands, bringing home on average 68% of household income, according to Barletta.
More Interesting Facts on Buying Trends: (March 13, 2007 Internet Retailer)
(from BIGresearch LLC for the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association).

The study is based on a poll of 15,287 consumers in December 2006.- More women than men search online because of print coupons (41.8% vs. 29%) and in-store promotions (29% vs. 24.5%).- 92.5% of adults said they regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in a store. Products most often researched online before being purchased in a store include electronics (50.8%), apparel (31.9%), and appliances (27%). Men are twice as likely as women to shop for automobiles online (20.2% vs. 10.2%), though women research home products.- After searching online, 69.5% of consumers said they were most likely to share their search information about products & brands with others through in-person conversations, while 53.1% through e-mail; 50.9%, phone; and 30%, cell phone.- Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 37.5% said they were most likely to share search information through online instant messaging; 23.7%, text messaging; and 20.6%, social networking sites like MySpace.com and Facebook.com.
Ok, what does that mean to me as a potential or exisitng store owner?
We’ll it means that you need to think about your web site design & merchandise to cater to women but not to alienate men as they can be a shopper who may spend more on fewer items. Watch the trends in My Space, YouTube, Facebook and see how it relates to your customer. If you are a betting person I would bet on the female audience to bring in the sale.

Google's Feedburner Grab Would Impact Personalized Search, Analytics  

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THOUGH YET TO BE CONFIRMED by either company, Google's rumored acquisition of Feedburner for $100 million seems small compared to the recent spate of billion-dollar ad network deals. But insiders say it was only a matter of time before the Web's predominant RSS supplier would be snatched up by one of the "big three."

"It was bound to happen. And it's a good move on Google's behalf if it goes through for $100 million," said Dan Brough, vice president and search director, DraftFCB. "It's really a bargain for what, by most standards, is the dominant feed syndicator in the industry."

While Feedburner is not exactly a fledgling company (it reportedly boasts more than 67 million feed subscriptions and partnerships with media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and CIO.com), the acquisition would be in line with statements that Google CEO Eric Smith made at a shareholders' meeting weeks ago--namely that Google views buying smaller tech firms, not huge ones, as the bread and butter of its merger strategy.

Adding Feedburner to its portfolio would give Google a number of gains. The ability to roll tracking statistics on Feedburner's reported total of more than 720,000 feeds into Google Analytics is the most obvious, as the business of online advertising increasingly gets driven by trailing and deciphering user behavior. "Google's Analytics suite will definitely benefit over time through this acquisition," said Brough.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Can I Make Big Money Online  

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"Can I Make Big Money Online"

I see, often people used to ask the same type of questions when they just get start on blogging. I used to ask myself the same a few times. But when I found, when you plunge the fray, you just get on and on....

Internet Marketing is a never ending chapter.
More you read, more you learn....

Today, I am thinking myself fortunate enough for being able to fishing out a weblog named " Can I Make Big Money Online ", all related to blog monetization and money making ideas using your free blog. I reviewed a lots of times, found something very nice-

  • It's cool look and feel.
  • Blog posts are targeted, properly tagged and simple by description.
  • Two way side bar themes, quite SEO friendly...
  • Articles are unique and original content.
  • I found a lots of resources and information that I was honing to learn for months!

Posts that lured my eyes-

Saturday, May 19, 2007

A Comprehensive List of 300+ Directories to Submit Your Blog..  

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As the search engines are evolving each and every day, it's getting harder and harder to get top search engine rankings.

The search engines now, highly favor, websites that have a large number of quality, one way links pointing to them. Because of this, it's absolutely critical that we consistently try to get other websites to link to us, WITHOUT us linking back to them.

Yes, reciprocal linking is becoming less and less valuable. Submitting your website to website directories is an excellent way to get, quality, 1 way links pointing to your websites. You see, many of the website directories online have a high amount of page rank and have been online for several years.

These are 2 of the most important criteria for determining what a good link is, vs what a bad link is. These two criteria are:

  • The age of the website linking to you
  • The Page Rank of the website linking to you

With that said, many of these directories have both a high Page Rank AND are old ebsites, giving them more authority and power in the search engines.

Not only that, but there are literally thousands of website directories on the internet that are absolutely free for you to submit your website to! While it does take time to find these directories and then manually fill out all of the required criteria to submit your website, it is an excellent way to help increase your search engine rankings.


There are some good website directory submission software products on the market. The best of which is a product called Directory Submitter created by Brad Callen. Esentially you simply enter your website details into the software program 1 time, and then click on any of the 1600+ website directories in the software and it will automatically fill in all of the submission criteria for you. Click the submit button and then your site has been instantly added to the website directory.

So, not only does it save you time in finding all of these directories, BUT it saves you an incredible amount of time filling out each and every website's submission criteria. To learn more about Directory Submitter, visit the link below:


Submit Your Website To Thousands Of Website Directories Instantly!

But, please keep this to yourself, as I'd like to keep this our secret weapon :-)

Free Directories where you can submit your site-

Freewebdirectory.org

D911.net/submit.php

Maldives Directory

Website directory

Directory.helpedia.com

Directory.seo-supreme.com

Ldmstudio
Directory

Blogs
Directory

Directory.portalit.net
Seo Friendly Web Directory
Domain Link Exchange
Hotgossip.be
Dreamsubmitting
Profit Geek Directory
1 For Search
Kasan Web Directory
free-webdirectory
Click my Brick Directory
Directastic Directory
Bookmark Directory
Seo Friendly Directory
SEO Poland Web
Directory

Domain Link Exchange
Webmaster Earth Directory
GreatWebDirectory.com
GreatDir.com
DirectoryExperts
GreeceGR
Grandir.net
GrayDirectory.com
71K.NET - Web Directory
A Net Directory
Grafoff.com
Yonan Research Web Directory
Goodprdirectory.com
Proud-Collector.com
Findsome.info
Gmdir.com
Rankorama.de
EVMINA - Web Directory and Searhengine
Findsome.info
Gimik Tayo
Get In Search Engines
GetPRBackLinks.com
fxdir.com
Gathering Point Web Directory
Get Listed Now
Infinite Info – The Dependable Web
Directory

Gathering Point Web
Directory

Web Directory
Infinite Info – The Dependable Web
Directory

Dynn.Org Web Directory
Gathering Point Web
Directory

Blue Directory
DelightSquare.com
Add Your Site for Free
Easy Directory
DigGeek web directory
Enterwork Directory
Add URL-Free.com
Black Dhalia Internet Directory
Digital Directory, Europe's guide to theWeb
epot.ca
Agile Web Directory
BizMean SEO Friendly Web Directory
Suggest Your Link Here
Bitwide
Flexengine Directory
PooZL Web Directory
Get In Search Engines
Bindexed.com
Mountain Net
OneBILLIONPageViews.com
adaxas Web Directory
Free Online Dating Site & Personals
Infinite Info – The Dependable Web Directory
Directory Link
A List Sites
Directory Force
WTS Link Directory
A List Directory
Mountain Net
Suggest Your Link Here
Digital Directory, Europe's guide to the Web


Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Europeans Buy More Online  

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The Old World takes to new ways.


Europeans have long been avid online shoppers, but according to the "Mediascope Europe 2006 Study," sponsored by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) with research conducted by Synovate, now they are becoming online buyers.

The study found that currently 78% of European Internet users shop online. They spend an average of Eur750 and buy 10 items online over six months — which represents an increase of 11% year over year.

Online Spending and Purchases by Internet Users in Select Countries in Western Europe, September 2006 (average)


Comparing the different countries, online shoppers in the UK and Scandinavia spend and buy the most goods online, while Germans are online bargain seekers, buying a higher number of items at a lower cost.

Increasingly, however, savvy online shoppers throughout Europe are also using price comparison sites to help themselves find deals. Dutch online shoppers are the biggest bargain hunters, with more than half (54%) checking comparable costs online at least once a month; the Germans (50%) and the French (50%) are hot on their heels.

Auction sites are popular with online shoppers in Germany, as well as in the UK, with 62% and 49% of the users in those countries, respectively, visiting them at least once a month, compared with the European online average of 41%.

What are Europeans shopping for online? Mobile phones top the list.

The research shows that mobile phones had the largest growth in conversion rates year over year, growing at 23%, followed by music downloads, car accessories and home furnishings.


Leading Products and Services in Western Europe, by Online Sales Conversion Rate Growth, September 2005 & September 2006 (% of online shoppers who purchase online and % increase vs. prior year)


"As consumers further embrace their digital lifestyles, they are becoming more ambitious in what they choose to buy over the Internet as well as how much they spend," said Michael Kleindl of the EIAA. "More money spent and items bought online shows that consumers are integrating online shopping into their daily lives."

For information on European trends, read eMarketer's Europe Online Advertising: Spend, Trends and Audience report.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

“7 Powerful Tactics To Promote Any Affiliate Program Instantly"  

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Copyright © 2007 Ewen Chia








Text Link Ads



Affiliate marketing is truly one of the most powerful and easiest models online to generate massive cash quickly, fact is you can get started in minutes from now without the hassle of creating your own products or websites.


While there're many factors to consider in the affiliate marketing business, one of the most critical questions I get every time from newer marketers is always...


“Ewen, How Do I Promote My Affiliate Link?"

Here then are 7 powerful tactics you can use today to promote any affiliate program with:

==> Tactic #1: Your Own Opt-In List

If you've your own existing opt-in list this would obviously be the quickest way to start. However I'd like to provide you with some ideas to maximize the response and results you wouldn't otherwise get if you never applied them.

It's always a good tactic to provide some kind of time-sensitive bonuses to entice your list to buy through your affiliate link. It has always work and it'll continue to work.


You should also do at least 3 follow-up mailings as statistics have proven that you will get the most sales from your 2nd and 3rd mailings.

Now what if you don't have your own list to begin with? The most logical action would be to seriously consider building your own money-making list without delay. A complete course to build and profit from your own opt-in list is at
http://www.ewenchia.com/listsecrets.htm

Alternatively a 'second-rate' method is to use...

==> Tactic #2: Other People's Lists

What do I mean by this? One quick method to leverage on someone else's list is through ezine advertising, particularly with solo ads.

As in all kinds of advertising, what you want to do besides advertising the affiliate program is also to build your own list. A simple way to do this while promoting the affiliate program is by using a catchy one-two sentence signature file after your name.


The best advertising you can get is to pre-qualified targeted lists of like-minded people, especially people with money in hand. While these are rare and even harder to identify, an amazing resource can be found here -


http://www.ewenchia.com/ultimatetraffic.htm



==> Tactic #3: Google AdWords

You can start promoting any affiliate program in less than 15 minutes with pay-per-click advertising, especially Goolge AdWords.

Since Jan 6th 2005, there had been some changes to Google's policies regarding advertising of affiliate products on Google AdWords. Without going into boring details, you can still advertise affiliate programs by using landing pages customized to the affiliate program you're promoting.

As I've provided in detail exactly how you can use Google AdWords in "Striking Affiliate Gold", I won't repeat it again. You can download a copy of the manual at-


http://undergroundsalesletters.com/strikegold.pdf


==> Tactic #4: Article Marketing


This is one tactic you got to get started on because it works. I've made tons of affiliate sales purely from articles. In fact, one of my articles generated over 25 affiliate sales in a little over 3 days on autopilot.

The key to successful article writing is to provide real information and tips. Make sure it doesn't sound like an outright sales pitch. Any recommendations you make should be added value to the article. The recommendation should not be its main purpose.

Again I won't be repeating information I've already covered. If you're interested in using articles as an affiliate promotional weapon, download these two revealing reports I've written:

http://www.marketingebookreview.com/LifetimeTraffic.pdf
http://www.stuffyourinboxwithcash.com/lazy.zip


==> Tactic #5: Leverage On Your Existing Web Pages

There're 3 main ways to go about doing this...

One is to simply promote your affiliate programs on highly trafficked and relevant pages of your website. Check your website statistics to see which pages visitors view the most. These are great target areas for your promotions, especially if they are relevant to the affiliate product in question.

Two, recommend affiliate products on your thank you pages. After a visitor has made a purchase from you or sign up for your ezine, all you've to do is add in a short recommendation of an affiliate product prominently on the thank you page.

Third, use your custom error (404) pages as affiliate marketing tools. This is the page that shows up when visitors enter a wrong URL or extension, there's no point in wasting this space so why not use it to promote an affiliate product?


==> Tactic #6: Capture Exit Traffic On Demand

You can quickly make extra affiliate sales just by using an exit window or pop up window to promote your affiliate programs.

While there're popup killers out there, you'll be surprised just how many
percent of people actually install them - I don't.

Fact is, pop ups, especially exit pop ups still produce good results. Stick with one tasteful pop-up targeted to your visitors and you’ll see great results.

==> Tactic #7: Other Quick And Simple Tips

Recommend affiliate products in your 'thank you emails'.

This is a no-brainer, whether you’re saying thanks for joining your ezine or for buying a product, always give your email recipients an affiliate recommendation for a targeted product you've personally found useful.

You can also create autoresponder courses on topics related to the affiliate program you're promoting as a form of follow-up preselling.

That's it for now and I hope this article has been useful. If you're interested, you can read the FULL article at-http://www.ewenchia.com/affiliate.html

Go and profit from your affiliate programs with confidence!



Ewen Chia is an expert at creating cash windfalls online and has been called “The Super Affiliates’ Super Affiliate” for his extraordinary expertise as an affiliate marketer. You can discover his secrets at-


http://www.InstantMarketingSecrets.com

http://www.EwenChia.com