Why Business Blogging Works for the Small Business (and big ones, too)
A realtor contact of mine recently asked about the benefits of business blogging, whether or not to worry about content and idea theft, etc… Here are a few of my observations:
By Ethan Pierse · 02.19.2008 · No Comments
Nielsen/NetRatings’ New Web Metric Likely To Hurt Google, Help YouTube
In a move to better represent Web 2.0 properties, one of the world’s largest internet benchmarking companies, Nielsen/NetRatings, announced that as of today it will immediately begin using total time spent on a site instead of total pageviews as its primary traffic metric. ( computerworld article )
Many of the new technologies used on Web 2.0 sites, and most specifically the rise in Ajax, are meant to provide a more seamless user experience with less visible page changes in favor of updates to the information already present on your page. This, however, has meant that many Web 2.0 sites have not been able to reflect their popularity and traffic volume as highly as sites with high page changes, like Google Search or MySpace. read more »
By Ethan Pierse · 07.10.2007 · No Comments
Google Website Optimizer Debut
Today, Google launched Google Website Optimizer as a service to enable website owners to test different landing pages and determine the pages with the best conversion rates.
Conversions can be sales, downloads, newsletter subscriptions, really any on-site activity that you would like to track.
Google Website Optimizer is integrated as a free service into Google Adwords. Website owners will need a Google Adwords account to make use of the optimizer.
By adding a few javascripts to your landing page, Google will automatically create and track different variations of Headings, photos, quotes and paragraphs to determine the highest converting combination.
For more information, Google has an overview video and video user guide available.
By Ethan Pierse · 04.04.2007 · No Comments
Montpellier Business Networking
My sincere appreciation to everyone who came to the networking event last Friday in Montpellier centre ville and to Fitzpatrick’s Irish Pub for their generous hospitality. Several hundred people have expressed interest in the events and 45 were able to attend our inaugural affair. For our first official time together, I am incredibly pleased with that total. I attended the one year anniversary of another local networking group’s founding just the night before and they said their first meeting was 3 people. Needless to say, 45 has me very excited and proud.
Everyone at the event expressed their enjoyment over the quality and varied backgrounds of the attendees and are all excited for our next rendezvous. In the past two days, I have received another dozen or so confirmations for the November 18th event. I am working to officially form “Réseau Montpellier” amidst everyone’s enthusiasm and offers of assistance.
By Ethan Pierse · 10.02.2006 · No Comments
openBC Internet Marketing Group
I have just launched the Internet Marketing Strategy group on openBC for all the business networkers eager to learn about and discuss Internet Marketing and Internet Business.
By Ethan Pierse · 09.06.2006 · No Comments
Free openBC Business Networking Premium Access
In the world of online business networking, there are many quality communities available depending on the particular market you are interested in pursuing. openBC is fast becoming my favorite of the business networking sites as it not only has a significant American presence, but an enormous European and International audience.
If you are interested in networking with any businesses located outside of the United States or with International businesses with offices in the US, I highly recommend using openBC. From Indian outsourcing to Chinese start-ups to high-profile Japanese and German firms, it is helping me make facile connections to an excellent cross-section of very talented individuals.
By Ethan Pierse · 08.23.2006 · 1 Comment
Advenir Offering Weekly Internet Marketing Teleconferences
Advenir Principal and Founder, Ethan Pierse, is now offering complimentary, weekly teleconferences covering the concepts, tools and methods of Internet Marketing. Using Skype’s new Skypecast service, people around the world can now present or take part in high-quality teleconferences directly through their computer. Skype is the leading provider of voice instant messaging as well as offering many premium VoIP services.
By Ethan Pierse · 08.12.2006 · No Comments
Meebo Me - Instant Messaging For Your Website
I’ve been a fan of Meebo for awhile now. I love the fact that I can use all my Instant Message Accounts (MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL/AIM, and Jabber/GTalk) all on one webpage. It’s a very slick site and gets better every week. If you use Instant Messaging and have to keep track of many contacts and accounts, it is a must-have (and it’s free). While many people only use one Instant Message platform, like AIM or MSN, if you network at all internationally, you quickly discover the regional preferences; while AIM is massively popular in the US, most Europeans prefer MSN Messenger. Many techies prefer Jabber, or Google’s Jabber client GTalk. It’s fairly easy to collect contacts using all the major Instant Messaging platforms fairly quickly.
By Ethan Pierse · 08.02.2006 · No Comments
Yahoo Delays New Ad Platform
Forbes is reporting that Yahoo’s new Ad platform “Panama” won’t be appearing until the end of 2006 and not fully operational until sometime into 2007. Yahoo’s search engine query market share has dropped to 28% against Google’s 45% and many are hoping that Yahoo’s new system will recoup some of its losses by further challenging Google in the text ad market.
By Ethan Pierse · 07.20.2006 · No Comments
Advenir and Driver Networks Release CoopsAreOpen.com
Together with Driver Networks LLC, Advenir is proud to announce the release of the trucking industry’s most comprehensive resource for truck weigh station scales and state DOT rules and regulations, CoopsAreOpen.com.
From the Driver Networks Press Release:
“Professional truck drivers manage numerous regulations regarding the weight of their trucks, weight distribution and logged driving hours. Those policies differ by state and enforcement/tolerance can differ by weigh station. CoopsAreOpen.com provides drivers with a complete reference to those policies and their individual application as well as detailed contact, location, and helpful details for each weigh station.”
Example State Page: Texas State Weigh Stations, Scales and DOT Rules and Regulations
Example Station Page: Desert Hills, Banning, California Truck Weigh Station and Scale
Advenir developed the complete infrastructure of the site as well as the Internet Marketing and Business strategy and implementation. The site development consists of an account management system, databased content for over 1200 scales and states, comment management system, an ecommerce system for product sales and recurring site access subscriptions, blog and message board systems, complete web-based analytics, and a web-based content management system for Driver Networks’ updates. The site is based on web-standards and accessibility with specific attention to the search engine optimization and visibility of the over 1200 weigh station scales and respective state DOT informations.
The Internet Marketing and Business Strategy includes online press release distribution, blog marketing, article marketing, affiliate marketing programs through Commission Junction and Linkshare, Google AdSense advertising program management, Google Adwords search marketing program management, thorough search engine optimization (SEO), newsletter marketing with opt-in email, strategic partnerships with concurrent industries, as well as offline networking and promotion strategy.
Since 1997, Advenir has provided Internet Marketing and Business Development services and related comprehensive Corporate Training to 1000’s of employees and small to Fortune 500 businesses throughout the United States and Western Europe.
By Ethan Pierse · 07.07.2006 · No Comments
Are Your Contact Forms Sending Spam?
We’ve been tracking this for awhile and it seems to be getting worse. Contact forms on your website that accept information without doing any checks for malicious data are a great way for spammers to use your site for their work. If you are receiving email through your forms that have addresses like someword@yourdomain.com, a spambot may be phishing for valid email addresses. Also, these bots may include an address from the following list (or similar) as a way to let it know if your form is vulnerable to hacking.
Here’s a list of the addresses we have seen:
Bcc: Hollowiog1503@Aol.Com
Bcc: Frekiforbes@Aol.Com
Bcc: Voiettag@Aol.Com
Bcc: jrubin3546@aol.com
Bcc: mkoch321@aol.com
Bcc: wnacyiplay@aol.com
Bcc: kshmng@aol.com
Bcc: homeiragtime@aol.com
Bcc: bergkoch8@aol.com
Bcc: tlccooperfamlly@aol.com
Bcc: tlcc00perfamily@aol.com
Bcc: jmpatton2OOO@aol.com
Bcc: bajfIa@aol.com
Bcc: bajfIa@aol.com
Bcc: bajfla3@aol.com
Bcc: bajfla1@aol.com
Bcc: bajfla2@aol.com
Bcc: hellothere@ToughGuy.net
Bcc: Markt8@ToughGuy.net
Bcc: punk65@PunkAss.com
Bcc: magnetic54@SexMagnet.com
Bcc: andagain@GameBox.net
Bcc: Montana88@GameBox.net
Bcc: india901@HotPop.com
Bcc: onemoreaddress@hotpop.com
Bcc: esau908@BonBon.net
Bcc: battsl1005@aol.com
This technique is called email header injection. In many programming languages, especially PHP, it is very easy to take the contents from a form submission and email them. If programmers don’t plan ahead, these scripts are easily hacked by sending the script extra email header information in one of the form fields. This extra header information can override your intended To:, From:, and Subject: fields, siezing control of your contact form’s email output.
By Ethan Pierse · 06.01.2006 · No Comments
An Ajax Introduction
Ajax, for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a collection of web development tools used to create Rich Internet Applications (RIA). Ajax allows web browsers to interact with web servers via small requests and update the loaded web page without actually reloading the entire page after each request. This gives the site an immediate increase in its appearance of interactivity, a significant speed boost, as the web server only has to process much smaller transactions, and a usability edge over repeatedly reloaded static pages.
By Ethan Pierse · 03.18.2006 · No Comments
Win a FREE Blackberry 8700, 60GB Apple Video iPod, or Sony PSP
We’re giving away a Blackberry 8700, Apple 60GB Video iPod, or a Sony Playstation Portable (your choice!) FREE each and every month! Sign up for Results Unlimited - the free bi-weekly of Internet Business Professionals covering everything new and great in Internet Business, Internet Marketing and Web Development - and automatically be entered into our sweepstakes.
By Ethan Pierse · 03.10.2006 · 11 Comments
Google Agrees To $90 Million Class Action Settlement
In their lawsuit with Lane’s Gifts of Arkansas regarding Google Adwords Advertising click fraud, Google has agreed to a settlement of not more than $90 million including attorneys’ fees.
Google already offers a 60 day window to request reimbursement for clicks advertisers believe to be invalid, but this settlement will apply to complaints dating back to 2002. Considering the billions of dollars in Adsense revenue, this would seem to indicate that click fraud is a miniscule problem in the Adsense system.
Google will be writing the legal fees off as an expense and the settlement costs will be charged against revenue in the affected periods.
By Ethan Pierse · 03.08.2006 · No Comments
Email Management and Marketing Software - MailTemplate
If you or your business answer a lot of email, you know well that the majority of email asks one of only a few different questions of your business. Individually responding to these inquiries takes a lot of time, yet prompt, thorough responses are an important edge for your customer service. People appreciate a rapid response, and even more so, they appreciate a full response that answers their questions well.
By Ethan Pierse · 02.02.2006 · No Comments
100 Guerrilla Marketing Weapons
Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing, has an excellent summary of his Guerrilla Marketing tactics, free on his website. Many of them are to be expected, but a few of the standouts are:
By Ethan Pierse · 01.12.2006 · No Comments
FTC Search Engine Rank Report
You’re using your favorite search engine, ready to find the most appropriate sites for your needs. You type in your search terms, and up comes a list of the most relevant sites, right? Not necessarily, says the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the federal government’s consumer protection agency.
Read more in the FTC Search Engine Rank Report.
By Ethan Pierse · 11.03.2005 · No Comments
Web Software with Ajax
The topic du jour in web development and web software, AJAX, is getting more and more press. CNN has an interesting article on AJAX and the potential threat it may pose to desktop software and the Microsoft monopoly. AJAX is the group of technologies behind such projects as Google Maps, Google GMail and the new beta of Yahoo Mail.
To see just how incredible this technology can be, check out Basecamp and Backpack from 37signals or the new Windows Live start page from Microsoft.
Also, check out our Ajax Introduction.
By Ethan Pierse · 10.25.2005 · No Comments
FREE Apple iPod Nano Giveaway!
Sign up for the free Advenir Internet Business Newsletter covering everything new and great in Internet Business, Internet Marketing and Development and automatically be entered into our monthly FREE Apple iPod Nano Giveaway.
By Ethan Pierse · 10.19.2005 · 7 Comments
Edelman / Technorati Blog Survey Results
I was contacted several weeks ago to ask my opinions on several aspects of blogging behaviour and corporate interaction to determine how companies can best engage the blogosphere and its prevailing attitudes toward corporate information/PR. Check out the 2005 Edelman / Technorati Blogger Survey to see the results.
By Ethan Pierse · 10.05.2005 · No Comments
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