publishers | Internet Marketing Blog

Five reasons publishers are getting ahead of themselves with the iPad

Revenue starved publishers are getting excited about the iPad. Even before Apple's latest product had a name, magazine conglomerates were discussing their plans to deploy tablet-friendly versions of their publications on the device. This week, we're learning some of the details of Condé Nast's plans for the iPad.

And while it's great to see traditional publishers taking some initiative in a burgeoning digital space, there are more than a few reasons to think that many of them are jumping the gun at the chance to charge for content on a new device. Here are five.

by Meghan Keane 01 March 2010 22:01pm 5 comments

What the Apple tablet buzz tells us about...

Later today, Apple is expected to unveil what some believe may be its most important product ever: a tablet computing device.

The Apple tablet has been the subject of speculation for some time and in the lead up to Apple's media event today, the buzz has hit a fever pitch as just about everyone is talking about it. Obviously, the press and blogosphere will have plenty of information to feast on later, but I think the buzz about the Apple tablet is in and of itself worth examining. Why? I think it tells us something about...

by Patricio Robles 27 January 2010 09:02am 0 comments

Is Google cutting publishers' AdSense revshare?

Google AdSense pays out over $1bn in revenue every quarter of the year to publishers. For many of these publishers, especially smaller ones, AdSense is a primary source of revenue.

Yet there's something interesting about AdSense: publishers don't know the exact percentage they're being paid by Google for ad revenue their sites generate.

by Patricio Robles 26 January 2010 09:21am 6 comments

Publishers need to do more to monetise international traffic

Publishers could be missing out when it comes to international visitors to their sites, with only 17% of revenue coming from overseas visits, despite international traffic accounting for 28% of visits.

This is one of the findings from the Econsultancy's Online Publishers Survey Report, produced in association with the Rubicon Project.

by Graham Charlton 10 December 2009 08:54am 0 comments

Tynt tracks and links copy and pastes

Think you're tracking just about every possible user metric on your website? But what about, say, copy and pastes?

If you have an insatiable appetite for tracking everything, a nifty little product from a company called Tynt is probably going to excite you. It tracks how many times users copy and paste your content and increases the chances that those copy and pastes will turn into backlinks.

by Patricio Robles 25 November 2009 11:53am 7 comments

Buying or selling SEO links? Look at the trouble you’re causing

How many times have you sat through an SEO presentation and heard 'it’s all about links, and one link from the BBC is worth more than 1,000 low level directories.'

Google relies on media links to calculate PageRank, a gauge of website authority. These links bring order to search results, which is why everyone uses Google, which is why they make so much money. Brands therefore need media links to achieve SEO success in Google, which is fair enough.

But what do media owners get for providing the authority map behind Google’s meteoric rise? Plummeting advertising revenues as Google hoovers up the lot. This seems a bit of a kick in the teeth, but what can they do about it?

by Jack Hubbard 07 October 2009 09:39am 24 comments

Microsoft may be jealous of Google but that doesn't mean it isn't right

The proposed settlement in the class action lawsuit over Google Books has proven to be quite controversial. Amazon, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are among those questioning the proposed settlement. On the other side, Sony, the Computer & Communication Industry Association and the Authors Guild are among those supporting the settlement.

Opponents claim that the settlement will give Google a virtual monopoly over online books. Supporters claim that the settlement will benefit consumers and does not preclude others from competing in the market.

by Patricio Robles 10 September 2009 09:34am 0 comments

Memo to swinish publishers: pagination sucks

Memo to swinish publishers: pagination sucks Question: why must news sites like Reuters split their stories over multiple pages? Is it because they’re desperate, misguided, hate readers, and are aiming to further commoditise their ad revenues?

Publishers need to be called out for pulling this dirty trick on unwitting visitors. It is aimed at doing one thing: boosting page impressions. After all, why settle for just one page impression when you can have many?

Well, it needs saying: publishers that give a shit about readers and advertisers simply do not do this. The way I see it, only those publishers that want to artificially inflate page impressions and loathe their readers adopt pagination.

It's a swinish technique...

by Chris Lake 30 July 2009 13:09pm 9 comments

Publishers: don't annoy users with audio

One of the most annoying things for me is the automatic playing of audio when you arrive at a webpage, and I've come across a few examples of this on a couple of publishers' websites lately.

There is a trend over the last year or so for news websites to add video players showing things like Premier League highlights next to articles. This gives users another reason to come to the site, but publishers should be careful not to annoy users with intrusive audio.

by Graham Charlton 30 July 2009 11:07am 0 comments

Why do major publishers prevent Google from caching?

A website I run is undergoing a makeover and is down for the day, and I wanted to show somebody the old version. As such I aimed for the Google cache, which is useful in this sort of situation.