Digital Marketing Blog

WTF is this new Technorati feature?

Normally an acronym for something else entirely, WTF ('Where's the Fire' in this case) is a new social media feature which has been added to Technorati.

Where's the Fire? borrows a little from Digg, (it's a Digg clone, according to Steve Rubel) and allows users to write an explanation of why a particular search topic or subject is important. Other users can then vote that explanation up or down.

by Graham Charlton 01 February 2007 17:15pm 0 comments

Funding round puts poll marketing centre-stage

Web polling firm Vizu has received a $2.9m investment that aims to do for market researchers what AdSense does for advertising.

The investment, led by $1.5m from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, will go toward the just-launched Vizu Answers.The service allows marketers to create multiple-choice polls that appear on partner sites around the world.

by Robert Andrews 01 February 2007 17:11pm 0 comments

Click fraud up in Q4 - ClickForensics

According to figures from US-based firm ClickForensics, click fraud is continuing to rise, reaching 14.2% in the last quarter of 2006, the highest level all year.

Q4 numbers from the Click Fraud Index suggest that the overall industry average click fraud rate was 14.2%, compared with 13.8% for the third quarter, 14.1% for the second and 13.7% for the first.

by Graham Charlton 01 February 2007 13:16pm 0 comments

Making use of overlooked pages

Glossaries, FAQs, and ‘about us’ and ‘contact us’ pages are often overlooked when it comes to SEO visibility and conversion.

So Matt McGee at Search Engine Guide has compiled some tips about how best to realise the revenue-generating potential of these pages.

by Graham Charlton 01 February 2007 11:37am 0 comments

Ask A Ninja wins landmark ad investment

A video podcast hosted by a balaclava-wearing geek has become "the best-paid online video show in the business" after scoring a $300,000 advertising deal.

Ask A Ninja, a regular online piece-to-camera comedy sketch which debuted in November 2005 and is currently pulling in 154,000 unique visitors a month, signed to have its ads handled by Federated Media.

by Robert Andrews 01 February 2007 11:36am 2 comments

PPC budgets to be cut as online spend grows, report says

US advertisers aim to up their online ad spend by 18% this year, and the bulk will go toward search engine advertising, according to a new report.

Data from Outsell shows online will outstrip a general 5.8% growth in ad spending across all media in 2007 - what it called a "major milestone" for the web.

by Robert Andrews 01 February 2007 11:36am 0 comments

More on Shiny Media's recent funding

Earlier in the week we wrote about how UK blog network Shiny Media has sold half of its business to a new London-based VC fund, in exchange for $4.5m.

I talked to Shiny Media CEO Ashley Norris to find out more about the company’s progress and plans for the future.

by Chris Lake 31 January 2007 16:46pm 3 comments

YouTubers would flee video ads

Three-quarters of YouTube viewers would visit the site less often if the video behemoth placed ads before clips, according to a poll.

YouTube founder Chad Hurley, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, told BBC News the site was mulling placing three-second commercials ahead of uploaded videos and sharing the revenue with producers.

by Robert Andrews 31 January 2007 13:34pm 0 comments

Online clothing sales break £1bn barrier

Internet clothing sales reached £1.2bn in 2006 and have increased by 461% over the last five years, according to figures from market research company Mintel.

Despite the obvious drawback of not being able to try before you buy, sales passed the £1bn barrier for the first time. Mintel is labelling it a 'defining year' for online fashion, as retailers invested heavily online.

by Graham Charlton 31 January 2007 12:13pm 0 comments

Simplifying SEO - Five laws of effective search engine optimisation

Alan Eustace, a Google VP of search engineering, announced last year that there are now over 200 signals that Google uses to determine document relevance for a searcher. Unfortunately, he didn’t go on to explain them all… :)

With this number of factors and constantly updating algorithms, it’s tricky when I want to explain to a site owner when training or consulting which really matter. So here are five laws of effective SEO I have defined to assess strategic focus on SEO - hopefully it's easier to remember five laws than 200!

by Dave Chaffey 31 January 2007 09:49am 0 comments