Marketing/Ecommerce Research

Pinterest Pushing Traffic

Michael Bloch — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:19:16 +0000

Pinterest is increasingly looking like a social network the online marketing crowd and merchants just can’t afford to ignore. I wrote about Pinterest a few weeks ago, but since that time I haven’t had time to delve into it much more than I had by that point. I better make time. According to figures from [...]

Tablet And Ebook Reader Uptake Explodes

Michael Bloch — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:43:43 +0000

While I’m still holding off on buying a tablet computer, millions of others have acquired one in recent months. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of adults in the USA who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January this year – and uptake of e-book readers [...]

Google’s “Page Layout Penalty” Algo Tweak

Michael Bloch — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:39:08 +0000

Google is starting to whack more web sites that have too many ads above the fold (ATF). Acting on complaints from users who land on sites and find they need to scroll down a fair way to see the actual content, Google has announced an “algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a webpage [...]

Congratulatory Comment Link Spam

Michael Bloch — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:18:39 +0000

Most blog owners would appreciate positive comments about their posts. However, sometimes these glowing glumps of text are nothing more than link spam. Weeding out this sort of thing is a good idea as the more of us who do it, the less attractive it will become as a spamming technique. Some of it is [...]

How To Create A Google-Friendly Site Blackout

Michael Bloch — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:01:32 +0000

The looming “blackout” of the English version of Wikipedia has been big news and other webmasters have expressed a desire to follow suit. But how do you hobble your entire site for a day or so and make a statement to all who visit your site during that time without putting your Google rankings at [...]

What The Heck Is Pinterest?

Michael Bloch — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:19:53 +0000

I was going through a backlog of various marketing newsletters from the past week and just about every publication mentioned Pinterest at some point. There was a time in the past I didn’t take much note of new social network sites being launched that were attracting a bit of attention as it was happening every [...]

Team Google Are Speed Freaks

Michael Bloch — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:26:35 +0000

Google is addicted to speed – and a recent article in their quarterly newsletter gives a bunch of good reasons; some of which online businesses should take note of. Google Engineer Urs Hoelzle, author of the article, makes a very interesting observation – if all the Internet users in the USA have to wait for [...]

Content Marketing And Shopping Carts

Michael Bloch — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:02:46 +0000

If you’re going to offer something as lightweight as a free executive summary of a horribly expensive report – don’t make it a shopping cart item and force folks to go through a lengthy checkout process. I received an email today about a study relating to online marketing that offered a free executive summary of [...]

Follow Up Shopping Cart Abandoners

Michael Bloch — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 06:49:18 +0000

While shopping cart abandonment is generally considered A Bad Thing; we’re reminded it’s a part of the online shopping process. I’ve been out to a few sites today checking out various products, but haven’t bought a thing. But I will tomorrow or later in the week – and a couple of items will come from [...]

Inebriated Shoppers A Merchant’s Dream?

Michael Bloch — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:19:04 +0000

On many occasions over the last 15 years I have been incredibly thankful I gave up drinking before getting involved in the online world. I’m a reasonably cautious fellow when sober who usually contemplates purchases carefully, but that used to change with a few drinks under my belt. Actually, if I could have limited my [...]

How Social Media Can Cost You Big

Michael Bloch — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:04:42 +0000

Social media can be a dream for online business, or a nightmare as the world’s largest domain name registrar recently discovered. A single posting on Reddit has caused quite an exodus of domain name registrants from GoDaddy. A user named selfprodigy posted he was transferring 51 domain names from GoDaddy because of the company’s support [...]

Better Online Communities In 2012

Michael Bloch — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 08:52:27 +0000

Most forum/blog commenting guidelines are a joke in that they are not enforced. Let’s turn that around in 2012. As I’ve said a few times in the past, the quality of conversations in forums and blogs seems to have greatly degraded over the years. I’m not referring to the spam that slips through, but the [...]

Do Not Reply Marketing Emails

Michael Bloch — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:54:10 +0000

If you’re going to send marketing emails, it’s probably not a good idea to send them from a “do not reply” address. That’s just rude. Yes, we’d all like our customers and potential customers to click a link or observe whatever special process to contact us in order to make life easier for customer service [...]

Ecommerce Takes The Hassle Out Of Death

Michael Bloch — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:29:24 +0000

On a couple of occasions I’ve decided to pre-arrange disposal of my body in preparation for when the grim reaper comes a-knockin’, but organising a bargain basement cremation entirely online has been impossible; so I’ve given up in each instance. However, it looks like the funeral industry is finally starting to get it right – [...]

Will The Real Matt Cutts Please Stand Up

Michael Bloch — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:09:59 +0000

If you’ve been tinkering with SEO for any length of time, you’ve likely heard of Matt Cutts. In case you aren’t aware of him, he’s part of Google’s Search Quality group and often communicates with the webmaster community. While he has his own site, Matt also drops in on other blogs from time to time [...]

Bloggers Are Not Journalists

Michael Bloch — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 09:36:40 +0000

I’ve been blogging since before the term was invented. I’ve never considered myself a journalist, but many bloggers see themselves that way. It could be a dangerous mindset. Journalists enjoy quite a few freedoms in many countries and bloggers sometimes mistakenly think they have all of the same privileges. For example, a judge in Oregon [...]

Yet Another Xmas Sale Email

Michael Bloch — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:15:40 +0000

I’ve just deleted what feels to be the eleventy gazillionth Christmas sale email and I think if Santa was standing in front of me right now, I would feel compelled to shoot him. People know Xmas is coming up. They don’t need to be reminded by every merchant in the world of that fact nor [...]

A Good Buddy Of Mine

Michael Bloch — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:34:21 +0000

The schmaltz of the affiliate marketing and “make money online” world sometimes gets to me. Any email that mentions something “a good buddy” of the sender is doing (selling) should be ignored, or at least treated with extreme caution. If it starts out with “Dear friend” (or variations of this) as well, just nuke it.. [...]

Google Publishing Algorithm Changes

Michael Bloch — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 09:20:03 +0000

Each year, Google makes around 500 tweaks to its search ranking algorithm – and now the company is going to be telling us more about those changes; and more often. Major updates to Google’s algorithm certainly don’t go unnoticed – those occurrences are given names such as “Jagger”, “Florida”, “Caffeine” and “Panda”. Debates on SEO [...]

$#$#ing Infographics

Michael Bloch — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:45:54 +0000

I swear, if I stumble across another infographic today, I’ll be cleaning barf off my notebook screen. Infographics, a visual way of presenting information, have been around for a long, long, time. Something has happened in the last 6 months or so that has seen the number of them explode – it’s almost like they [...]

Black Friday, Cyber Monday Break Records

Michael Bloch — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:28:51 +0000

Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales both broke records this year – and the latter had the additional highlight of no-one being maced. According to comScore, Cyber Monday hit $1.25 billion in online spending, a jump of 22 percent on Cyber Monday in 2010. The cash splash was the heaviest online spending day in [...]

Avoid Pepper Spray, Shop Online

Michael Bloch — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 08:58:37 +0000

Now there’s another good reason for consumers to shop online – for their physical safety. Even though marketing and related activities form a big part of my career and I know a lot of merchants depend heavily on the holiday shopping season, I absolutely hate this time of the year. Far from being a time [...]

While Stocks Last

Michael Bloch — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:28:14 +0000

The old “while stocks last”, “limited numbers available” and “offer must end soon” aren’t just marketing spin – they make for good butt covering in case a special is too popular – and that does happen. A bakery in the UK unfortunately didn’t have these blurbs to fall back on in relation to a Groupon [...]

Buy One, Give One Away

Michael Bloch — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:33:38 +0000

If you have a product that might also be useful in developing countries, consider a “buy one, give one away” campaign. Aside from the warm and fuzzy aspect, it may boost sales, generate a bit of buzz and even help your search engine rankings. I work predominantly in the “green” sector these days and quite [...]

AU Retailer Complaint Backfires

Michael Bloch — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:16:46 +0000

The Australian ecommerce scene is going from strength to strength and according to an Aussie online merchant, some of it is due to a couple of local major bricks and mortar retailers complaining about Internet purchasing. A report released a few days ago from the Australian Communications and Media Authority states in the six months [...]

Google Plus Pages Open To Business

Michael Bloch — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:08:34 +0000

The long wait is over – businesses can now set up a Google+ profile. Announcing the rollout, Google said “Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you.” Love us? I don’t know about you, but I’d be happy with a page being viewed by people that are even mildly interested [...]

Google’s Fresh Algo Tweak

Michael Bloch — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:50:56 +0000

Google announced yesterday it was making a significant tweak to its ranking algorithm that will impact over a third of searches. The “significant improvement” Google says will determine when to provide searchers with more current results; particularly in relation to current events, recurring events or information that changes regularly. For online merchants, the latter is [...]

Yahoo! Mail Visualization

Michael Bloch — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 03:50:32 +0000

Curious about how much mail Yahoo processes a second or the percentage of users in Oceania? Yahoo! Mail Visualization can tell you that and much more. I’m not much of a fan of tools that go “bing” (apologies to Monty Python and no reference whatsoever to the search engine) or the use of fancy animations [...]

Is Buying Google +1′s Illegal?

Michael Bloch — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:55:22 +0000

Some companies buy Facebook likes or Google +1′s to make themselves seem more popular than they really are. Questions of ethics aside, it could perhaps also be illegal. That you can buy Google plus 1,s Facebook Likes or Fans and Twitter followers isn’t new or isn’t any big secret – these services openly advertise and [...]

Organic Vs. Paid Search Listing Clicks

Michael Bloch — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 09:37:59 +0000

If you’re not buying ads on search engine results pages, how much traffic are you missing? PPC can be a big investment of time and money; both of which may be in short supply for the average online business owner. If you have good organic (free) rankings as is and you’re worried about how much [...]