December 2006

In This issue:
:: Fraud Alert: How Trustworthy is your Online Advertising?
:: The Top Five Ways to Improve Your Online Sales
:: Is Your Site Making the Most of Broadband?

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How Trustworthy is your Online Advertising?
- Christianna Connell

One in Ten Clicks Could Be Fraudulent
According to media research firm Outsell, up to 15% of advertising clicks maybe be fake. These clicks are most likely coming from competing businesses in an attempt to bust their competitor’s advertising budgets.

What's the reality of pay per click fraud?

“Yankee Group estimated that fraudulent means are involved in 1 of every 10 clicks on text ads, which translated to a $500 million problem last year, when pay-per-click ads generated a total of $5 billion. Other consultants estimate that click fraud is much larger, perhaps a $1 billion problem affecting 12 percent to 30 percent of all ad clicks.” WashingtonPost.com

While advertising giants like Yahoo and Google are working on new technology to weed out fraudulent clicks, advertisers are already searching out alternatives such as pay-per-action ads. These ads only pay out if a customer buys something. However, there is much debate about whether or not this method is unfair to site publishers. For instance, if someone clicks on an ad and the site design detracts the visitor from purchasing, the publisher won’t get paid for the click.

With all these considerations, Outsell has reported that 27% of firms are already reducing their online ad budgets because of click fraud.

What can you do to protect yourself now?
While all this fraud may seem alarming, it is important to keep in mind that this kind of fraud affects some industries more than others and there are certain types of advertising that are more vulnerable to scams.

To date, pay per click is still one of the best ways to gain exposure while maintaining the ability to tightly manage your daily budget and reducing or eliminating it from your campaign may not be an option. However, just knowing that this type of fraud is on the increase can help you stay ahead of the game. Now is the time to monitor your budget and click history very closely. Unless you’ve done some additional marketing campaigns to increase your clicks you should not see a large increase in click thrus. If you do, then it may be worth further investigation into the legitimacy of these clicks. Unfortunately, until the technology is perfected, pay per click advertising is still vulnerable to malice.

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The Top Five Ways to Improve Your Online Sales
- Jeune Ortiz

Ask any salesperson out there and they will all tell you the same thing, it’s all about trust. People will not buy from you unless they trust you. It is as true for a brick and mortar store as it is for an online store. Establishing trust on your web site is critical to making a sale. The challenge is how to convince your visitor that your site is indeed trustworthy.

Now the question is, how can your site convey trust to its visitors?

People Pictures
Research shows that showing a picture of yourself on your site will immediate help visitors make a connection to the people behind the site. Even if you don’t want to put your specific photo on your site, images of people can have a tremendous effect on the comfort level of your customer.

Live Chat
The second addition we suggested is a “Live Chat” button to his site. Live Chat lets people know that they can get in touch with you right away and also gives them the comfort of knowing that a “real” person is just a click away.

Stay in Contact
By utilizing a blog, forum or email newsletter, you can keep in touch easily. Blogs and forums allow you to have an ongoing conversation with visitors to your site. And email newsletters keep you on their mind while giving you the chance to wow them with your knowledge.

Testimonials
It says a lot to propects that other people have been pleased with your service enough to sit down and let you know about what a good job you did for them. Your professionalism, service, and expertise will come through loud and clear.

Error-Free Fresh Content
If your site is even a year old, it is worth your while to go through every page and make sure that all the links still work, and that the spelling and grammar are correct. Nothing gives a bad impression faster than a site full of errors. Adding fresh content is also a great way to remind prospects that there are real people working behind the site.

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Is your site Making the Most of Broadband?
- Christianna Connell

The most popular question we are asked is, “What about dial-up?”  Most of our new clients come to us with a legitimate concern that the sites we design for them will be fast loading for dial-up users. Throughout the evolution of the internet, site owners have been plagued by slow dial-up speeds that required them to sacrifice quality of visual content.

The tide is turning.

In June 2006, Nielsen/NetRatings reported that 72% of U.S. active Web users connected at home via broadband, growing 15 percentage points over a year ago, when just 57% of active Web users relied on broadband connections at home.

This is really good news for site owners. Broadband users are generally more likely to make online purchases, visit blogs, and are the first to adopt new technology like RSS and Podcasting.

Your site can make the best use of this broadband momentum by implementing new technologies that will gain users like the ones mentioned above. The ability to add dynamic visual interactivity in the form of Flash animation and video is no longer the exception but the norm. High quality images and/or Flash can immediately increase the quality of the site's look.

The users of today’s internet are technologically savvy and expect to see the "next great thing" utilized on your site. Besides making your site more interesting, the techno-appeal of your site is immediately elevated, making your company more legitimate to today's users, and therefore more trustworthy.

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