Conversion: Ad Tracking Helps You Improve Sales
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Explains the basics of ad tracking, both for PPC campaigns as well as e-mail promotions. Explains how to ad tracking codes after a question mark, Overture Conversion Counter and Google's conversion tracking feature. Recommends various ad tracking tools, including Atlas OnePoint, ProAnalyzer, ClickAlyzer, ConversionRuler, and 1ShoppingCart. Date: Nov 10, 2004, 12:04 PST"

Site Promotion: Yahoo! Directory, Search, and Site Match
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Explains the difference between Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Search, Overture Site Match, Local Match, and Precision Match -- whew! Explains how each of these might be important in a marketing plan and makes recommendations on the use of each. Date: Nov 3, 2004, 22:07 PST"

Site Design: Video Sales Presentations
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Forcing visitors to view video clips using Macromedia Flash technology can be annoying and cause them to leave. But video sales presentations can be quite effective in boosting your conversion rate. Recommends A/B split-testing to find the best uses for video. Date: Oct 27, 2004, 13:37 PST"

Ads and Affiliates: Affiliate Program Recommendations
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Current affiliate program recommendations include Commission Junction, My Affiliate Program, Ultimate Affiliate Software, and integrated shopping cart affiliate programs. Date: Oct 27, 2004, 12:49 PST"

Ads and Affiliates: Rushing Blindly into E-Business Failure
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Rushing into any business is a recipe for diaster. This article discusses the problems with expecting to earn money from an extremely competitive affiliate-based product. Date: Oct 20, 2004, 08:49 PST"


MSN to Launch Movie Channel
From: www.webpronews.com

"Microsoft will launch its movie channel for MSN Direct, which allows movie buffs to view show times and movie listings for selected theaters directly on their Smart Watch."

Weblogs Inc. Launches Adventure Travel Blog
From: www.webpronews.com

"Weblogs, Inc. launched their 60th Weblog-Gadling, an engaged' travel Weblog for people who like to be active - both physically and mentally - when they travel."

Intel and Microsoft Launch Campaign
From: www.webpronews.com

"Intel and Microsoft are delivering the first joint consumer campaign to showcase the benefits of an emerging digital lifestyle."

Local Search Platform gets Local Web Search Features
From: www.webpronews.com

"PremierGuide announced the addition of local web search features to the company's flagship local search platform."

24/7 Real Media's Third Quarter Results
From: www.webpronews.com

"24/7 Real Media's revenue for the third quarter, ended September 30, climbed 72.9% to $20.8 million from the $12.0 million reported in the same period in 2003 and rose 6.2% sequentially from the $19.6 million reported in the second quarter of 2004."


A City Invaded by WiFi
From: www.wired.com

"Taipei plans to have a citywide connection by 2005. Also: MIT creates a voice operated plane that takes audio commands & hellip;. Basketball players use video games to hone their skills & hellip;. and more."

Spam Is Finally a Crime
From: www.wired.com

"Siblings are the first ever to be convicted for sending boatloads of junk e-mail pushing bogus products. Also: Microsoft takes MSN music download on a Euro trip.... Nokia begins legal battle against European counterparts.... and more."

XM Makes a RadioPod
From: www.wired.com

"The satellite radio company gears up to clean up in the portable player market. Also: United States lays a clear line against internet gambling & hellip;. Outsourcing continues without a hitch & hellip;. and more."

Phones for Days and Days
From: www.wired.com

"Nokia releases three new phone models that might catch your eye. Also: Yahoo hires a former TV programmer to bring business & hellip;. Semiconductor market flat & hellip;. and more."

Pols, Don't Count on Recounts
From: www.wired.com

"The 100,000 electronic voting machines in use in Tuesday's election have a big downside: Candidates who dispute the results won't have a way to conduct a meaningful recount. Analysis by Kim Zetter."


10 things the Chinese do far better than we do
From: webword.com

" "No, for this list we were looking for truly brilliant ideas, the forehead-slapping kind, the ones that make you say: Now why didn't we think of that?"

Interesting stuff.

Read more...

"

How'd your vote go? (User Experience of Voting)
From: webword.com

" Kottke -- "As important as this particular presidential election is, I'm more interested in the longer term factors affecting the voting process in the US. The electoral college system, how the media's election day coverage influences voter turnout, the construction and dissemination of information to voters by state and federal authorities, the voting process...basically the user experience of voting."

Read more..."

WebWord Usability Show (Podcast #4 ) 1-Nov-2004
From: webword.com

" I've produced my fourth podcast. In this audio show I talk about the definition of usability and human factors. I provide some background and history on these terms, and I also dive into other terms like human-computer interaction (HCI), user-centered design (UCD), ergonomics, and more. If you don't know much about usability this is probably a good introduction. If you are familiar with these ideas, you still might learn something new.

Here's my RSS 2.0 feed for podcasts, if you want to subscribe.

Title: webword-2004-11-01.mp3 (Right click, Save Target As...)
Host: John S. Rhodes
File size: 6,987,776 bytes bytes (7.0 MB)
Length: 29:05
Channels: Mono
Frequency: 22050kHz
Bitrate: 32kbps

Related links:
Definition of usability
Definition of human factors
What is Human Factors? (WebWord, 1998)
Human Factors/Ergonomics
Human Factors as a Field
Usability Basics
"

Wake-up call
From: webword.com

" The Age -- "Some businesses are turning old call-centre certainties on their head, trying to spend more time with their customers rather than less - or more time with their "highvalue" customers. Most are giving their operators real authority to make decisions on the fly, and the information, training and applications to let them do it."

Spend more time with customers! What a fantastic idea. Honestly, this is not something I had considered before, but it makes so much sense. The more valuable (or potentially valuable) a customer is, the more time they get. Awesome.

Read more... (might require registration)

p.s. Thanks for the submission Daniel Szuc!"

Linking Out is Good
From: webword.com

" "Many websites out there don't have a single link to another website. According to Webcredible ( http://www.webcredible.co.uk ), a leading UK usability and accessibility consultancy, this is a bad idea. Ask a webmaster why there aren't any outbound links, and the answer you'll probably get is simple enough: "If I link to other websites people might leave my site." At this point you can break the news that site visitors will leave their site. And there's nothing they can do about this."

The article is poorly edited but it does bring up a good point. Many web sites do not link out. Jakob Nielsen, for example, very rarely links out and it drives me crazy.

Read more...

p.s. Here are two old WebWord articles on linking...
Strategic Linking Techniques
When to Link Out of Your Site

"