Conversion: Review: Landing Page Handbook: How to Raise Conversions -- Data and Design Guidelines
From: www.wilsonweb.com

" Date: Mar 9, 2005, 14:30 PST"

Conversion: Engaging Site Visitors with SitePal Animated Speaking Characters (Avatars)
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"SitePal speaking animated avatars can make a significant difference in engaging visitors and increasing conversion rates. This brief article gives preliminary results of how SitePal increased visitor time-on-site by 33% and number of page views by 17%. Date: Mar 9, 2005, 11:47 PST"

Marketing Tools: Defeating Pop-up Blockers
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Windows XP SP2 effectively blocks most pop-ups. However, Dynamic Popup Generator side-steps the current crop of pop-up blockers and enabled me to nearly double my subscriptions from a pop-up window. Date: Mar 2, 2005, 15:39 PST"

Site Promotion: Building Website Content around Baby Furniture
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"When you build a cluster of articles around a particular topic, your site begins to develop higher PageRank, links, and traffic. This article discusses how to do this for a baby furniture site. Date: Mar 2, 2005, 13:57 PST"

Site Promotion: Thoughts on Linking Strategies
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Don't exchange links indiscriminately with just any site. Make sure the site has commonalities with and is complementary to your site, or you'll difuse your own search engine ranking. Introduces Ken Evoy's new e-book Make Your Links WORK! Date: Feb 23, 2005, 23:22 PST"


Yahoo To Lanuch New Ad Network
From: www.webpronews.com

"According to CNET News, Yahoo is going to launch an ad network for small Web publishers."

Customize Google News... Why?
From: www.webpronews.com

"Maybe I'm seriously missing something and you can help me out here. I've been known ..."

Microsoft Wants To Reform Patent System
From: www.webpronews.com

"Mary Jo Foley is reporting that Microsoft wants to reform the patent system. There's a major need for this."

SanDisk Introduces 2 Gig Flash Drive, Improves Security
From: www.webpronews.com

"The California-based, portable storage producing SanDisk has enhanced their flash drive line-up, offering a 2-gigabyte model."

Blu-ray Disc Association Gets an Apple
From: www.webpronews.com

"Apple will become a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) Board of Directors."


Apple Computer Goes Blu
From: www.wired.com

"The company becomes a strong ally for Blu-ray format DVDs. Also: Microsoft buys Groove in an attempt to broaden Office tools.... A 3-D screen without the goggles.... and more."

IBM Deal Gets Green Light
From: www.wired.com

"China's buyout of IBM's personal computer biz is cleared.... Also: Oracle is at the bidding table again.... Samsung unveils world's first powerhouse 7-megapixel camera phone."

Student Nailed for Sharing
From: www.wired.com

"An 18-year-old Arizona teen is the first to be found guilty of downloading music and movies using state laws. Also: Sony wants a piece of Apple's iPod action.... Taiwan sinks big bucks into nanotechnology.... and more."

Justice Says No to Microsoft
From: www.wired.com

"The Justice Department strikes a $13 million deal with Microsoft rival Corel. Also: The EU is ready to make an important patent decision.... Samsung struggles to find a profit.... and more."

Vegging Out in Front of the Phone
From: www.wired.com

"The boob tube is coming soon to your cell phone. On the schedule is live TV, video on demand and special made-for-mobile dramas, or 'mobisodes.' By Elizabeth Biddlecombe."


There is No Spoon and there is No Usability
From: webword.com

" Usability isn't anything at all. It doesn't exist. Instead, usability is a label given to the results that we see or want. Just as osteoporosis isn't a disease, usability isn't the outcome of usability testing. You probably didn't know it but osteoporosis is just a label given to a cluster of medical symptoms. Analogously, usability is just a label given to a list of desirable features or outcomes associated with a product or service.

Let's not mistake the outcome of the usability process (e.g., testing) as usability itself. And, let's not clump usability methods together and call them usability either. Putting this another way, we should stop using the outcome as the label. Usability methods don't create usability, but they do produce outcomes that are beneficial to users. Usability methods help foster satisfaction, efficiency, desirability, and more, but usability methods don't produce usability itself.

You can measure temperature but you can't measure usability. For example, I can say that it is 78 degrees Fahrenheit in my room but I can't say that my room has any type or level of usability. There is not a usability metric. At best, we can throw together several usability outcome measures together, such as level of satisfaction and completion rates, but we can't measure usability itself. There is no metric for it. It just doesn't make any sense.

Summary: Usability as a term should be thrown into the pit. It isn't real. It doesn't exist. "

WANTED: Enterprise Architects
From: webword.com

" CIO.com -- "An enterprise architect is the person who conceives, designs and oversees the implementation of a company's systems development. While the concept of enterprise architecture is old, the position of enterprise architect is new, and has become relevant recently with the emergence of Web services and the move toward service-oriented architectures that enable IT components to be used in multiple applications."

Read the article...

(Hat tip to Dano)"

In Search of Overhead Heroes
From: webword.com

" Strategy + Business -- "To overcome this, we examined the best consumer-focused technology vendors, companies that are known for understanding and satisfying consumer demand. We studied Apple s development of the iPod, Dell s distribution model, and IBM s sourcing strategies. We interviewed product and account managers at leading technology vendors and trained our staff in how to deal with consumers. We also explored how these vendors reported their success, identified their shortcomings, and changed their services."

Summary? Understand and listen to your customers. Satisfy them. This isn't rocket science but too many companies ignore their customers.

Read the article..."

Keeping Tabs
From: webword.com

" "The original tab signaled an information storage revolution and helped enable everything from management consulting to electronic data processing."

Interesting history lesson.

Read the article..."

Google Autolink
From: webword.com

" Google's toolbar and content modification

Who Owns Your Desktop? You Do!

Protect your site from Google s new toolbar

Questions...

1. Who is in control?
2. What is being controlled?
3. Does it matter?"


Good News For Us!
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"Well, it appears as if my speculation is finally coming true... Over a year ago, I predicted that Yahoo would follow Google's AdSense lead and release a similar program of their own. They'd have to in order to keep up..."

I Have A Strange Feeling...
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"I have a strange feeling that long form sales letters on the Web are going to become less and less effective. Call it a hunch. As an avid tester, I am discovering some interesting things about how long visitors stay..."

Virtual Real Estate -- The Coming Boom!
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"Write these words down... Virtual Real Estate. We are about to experience a major explosion during the next 5 years and it will all be centered around Virtual Real Estate -- which is the development of web sites. There will..."

New "Spy" Photo Released!
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"THIS JUST IN... This is the first real look at the very first issue of The Reese Report -- THE monthly source for the best in Internet business opportunities, Internet marketing techniques and strategies, and much more. I have a..."

Happy New (Profitable) Year!
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"It's 2005. Wow. Here we are starting a brand new year. It's time to start a new year and a new chapter for your business. Here are some things you should keep in mind in 2005: 1. If you are..."