Miscellaneous: Call for Small Business and Organizational Online Success Stories
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"If your small business or organization has experienced some online success, please share your story with us. We'll select several, edit them, and pass them on to our readers. Date: May 9, 2005, 14:46 PST"

Ads and Affiliates: Should Affiliate Link Point to the Merchant's Domain?
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"It has long been considered wise to have affiliate links point to the merchant's domain. But this can backfire for larger merchants. Dr. Wilson discusses the various issues that concern cookies, anti-adware, affiliate hijacking, and blocked domains in this rather technical article on various approaches used by affiliate management software programs. Date: Apr 27, 2005, 13:52 PST"

Conversion: Review: Call to Action
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Review of Call to Action by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg. It is a comprehensive volume on all of the elements in your website that, working together, will help raise your overall conversion rate. Highly recommended. Date: Apr 20, 2005, 20:37 PST"

E-Mail Marketing: Improving Your Subscription Confirmation Rate
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Using confirmed opt-in (or double opt-in) is considered a best practice for e-mail lists. But unless you work at it, your confirmation rate can be dangerously low. Here are tips to improve an opt-in confirmation procedure. Date: Apr 13, 2005, 15:34 PST"

E-Commerce: Shipping Calculations with Drop-Shippers
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Figuring shipping charges when your drop-shippers are scattered can be challenging. Charge standard shipping fees by sales total or weight that average out your actual costs. Use fewer shippers and pick products that are hot and not overly competitive. Date: Apr 6, 2005, 13:34 PST"


Microsoft Gives The Greenlight to OneCare Security
From: www.webpronews.com

"Taking a stab at the security world and, further, a punch at anti-virus giants Symantec and McAfee, Microsoft said it will release Windows OneCare, a subscription PC tuneup and firewall service to ride along with virus and spyware protection."

Xbox On the Move On MTV
From: www.webpronews.com

"Xbox made its world premiere on MTV today. The hot new property from Microsoft will be coming out later this year and Microsoft hopes to really hammer Sony's market share before the year's end."

What $695 Buys You in Blogging
From: www.webpronews.com

"Looks like the real way to make money from blogging is to write a report on the topic of blogging (business blogging to be more specific) and then to charge $695 for it."

Podcasting: The Evangelist And The Skeptic. And Me.
From: www.webpronews.com

"Neville Hobson has written an excellent piece about podcasting, walking you through what it is and how you can use it to add a human and informal touch to your communication."

RustySearch Results Posted
From: www.webpronews.com

"Since the explosion of the search engine industry, many have discussed which search engine has the most relevant results. However, conclusions about this debate may have been made a little clearer yesterday."


Gates Bets Against IPods
From: www.wired.com

"Bill says the product's days are numbered, making way for MP3 mobile phones. Also: Massachusetts attorney general wins battle against spam.... Scientists say lack of funding hurts U.S. researchers.... and more."

AOL Seeks a Ratings Boost
From: www.wired.com

"With subscriptions falling, America Online offers free e-mail for AOL Instant Messenger users. Also: Google heads to China.... Michigan cracks down on motorized porn.... and more."

Put Some Wisdom in Your Pocket
From: www.wired.com

"A new cell-phone-based application aims to place boundless knowledge in the palm of your hand. One potential downside: relying on other users' expertise. By Rachel Metz."

Escargot? Oui. Google? Sacre Bleu
From: www.wired.com

"What's behind recent Gallic outrage over the search giant's digital library? Start with France's failure to keep pace with American geek prowess, but don't forget Europe's fears about who'll be writing the planet's history. By Bruce Gain."

The Revolution Revealed
From: www.wired.com

"Details about Microsoft's new Xbox 360 leak onto the internet. Also: Nintendo plans to add online multiplayer capabilities to its DS handheld gaming system.... Sony's Blu-ray takes the lead in the next-generation DVD format war.... and more."


Number of clicks, value of clicks
From: webword.com

" Number of clicks is one important metric, but it doesn't tell the whole story. The value of each click along the way is also important. To make this easier to understand, here's what I wrote in an email: If you found $100 on every street corner but your feet hurt a little, I bet you'd still be happy to walk versus catching a ride. "

Bloglines users are a load of knitters
From: webword.com

" "After producing a list of the top 100 folder names subscribed to on bloglines I found the usual suspects at the top "Blogs, news, tech, people, politics" etc. etc. But then at number 37, I found a folder called "Knitting" that had been used for 2,085 feeds."

Read the article..."

Enron Testimony from a Fool
From: webword.com

" These things are worth digesting...

"To this day, the majority of stockbrokers are compensated on the number of trades their customers make, not on the returns they generate for them or on the quality of the advice they provide."

"In the end, analysts have minimal structural incentive to be accurate in their predictions; rather their built-in incentive is to be as favorable to their corporate clients as possible."

"The problem lies in the fact that analysts have a much greater incentive to focus upon the positive of a company than to root out the risks and the negatives, and their employers value their ability to generate investment-banking income much more than they do proper analysis."

"The issue here is that the analysts who covered Enron, despite the company's long-standing policy of withholding key information, and despite knowledge of the fact that there was an unknown level of debt being hidden from them in off-balance sheet SPEs remained nearly uniformly positive on the company until it was clear the company would collapse."

"The Enron collapse is neither the first nor the most expensive loss of shareholder capital that came while analysts maintained cheery ratings on a company. It's only by virtue of the fact that the loss on Enron shares has approached 100% for shareholders that made it the most noteworthy."

"It is our genuine hope that investors seek to buy companies that they truly understand and would be willing to own for a lifetime. If there is one lesson that individual investors must learn from Enron, that is: Buy What You Know."

Read the entire transcript...

My thinking on stocks? Don't invest unless you really, really understand the company. Advice from other people is largely useless, financial news is mostly biased, and analysts are not looking out for your interests. Furthermore, diversification is critical; distribute your investments."

Fine-grained treats = user happiness
From: webword.com

" "Intermittent, unexpected treats are more powerful than regularly scheduled expected treats."

Nothing new here if you know anything about the basics of psychology. Nevertheless, a good refresher.

See the article...
"

Context matters
From: webword.com

" "Context plays a more fundamental role for Asians than for westerners. Asians have a more difficult time thinking of an object as completely separate from its background."

Read the posting..."


'Uh Oh' Here It Comes Again!
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"Another Internet Marketing shockwave will hit in the next few days... ...Are You Ready For It?..."

Thank You, Microsoft
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"I recently reported that Yahoo was in the process of launching its own AdSense type program (which is great news for web publishers). Well, it appears as if Microsoft won't be far behind... There's no news yet about Microsoft creating..."

More Yahoo 'AdSense Clone' News
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"News.com recently reported more information about Yahoo entering Google's AdSense territory. Check out the story here. Yahoo is already building an opt-in notification list for publishers that are interested in their "upcoming programs." Get on the list NOW to be..."

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..."