Site Design: Handling Obsolete URLs
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"When your site has dead URLs due to a site redesign, you can have them deleted from search engines. You might also want to put in the place of important old URLs some redirect pages using meta refresh tags. Date: May 18, 2005, 14:15 PST"

Miscellaneous: How to Understand "No Referrer" in Traffic Logs
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"A "No Referrer" designation in your traffic log analysis program may indicate a bookmark, a default home page setting, a manually entered URL, spawned pages, or click-throughs from e-zines. In general, a high percentage of "no referrers" is an indication of a loyal readership. Date: May 18, 2005, 13:47 PST"

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"


Netscape 8.0: What s the Point?
From: www.webpronews.com

"Ok, so we've got a new web browser out. A few years ago, everyone would've been jonesin' for the Netscape but now they're really a non-entity. The once mighty browser pales in comparison to Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) and even the much smaller Firefox by Mozilla."

Wal-Mart and Netflix Work Together
From: www.webpronews.com

"Wal-Mart and Netflix are teaming up to help each other out in the online movie business with a promotional campaign for Walmart.com's movie sales and Netflix's DVD movie rentals."

Video Game Wars The Consoles Do Battle
From: www.webpronews.com

"Microsoft takes a lead on Sony and Nintendo with a scheduled release date of November for the Xbox 360."

Sun Records Rises Again
From: www.webpronews.com

"Agreement with eMusic lets its subscribers have access to tracks from the original rock n' roll record label."

FCC Mandates 911 Requirements For IP Phones
From: www.webpronews.com

"The regulatory agency sets a fall deadline for Internet phone services to support Enhanced 911 capabilities at its meeting today."


Feds Widen LexisNexis Probe
From: www.wired.com

"The FBI and Secret Service carry out searches in California and Minnesota trying to find the hackers who stole information from the large database company."

Another Page-Turner from Gates
From: www.wired.com

"Microsoft's high priest is writing another book to tell us what it all means. Also: Non-portal Google looking a lot like a portal.... Violent video games endangered in Illinois.... and more."

Internet Carriers Must Serve 911
From: www.wired.com

"Internet phone companies must provide 911 emergency to their customers within 120 days, the FCC decrees. Also: Wal-Mart cedes DVD rentals to Netflix.... Cable TV gives eBay a try.... and more."

Cashing In on the Register
From: www.wired.com

"New Microsoft software would replace the cash register. Also: Google search tool aimed at businesses.... Put a computer in your pocket."

VOIP in Public-Safety Showdown
From: www.wired.com

"Federal regulators are expected to unveil new rules this week that would force internet telephone providers to support costly 911 emergency service. Is the industry in trouble? By Michael Grebb."


Meeting Peter Morville in NYC
From: webword.com

" I'm currently at the Enterprise Search Summit in NYC. So far, so good. Peter Morville gave a talk yesterday that I really liked. He brought together a lot of material and delivered a good story.

We're meeting for breakfast this morning. I'm going to try to find out more about findability. He's been talking about it for a few years and I think he's way ahead of people on this one."

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...
"


'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..."