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SiteProNews Blogs

• Darren Dunner
• Jerry Bader
• Kalena Jordan
• Matt Jackson
• Mel Strocen
• Titus Hoskins

The Google Brand and Money Making Scams

By Mel Strocen

Aaron Wall’s blog post “How to Make Easy Money on Google” takes a hard look at how Google’s promotion of fraudulent advertising is undermining their brand. Aaron makes the obvious point that Google’s turning a blind eye to AdWords scams is revenue driven and that scam ads targeting the desperate and unemployed could easily be cleaned up if Google allocated as little as 1% of their revenue to this issue.

From a webmaster / site owner perspective, however, one of his more compelling points is as follows: “Google gives webmasters this guideline “Your site’s reputation can be affected by who you link to.” Why shouldn’t it apply to Google as well?”

Good question and one that every site owner obsessing about Google Guidelines should be asking.

To read Aaron’s entire post go: http://www.seobook.com/how-make-easy-money-google

Comments welcome here and over at Aaron’s blog.

Supercharging Your Micro Blogging with SPNbabble

By Mel Strocen

About a month ago SPNbabble, a Twitter clone based on the Laconica open source software platform, was launched with the express purpose of providing web professionals a site from which they could post to multiple micro blogs from a single account. Currently, SPNbabble members can configure their accounts to post to Twitter and 9 other sites if they have accounts on those sites.

SPNbabble has been promoted primarily as a time-saver for Twitter/Facebook/Friendfeed/Tumblr users who are serious about marketing, networking, branding, PR and building backlinks and not particularly interested in what someone had for breakfast. SPNbabble can be thought of as a vertical Twitter for authors, webmasters, web developers, web designers, marketers, entrepreneurs, bloggers and business professionals of all stripes.

If you fall into that vertical, this site was built for you - check it out, write about it, blog about it, link to it and invite your friends. Most of all we’re interested in your feedback and suggestions on what we can do to improve the site and the service.

U.S. Ad Spending Drops 12% in 1st Quarter

By Mel Strocen

According to a Nielsen Co. report ad spending, averaged out across all media sectors, dropped 12% or the equivalent of $3.8 billion. Hardest hit were newspapers and magazines. Cable TV and the Internet fared better than most sectors with a drop of 2.7% and 3.4% respectively. Given the state of the economy, the decline is not a shocker but is a good indicator of where advertisers believe there money is best spent.

More information is available at: mediaPost.com

Articles Important for More than Backlinks

By Mel Strocen

The benefits of article marketing have been espoused for years and the trend shows no sign of abating anytime soon.  Now a national study by Opinion Research Corporation and sponsored by Adfusion has indicated that consumers are much more likely to read and act upon ads embedded in articles than on other types of ads such as banner ads, pop-up ads, email offers or sponsored links. Just one more benefit to be touted by article marketing gurus.

Of those surveyed, the breakdown of their likely favorable response to various types of advertising was as follows:

Articles that include brand information - 51%   -  Email offers - 47%  -  Sponsored search engine links - 39%  -  Banner ads - 25%  -  Pop-up ads - 13%

A more detailed summary of the study can be found at: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=102592

88% of Marketers Now Using Social Media

By Mel Strocen

It’s not just hype anymore - marketers are migrating in greater numbers to social media venues although 72% have only been at it for a few months or less. Currently, Twitter is the favorite social media site for marketers but blogs, Facebook and Linkedin are running a close second.

64% of marketers use social media for five or more hours per week and 39% for 10 or more hours. The majority of marketers using social media fall in the 20 - 39 age range.

Stats were compiled in a social media study done by Michael Stelzner for the Social Media Success Summit 2009. For a full copy of the study, visit: http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/report/

SPNb@bble: A Twitter Clone for the Webmaster Community Relaunched

By Mel Strocen

A few months ago we launched a Twitter clone for webmasters that had more bugs than a Canadian summer and more security holes than Swiss cheese. As a result, we had to re-create the site using the  open source Laconica microblogging software platform, the same platform used by the  growing http://identi.ca/ community. The Laconica platform appears to be on rapid upgrade path with new features and functionality being added on a fairly frequent basis. In addition, we’ve added a few improvements of our own.

For anyone using Twitter, Friendfeed or Facebook, SPNbabble is meant to be a time-saver. The site has been specifically set up for working web professionals - marketers, entrepreneurs, designers, developers, webmasters, site owners, etc.  It enables anyone with a member account on Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Tumblr or Plurk to post to these sites automatically as they are posting on SPNbabble.

SPNbabble also offers SMS and IM messaging, direct messaging, hash tag usage, search and groups. If there is an interest, we may tie into other micro blogging communities as well. In the meantime, we’d like to invite any avid micro bloggers to sign up and provide some feedback. Click the SPNbabble link in the nav bar at the top of any SPN page or visit: http://spnbabble.sitepronews.com

Older Generation Keeps Pace with Tech Changes

By Mel Strocen

According to a study by the TNS Compete and the Consumer Electronics Association, Americans who are 50+ years old currently comprise 31% of the US population and will make up 35% of the total population in 10 years, or roughly 119 million people by 2020. Although older Americans  have different interests than the younger generation, their usage of, and interest in, cellphones, laptops, HDTV’s and the internet is at or near comparable to younger age segments.  

Detailed stats can be found at: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=101760

Some of the more interesting points noted in the study and highlighted in the Mediapost blog are as follows:

Internet Usage:
    * 78% of 50-54 year olds are online
    * 45% of 70-75 year olds are online

Cellphone Usage on a Weekly basis:
    * 80% of those in their 60’s - nearly equal to
      the usage rates of 18-34 year olds
    * 67% of those in their 70’s

Technology Frustration:
    * 24% of 18-49 year olds
    * 37% of 60 year olds

Search Engine Usage in the Past Week:
    * 77% of those in their 50’s
    * 71% of of those in their 60’s
    * 52% of of those in their 70’s
    * 77% of 18-34 year olds

Social Networking in the Past Week:
    * 20% of of those in their 50’s

Online Videos Seen in Past Week:
    * 24% of of those in their 70’s

It appears that the rapid changes in the online and tech worlds appeal to all segments of society.

Apparently, Generation Y is not the ‘Net Generation’

By Mel Strocen

A recent report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project revealed some interesting facts and in the process disspelled the myth that the young (18 - 32) are the dominant internet user group. Surveys throughout 2008 indicated that the older generations were using the internet in greater numbers than ever before with the biggest increase in use occurring in the 70-75 year-old age group.

Although instant messaging, social networking, and blogging gained ground as communication tools, email remained the most popular online activity, especially among older users.  Email usage among teens declined from 89% in 2004 to 73% in 2008 - an indication that younger users were migrating to newer modes of communication but not in significant numbers.

The report also touched on internet usage percentages among the different age groups in relation to  entertainment, health search, online banking, online shopping and video downloading.  Online businesses might find the following breakdown of users who buy products online of interest:

• 80% of Generation X (33 - 44 years old)
• 71% of Generation Y (18- 32 years old)
• 38% of online teens
• 56% of internet users ages 64-72
• 47% of internet users age 73 and older

To read the entire report, see: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Generations_2009.pdf

GoArticles - The Writing is on the Wall

By Mel Strocen

GoArticles was launched back in 2001 and is one of the oldest and most trafficked sites in the Jayde Online network. Currently, the site has more than 1.2 million articles and receives more than 2,300 article submissions daily. But, with traffic and popularity come abuse, specifically in the form of article spam.

We’ve introduced several spam control measures in the past year such as “report article spam” links, automated duplicate article removal and article length guidelines, but the deluge of sub-quality content keeps coming. So, new measures are called for and we’d be interested in receiving feedback from both readers and authors on the quality control measures currently being contemplated :

1. Deletion of all articles under 500 words in length. It’s unlikely much value would be lost even if the minimum word count was raised to 650 words. Has anyone actually learned anything of value from articles where the guidelines posted by the author or distribution service are longer than the article?

2. Much stricter membership criteria. Plagiarism and outright copyright violation are epidemic. Introducing an ID system for authors that goes beyond email verification might go a long way to alleviating these problems. 

Other measures are under consideration as well, but feedback on the two above, along with your perspective on the state of article quality and marketing would be helpful.

Click Fraud on the Rise Again

By Mel Strocen

The latest report by Click Forensics shows that click fraud is once again on the rise, jumping from 16% in the 3rd quarter of 2008 to 17.1% in the 4th quarter. More alarming, however, is the continuing growth of Botnet click fraud which has grown steadily from 9% in the first quarter of 2007 to 31.4% in the 4th quarter of 2008.  

The report cited other interesting stats as well.  The average click fraud rate on PPC ads in search engine content networks like Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network rose to 28.2%. A significant hit for any advertiser in a recessionary economy. Surprisingly, Canada topped the list for click fraud (7.4%) originating outside the U.S. while China came in at a lowly 2.3%.

To read the rest of the report, visit: http://www.clickforensics.com/resources/click-fraud-index.html