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SiteProNews Blogs

• Editor's Corner
• Darren Dunner
• Jerry Bader
• John Sylvester
• Kalena Jordan
• Mel Strocen
• Titus Hoskins

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

Rumor Has it – Google to Buy Skype?

By Mel Strocen

Rumors seem to be making the rounds again about a possible eBay sale of Skype. With Skype revenues up and eBay revenues down, a sale doesn’t seem out of the question especially when it’s obvious Skype has never really fit well with the eBay business model.

Google buying Skype has been reported before, but the latest round of rumors seems to have originated in the UK and spread from there. Buying a leading VoIP service like Skype might not be a bad move for Google. Chances are, however, that if they do decide to buy they won’t be paying the $2.6 billion that eBay paid for Skype.   For cash rich cos. it’s a good time to swoop in and take advantage of cos. reeling from the economic downturn.

Another Look at Email Subject Line Length

By Mel Strocen

Epsilon recently published a study on the importance of the subject line in email promotions. Overall the report confirmed the widely held belief that shorter subject lines performed better but concluded that the correlation was not as strong as previously believed.  Other critical factors affecting click and open rates were subject line word order, word choice, and brand and audience awareness.

More importantly to email marketers, Epsilon found that email domains like AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail restricted the number of subject line characters displayed by default. Character limits ranged from 38 characters for AOL to 47 for Yahoo with Hotmail coming in at 45. Together the 3 web-based mail providers control 57% of the US market ensuring that email recipients at those services see only truncated message subjects.

Epsilon’s analysis of more than one billion emails over nearly 20,000 separate campaigns led them to recommend that email marketers keep the following in mind:

• Front load subject lines. Important information first.
• Keep the subject line as short as possible.
• Use longer subject lines only when necessary.
• Test, if in doubt.

The complete whitepaper can be viewed at: http://www.epsilon.com/Epsilon_SubjectLine_WhitePaper.pdf

SPNbabble – A Micro-Blog for Webmasters Launches in Beta

By Mel Strocen

SPNbabble, a micro-blogging site created for webmasters and site owners to share their tips, insights and expertise regarding any and all webmaster related topics – SEO, Web 2.0, search engine news and trends, web design, site development, marketing, promotion, ecommerce, web resources, linking strategies, etc. – has launched in Beta.

SPNbabble, as the name suggests, is an outgrowth of SiteProNews and is similar to Twitter but more vertical in that it was set up primarily for webmasters and site owners. The site has many of the same features as Twitter and Twitter users should find it easy to use. We hope that SPNbabble will serve as a useful medium for an interchange of ideas and tips.

We look forward to your feedback, particularly your comments on the site’s features and functionality. Speaking of features, here’s a short list:

* Account customization
* Receive message posts via IM, email or web
* Simultaneous posting to Twitter
* Direct messaging

* Message Groups
* Site stickers/badges for your blog or website
* Visualization map
* Automatic Friend Invites

Sign up for an account, invite your friends and send your comments to:

support-spnbabble@sitepronews.com

Google & Yahoo See Search Gains, Live Search Falters

By Mel Strocen

Nielsen Online just released its search engine share rankings for December 2008 and the big winner (surprise, surprise) was Google with a search market share of close to 63% and a year over year gain of more than 33%. Yahoo despite its recent troubles didn’t fare too badly either with a year over year growth of close to 14%. In fact, web search over all continued to grow with a jump of 19.6%.

Looking at the published stats virtually every major search player made gains, including Ask, AOL and less well known players like Comcast and AT&T. Microsoft Live Search on the other hand showed a year over year drop of 15.5%. Steve Ballmer may be playing hardball with Yahoo regarding a possible purchase of Yahoo Search, but with stats like those just published, Yahoo might be in a better negotiating position than Microsoft.

Like most deals, it’s all in the timing. Microsoft’s window of opportunity in the web search arena could be closing and 2009 could be the year Google buries its search competitors once and for all.

To see all the stats, go to: http://www.emediaworld.com/press_release/release_detail.php?id=323053

Email a dying channel?

By Mel Strocen

According to a report by eROI, DMNews, Bokardo, and Skype & Harris Interactive have reported that email is a dying channel. eROI’s report reaches a slightly different conclusion, but few would dispute that email is playing a diminishing role in digital communication. The report focused primarily on how high school and college students, as well as recent college graduates communicate digitally. You can sign up for a free copy of the report at eROI or read a summary of it at MediaPost.

Here are some of the more interesting facts from the report:

- average number of email addresses per student is 2.4
- Gmail is the preferred email service, beating out Yahoo and MSN/Hotmail by a wide margin
- Over 66% check their email at least once per day
- College students love social networks, especially Facebook and MySpace
- No Big surprise: 61% of students read marketing emails on a “rarely to never” basis
- Text messaging (37%) comes in first as a means of student communication with email (26%), Social networking IM (15%) and Instant messaging (11%) falling into 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively.

Interesting stats but the question remains – Is Email on its way out as a primary communication channel – not just among students, but among web users as a whole?

The Ultimate Guide to Free Keyword Research Tools

By Mel Strocen

Ann Smarty posted a useful article over at the Search Engine Journal with a similar title to this blog post. The article is broken down into 8 sections with links to free resouces and tools in each section. So, if you were wondering where to start with your keyword research, you may want to begin by reading Ann’s article at:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/free-keyword-research-tools/8153/