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Office
Live Challenging Yahoo Small Business
Based on the current rate of registrations taking place, Microsoft's Office Live
service will pass 100,000 registered users during July, at a pace that is almost
as fast as Yahoo's web hosting growth.
Africa
Trails In Internet Usage
Internet access remains a rare thing in Africa, where high costs and limited availability
drive the technology far out of reach for most of the population. In terms of
world Internet usage, Africans represent only 2.3 percent of the total, although
they make up 14.1 percent of the world's population.
Google
AdSense Answers About Video
The new video advertisements that will begin to appear on Google's network of
AdSense publishers will pay on a CPM basis for site-targeted video, which should
be welcome news.
Gates
Weighs In On Immigration Reform
Who should you ask for advice when it comes to matters of national security, human
rights, and more specifically, immigration reform? Well, Bill Gates seems to think
he has a pretty good understanding of the issues. Gates released a 200-word statement
on Thursday expressing his views on the subject.
Microsoft
Critic Mini-mizing Himself
The blogger known as Mini-Microsoft will take a break from the anonymous posting
on Microsoft's internal operations now that the company has revamped its internal
review processes.
Google
Sponsoring 630 For Summer Of Code
One hundred and one projects covering operating systems, content management, programming
languages, and other open source areas will occupy the 630 students selected to
participate in Google's Summer of Code.
O'Reilly
Admits Mishandling Web 2.0 Issue
A post by O'Reilly Media regarding their cease and desist demand letter issued
over the use of "Web 2.0" in a conference name could have been handled
better.
Apple
Pulped In Court By Journalists
Three online journalists sued by Apple gained a victory in appeals court when
judges ruled in favor of a petition filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
regarding the protection of sources.
Microsoft
Disses OpenDocument as "Too Slow"
Microsoft threw an uppercut at The OpenDocument Format (ODF), saying it was too
slow. The ODF Alliance says there's really no way to tell because Microsoft's
Open XML isn't even supported by any application.
Bebo:
The Other MySpace
MySpace.com has been the buzzword on the Internet and in the media since News
Corp. bought parent company Intermix last August (and also because of the rampant
sexual predation associated with it).
Barbaro,
Barton, And Hoffa, Oh My
What was most on the minds of Internet users last week? Barbaro, apparently -
the racehorse fractured his leg in the Preakness, and originally had only 50/50
odds of survival. Fortunately, his recovery is going well and his chances have
improved.
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Tuesday May 30, 2006 |
Virgin Mobile USA is breaking new ground in mobile advertising by announcing its plan to offer customers a way to earn free talk time on their phones by watching ads - and taking tests afterward. SugarMama, as the program is called, will debut on June 14.
Editor's Note: Would you embrace a mobile phone minute renewal system that had you view ads in lieu of payment? Or would you rather skip the ad and renew minutes with money out of your pocket? Discuss Virgin Mobile's innovative mobile ad delivery at WebProWorld.
 Pre-paid
customers, when running low on minutes, will be able to boost their time by up
to 75 minutes, earning one minute of talk time per 30-second commercial message
viewed. The customers then fill out a survey about the product advertised.
Microsoft's Xbox 360, PepsiCo's Diet Mountain Dew, and American legacy Foundation's anti-smoking "Truth" campaign are tapped to be the first sponsors participating in the program. Customers will also have the option of receiving SMS advertising with promotions and discounts.
"Virgin Mobile's SugarMama site brings the value of a viewer's engagement to a new and higher plateau," notes Rick Vandervoorn, Ultramercial's East Coast vice president of sales. "These commercials will be more content-rich and less ad-like, to make a perfect fit with Virgin Mobile's young user base. And talk about a goodwill bounce -- the sponsor buying airtime minutes? What could be more valuable?"
Virgin Mobile says that the advertising model can satisfy both sides of the channel as advertisers look for ways to integrate their messages into the mobile space while soothing mobile users who are wary of cell phone spam. SugarMama is permission-based and rewards customers for their time.
"Everyone is racing to shove ads into the mobile channel," Howard Handler, chief marketing officer at Virgin Mobile USA. "But the last thing young people want is spam on their phones. This service acknowledges the savvy and free will of our customer base. Our attitude, and that of our partners, is that these customers' time is valuable. They should get something for giving us something. And that's what SugarMama is all about."
American Legacy Foundation views the new program as a two-directional way to reach a younger audience and spread their anti-smoking message that centers on marketing tactics used by the tobacco industry.
"Since day one, our campaign has been focused around enabling young people to interact through peer-to-peer communication, then ask questions and make informed choices about tobacco use," said Joseph Martyak, executive vice president of marketing, communications and public policy, at the American Legacy Foundation. "So the two-way dialogue on which SugarMama is based will be another powerful way for us to engage teens with life-saving information."
Not everyone is so sure about the campaign's effectiveness, however. The New York Times quotes Ovum Research analyst Roger Entner to bring out concerns about the spendthrift nature of the market that would trade personal time for airtime.
"If you're too cheap to buy a minute of air time, how are you going to afford an Xbox?" Mr. Entner said. The people likely to earn minutes for free "are people who want to avoid costs at any cost."
But Microsoft representatives say its not all about selling Xboxes. It's about awareness and feedback.
"We're always seeking opportunities to learn from our customers how we can deliver the best gaming experiences possible on Xbox 360," said Director of Xbox marketing Chris Di Cesare. "Virgin Mobile's SugarMama program provides us with a new way to drive consumer awareness yet gain valuable insight from our customers that helps us continually deliver new breakthroughs in gaming entertainment."
Customers can earn minutes in three ways: by filling out online questionnaires, watching online video clips at the Virgin Mobile website, or receiving text messages on their phones. Receipt of free minutes is contingent, however, on demonstration by the customer that they were paying attention, like identifying the main idea of the message.
About
the Author:
Jason is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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Garett Rogers has discovered some interesting domain information that looks related
to Google and a possible checkout process.
Googlecheckout for the .net, .org, and .info domains has been registered to a firm called DNStiniation, Inc, through Google's favorite registrar MarkMonitor, according to a post by ZDNet's Rogers.
The dot-com version of Googlecheckout has a different owner, and displays a parked page at the GoDaddy registrar site. That will probably continue until Google's jovial legal team decides to take an active interest in the ownership of the site.
Rogers speculated that Google Checkout will be a shopping cart for websites to allow them to accept payment for online orders. Money for those purchases would then be placed into a Google account in the same manner as AdSense payments are done.
Google Checkout could then connect elsewhere in Google, as Rogers suggested a tie-in to a couple of other Google services:
it would make sense for Google Checkout to tie into Google Analytics so website owners can easily track with certainty how their AdWords campaign is directly affecting sales - right through the checkout process.
Maybe one day Google will even provide an inventory management solution with an API so websites can have their inventory in Google Base and on their own website without double entry.
That suggestion could be an uphill battle, as Yahoo and eBay both presently offer shopping APIs and with the deal between those two companies can offer PayPal payments.
A rollout of Google Checkout as a shopping cart would mean Google will have to offer better terms than PayPal does for merchants. A pricing war would not benefit eBay, as shares of the company have hovered in the $30s and already has disclosed an outlook for its second quarter 2006 earnings that is below analyst estimates.
About
the Author:
David is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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How Much Do You Charge For SEO?
As the web as grown into a viable location to run a successful business, the freelance design community has evolved to include other duties beside site development. I'm sure many of you who perform these duties have come across potential clients looking for search engine guidance on top of any web development task.
The question is this, how have you altered your prices so that SEO duties are now included in bottom line? Do you include search optimization in design packages or is it a separate service? Let us know how you conduct such business.
|| Chris||
Reworking
a site, SEO and Pricing
I designed a site for someone years ago. Way before I even knew about SEO. Well, he's come back asking for some updates that are simple enough. So I look at this site and hang my head in shame. There are so many things I should have done differently but didn't know so at the time.
Herein lies my problem. I want to charge him for SEO but I'm not exactly sure how. I guess I'm having issues separating the two. Should I just keep it black and white...X dollars for the rework and pitch SEO for X more? lol ...And deal with the eventual question of why wasn't it done like that in the first place.
Also, when you're quoting web design work, is it assumed that you will advise
on why content is so important, how to structure links, keyword and so on? Or
is this a separate charge under the title of SEO?
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wrmineo
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Joined: 04.21.05
Location:
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Website: l3dg.com
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