Reuters – Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp plans to hire former AOL Chief Executive Jonathan Miller to supervise the media conglomerate’s digital strategy, two News Corp-owned media outlets reported Friday night.

New sites do not need to be “submitted” to search engines to be listed. A simple link from an established site will get the search engines to visit the new site and spider its contents. It is rarely more than a few days from the acquisition of the link to all the main search engine spiders visiting and indexing the new site.

Once the search engine has found the new site, it will generally visit and index all the pages on the site, as long as all the pages are linked to with standard <a href> hyperlinks. Pages which are accessible only through Flash or Javascript links may not be findable by the spiders.

Webmasters can instruct spiders to not index certain files or directories through the standard robots.txt file in the root directory of the domain. Standard practice requires a search engine to check this file upon visiting the domain. The web developer can use this feature to prevent pages such as shopping carts or other dynamic, user-specific content from appearing in search engine results.

For those search engines who have their own paid submission (like Yahoo), it may save some time to pay a nominal fee for submission.

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AP – Cablevision Systems Corp. should stop saying its Internet service is “the fastest around,” the advertising industry’s self-regulatory body said Thursday, in response to complaints from competitor Verizon Communications Inc.

AP – AT&T Inc., the nation’s largest Internet service provider, will start sending warnings to its subscribers when music labels and movie studios allege that they are trafficking in pirated material, according to an executive.

The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about non-commercial issues, such as AIDS, political ideology, energy conservation, religious recruitment, and deforestation.

Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerful educational tool capable of reaching and motivating large audiences. “Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest – it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes.” – Attributed to Howard Gossage by David Ogilvy

Public service advertising, non-commercial advertising, public interest advertising, cause marketing, and social marketing are different terms for (or aspects of) the use of sophisticated advertising and marketing communications techniques (generally associated with commercial enterprise) on behalf of non-commercial, public interest issues and initiatives.

In the United States, the granting of television and radio licenses by the FCC is contingent upon the station broadcasting a certain amount of public service advertising. To meet these requirements, many broadcast stations in America air the bulk of their required Public Service Announcements during the late night or early morning when the smallest percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more day and prime time commercial slots available for high-paying advertisers.

Public service advertising reached its height during World Wars I and II under the direction of several U.S. government agencies.

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Auto-responders :

Automatic replies sent by the e-mail software of the recipient after receipt of an e-mail.

Bounce backs

e-mail sent back to the server that originally sent the e-mail.

Bounce rate

Ratio of bounced e-mails to total e-mails sent.

Bulk, bulking

Terms used by spammers to refer to their line of work. Mostly synonymous with spam or UCE.

Call to action

Words in the e-mail that entice recipients to do something.

Click-through

The action of clicking on a link.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Ratio of click-throughs to total e-mails sent.

Commercial e-mail

Any e-mail sent for commercial purpose; for instance, an advertisement to buy a product or service, an order confirmation from an online store, or a paid subscription periodical delivered by e-mail. Commercial e-mail is not synonymous with spam; see unsolicited commercial e-mail below.

Demographic

Characteristic of a group of e-mail recipients.

Double opt-in

A term coined by spammers to refer to the normal operation of secure electronic mailing list software. A new subscriber first gives his/her address to the list software (for instance, on a Web page) and then confirms subscription after receiving an e-mail asking if it was really him/her. This ensures that no person can subscribe someone else out of malice or error. The intention of the term “double opt-in” is to make it appear that the confirmation is a duplication of effort; and thus, to justify not confirming subscriptions. Mail system administrators and non-spam mailing list operators refer to confirmed subscription or closed-loop opt-in. [1]

Double opt-out

Same as Opt-In, but the recipient unsubscribes instead of subscribes. Borderline spam operations frequently make it difficult to unsubscribe from lists, in order to keep their lists large. Hard-core spam operations make it impossible — they treat opt-out requests as confirmations that the address works and is read.

E-mail Blast

An e-mail sent to multiple recipients, intended to inform them of announcements, events or changes. A variety of methods can be used to send the same e-mail to multiple recipients: for example: using options within an e-mail program, using the mail merge option within a word processing program, or using a commercial e-mail list programs.

Express consent

A recipient agrees actively to subscribe by checking a box on a web form, paper form or by telephone. A recipient not unchecking a box is not express consent.

False positives

E-mail that is not spam but is labeled spam by a spam filter of the recipient. Note that e-mail marketers may have different opinions of what is “spam” than e-mail recipients.

Format

E-mails can be sent in plain text, HTML, or Microsoft’s rich text format.

Hard bounce

Bounced e-mail that could never get through because the e-mail address doesn’t exist or the domain doesn’t exist.

List broker

Reseller of lists of e-mail addresses.

List building

Process of generating a list of e-mail addresses for use in e-mail campaigns.

List host

Web service that provides tools to manage large e-mail address databases and to distribute large quantities of e-mails.

List manager

Owner or operator of opt-in e-mail newsletters or databases. Also software used to maintain a mailing list.

Look and feel

Appearance, layout, design, functions & anything not directly related to the actual message on an e-mail.

Open rate

E-mail open rate measures the ratio of e-mails “opened” to the number sent or “delivered.” The ratio is calculated in various ways, the most popular is: e-mails delivered (sent – hard bounces) /unique opens.

Opt-in

The action of agreeing to receive e-mails from a particular company, group of companies or associated companies, by subscribing to an e-mail list.

Opt-out

A mailing list which transmits e-mails to people who have not subscribed and lets them “opt-out” from the list. The subscribers’ e-mail addresses may be harvested from the web, USENET, or other mailing lists. ISP policies and some regions’ laws consider this equivalent to spamming.

Personalization

The use of technology and customer information to tailor e-mails between a business and each individual customer. Using information previously obtained about the customer, the e-mail is altered to fit that customer’s stated needs as well as needs perceived by the business based on the available customer information, for the purpose of better serving the customer by anticipating needs, making the interaction efficient and satisfying for both parties and building a relationship that encourages the customer to return for subsequent purchases.

Privacy

The Privacy Act of 1974, Public Law 93-579, safeguards privacy through creating four procedural rights in personal data. It requires government agencies to show an individual any records kept on him/her; also requires agencies to follow “fair information practices” when gathering and handling personal data. It places restrictions on how agencies can share an individual’s data with other people and agencies and also lets individuals sue the government for violating its provisions.

Rental list

A mailing list that can only be used once or for a limited time. The user of the list pays the owner of the list less money than if he/she would have bought the list outright. Note that this term is usually used for lists generated by address harvesting or other means; the investment made by the list creator does not correlate with the permission of the e-mail recipients. Many firms who “rent” or “buy” a list face spam complaints afterward from persons who never subscribed.

Segmentation (or Targeting)

The use of previously gathered information to send e-mails of a particular offer to a subset of the list.

Soft bounce

A soft bounce is an e-mail that gets as far as the recipient’s mail server but is bounced back undelivered before it gets to the intended recipient. it might occur because the recipient’s inbox is full. A soft bounce message may be deliverable at another time or may be forwarded manually by the network administrator in charge of redirecting mail on the recipient’s domain. On the other hand, a hard bounce is an e-mail message that has been returned to the sender because the recipient’s address is invalid.

Spam or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial e-mail-UCE)

From the sender’s point-of-view, spam is a form of bulk mail, often sent to a list obtained by companies that specialize in creating e-mail distribution lists. To the receiver, it usually seems like junk e-mail. Spam is equivalent to unsolicited telemarketing calls except that the user pays for part of the message since everyone shares the cost of maintaining the Internet. Spammers typically send a piece of e-mail to a distribution list in the millions, expecting that only a tiny number of readers will respond to their offer. The term spam is said to derive from a famous Monty Python sketch (“Well, we have Spam, tomato & Spam, egg & Spam, Egg, bacon & Spam…”) that was current when spam first began arriving on the Internet. SPAM is a trademarked Hormel meat product that was well-known in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.

Spam filter

Software that is usually installed in the users e-mail client, with the purpose of avoiding spam e-mail to get into the client’s inbox or at least to be flagged as such.

Subject line

It is one of the most important issues in e-mail marketing. The better the subject line of an e-mail, the better probability of being opened by the recipient.

Targeting (or segmentation)

Sending e-mails to a subset of a mailing list based on a specific filter, trying to improve CTR and/or open ratios.

Tracking

The act of reporting CTR, open ratios, bounces, etc.

Trigger based messaging

Triggering a message based on an event or interaction with a previous message. Popular for customers who request more information

Unique click

During a particula period, a visitor to a website could click several times on a particular link, but during that period it is counted only as one and considered a unique visitor.

Unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE)

Commercial e-mail, usually of an advertising nature, sent at the expense of the recipient without his or her permission. Sending UCE is an offense against all major ISPs’ terms of service, and is a crime in some jurisdictions.

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Cost Per Action or CPA (as it is often initialized to) is a phrase often used in online advertising and online marketing circles.

CPA is considered the optimal form of buying online advertising from the advertiser’s point of view. An advertiser only pays for the ad when an action has occurred. An action can be a product being purchased, a form being filled, etc. (The desired action to be preformed is determined by the advertiser.)

A related term, eCPA or effective Cost Per Action, is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis.

The CPA can be determined by different factors, depending where the online advertising inventory is being purchased.

Other common forms, of charging for advertising, include:

• CPC
• CPM
• CPT

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Reuters – Australian motorists are being encouraged to vent their anger on the Internet, and not on each other, via a new website that aims to make roads safer.

Reuters – Blockbuster Inc plans to let TiVo Inc subscribers download movies to their home televisions from its online movie library, in the latest deal aimed at broadening the brand to computers and other gadgets.

Internet marketing is the use of the Internet to advertise and sell goods and services. Internet Marketing includes pay per click advertising, banner ads, e-mail marketing, search engine marketing (including search engine optimization), blog marketing, and article marketing.

Definition and Scope

Internet marketing is a component of electronic commerce. Internet marketing can include information management, public relations, customer service, and sales. Electronic commerce and Internet marketing have become popular as Internet access is becoming more widely available and used. Well over one third of consumers who have Internet access in their homes report using the Internet to make purchases.

History

Internet marketing first began in the early 1990s as simple, text-based websites that offered product information. It then evolved into advertisements complete with graphics. The most recent step in this evolution was the creation of complete online businesses that use the Internet to promote and sell their services and goods.

Business Models and Formats

Internet marketing is associated with several business models. The main models include business-to-business and business-to-consumer (B2C). B2B consists of companies doing business with each other, whereas B2C involves selling directly to the end consumer. When Internet marketing first began, the B2C model was first to emerge. B2B transactions were more complex and came about later. A third, less common business model is peer-to-peer (P2P), where individuals exchange goods between themselves. An example of P2P is Napster, which is built upon individuals sharing files.

Internet marketing can also be seen in various formats. One version is name-your-price (e.g. Priceline.com). With this format, customers are able to state what price range they wish to spend and then select from items at that price range. With find-the-best-price websites (e.g. Hotwire.com), Internet users can search for the lowest prices on items. A final format is online auctions (e.g. Ebay.com) where buyers bid on listed items.

Benefits

Some of the benefits associated with Internet marketing include the availability of information. Consumers can log onto the Internet and learn about products, as well as purchase them, at any hour. Companies that use Internet marketing can also save money because of a reduced need for a sales force. Overall, Internet marketing can help expand from a local market to both national and international marketplaces.

Limitations

Limitations of Internet marketing create problems for both companies and consumers. Slow Internet connections can cause difficulties. If companies put too much information on their website, Internet users may struggle to load the web page. Also, Internet marketing does not allow shoppers to touch or try-on items before purchasing them.

Security Concerns

For both companies and consumers that participate in online business, security concerns are very important. Many consumers are hesitant to buy items over the Internet because they do not trust that their personal information will remain private. Recently, some companies that do business online have been caught giving away or selling information about their customers. Several of these companies have guarantees on their websites, claiming customer information will be private. By selling customer information, these companies are breaking their own, publicized policy. Some companies that buy customer information offer the option for individuals to have their information removed from the database (known as opting out). However, many customers are unaware that their information is being shared and are unable to stop the transfer of their information between companies.

Security concerns are of great importance and online companies have been working hard to create solutions. Encryption is one of the main methods for dealing with privacy and security concerns on the Internet. Encryption is defined as the conversion of data into a form called a cipher. This cipher cannot be easily intercepted unless an individual is authorized by the program or company that completed the encryption. In general, the stronger the cipher, the better protected the data is. However, the stronger the cipher, the more expensive encryption becomes.

Effects on Industries

Internet marketing has had a large impact on several industries including music, banking, and flea markets. In the music industry, many consumers have begun buying and downloading MP3s over the Internet instead of simply buying CDs. The debate over the legality of downloading MP3s has become a major concern for those in the music industry.

Internet marketing has also affected the banking industry. More and more banks are offering the ability to perform banking tasks online. Online banking is believed to appeal to customers because it is more convenient then visiting bank branches. Currently, over 50 million U.S. adults now bank online. Online banking is now the fastest-growing Internet activity. The increasing speed of Internet connections is the main reason for the fast-growth. Of those individuals who use the Internet, 44% now perform banking activities over the Internet.

As Internet auctions have gained popularity, flea markets are struggling. Unique items that could previously be found at flea markets are being sold on Ebay.com instead. Ebay.com has also affected the prices in the industry. Buyers and sellers often look at prices on the website before going to flea markets and the Ebay.com price often becomes what the item is sold for. More and more flea market sellers are putting their items up for sale online and running their business out of their homes.

Recent Issues

In November 2004, a lawsuit was filed against Bonzi Buddy software. The lawsuit alleged that Bonzi’s banner ads were deceptive. These ads often looked like Microsoft Windows message boxes. Internet users would run across the ads and when they attempted to close the boxes, they found themselves redirected to a website determined by Bonzi.

On May 27, 2005, Bonzi Buddy agreed to change the format of its ads so they did not resemble Windows message boxes. The boxes will now contain the word “Advertisement” so computer users know what they are looking at. The boxes will also no longer carry buttons that do not perform the correct actions.

Sales tax issues have also recently become debated. The current laws require that buyers of online products pay their state all due taxes on these goods at the end of the year, along with their other state taxes. However, most consumers do not appear to be making these payments. Thirteen states have now begun encouraging Internet businesses to collect sales tax on every sale. These states are currently not forcing the companies to collect the tax. However, it appears that if companies do not begin collecting the sales tax on their own, states will begin forcing the companies to do so. The states are claiming that each year they lose $15 billion in unpaid sales taxes associated with online purchases.

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