MKT595 Week 9

Disclaimers, Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Given all of the news about privacy on Facebook, it seems that any website should be concerned about privacy policies, if the users are storing data on the website.

In the course of designing my website, WellDash, I have added a disclaimer in the footer area on each page.

"WellDash content is for educational purposes only. WellDash and its contributors cannot be held liable for any damages incurred by following any of the advice found on this website. Copyright © 2010 WellDash"

WellDash gives information and advice on wellness. I was wondering what type of disclaimer I should use. I consulted with a professor at DePaul. He said that a simple disclaimer is sufficient for now, but as the site grows the disclaimer should be revised and additional documents added.

In the case of an initial privacy policy, disclaimer and terms of use to start with, simple is better. More complicated online documents should be written under the advice of a lawyer.

Copyright
The image on this blog is taken from a stock.xchng, a website that provides free images. For the legal reasons we discussed in class it is better to have your own images or ones that are free.

Using PowerPoint Images and SmartArt on a Website?
One of the questions I have about copyright is, are the images and SmartArt that a user creates in PowerPoint copyrighted by Microsoft? Is it ok to use those on a website? It would seem to me that if the product was purchased by the user then the images are ok to use.

Week 8 MKT 595

Creating New Social Networks
Diaspora: "Four Nerds and a Cry to Arms Against Facebook"

Who will rise up against the addiction that is Facebook and Farmville? Diaspora. I recently read an article in the NYTimes about a group of students creating a private social network.

The central theme of Diaspora is:
"to distribute the software free, and to make the code openly available so that other programmers can build on it. As they describe it, the Diaspora* software will let users set up their own personal servers, called seeds, create their own hubs and fully control the information they share. "

Why the name Diaspora? Diaspora refers to a tribe or community with common identity that are displaced refugees. It is an interesting, unique name that is very appropriate. The image of a mature dandelion loosing its seeds is also appropriate. Looks like the domain name is up for sale (diaspora.com and .org).

The difference between Diaspora and Facebook is a decentralized model where users and not a "central deity" control information. It is a bit like Ning but open source and free. (Yes Ning will be charging $3/month shortly).

Younger People are More Aware of Privacy
"Once you give away information it is no longer yours...but sharing is a human value...sharing and privacy are not mutually exclusive" -Diaspora

Wow, They Raised a lot of Money!
Looks like they Have a Market. Diaspora raised the money online on a website called Kickstarter. To date they have raised $108,304, well over the $10,000 they initially requested.


Keeping Up With Your Customers Via Internet Channels

Given the plethora of channels available it seems a challenge to be everywhere all the time unless you have help.

RatePoint
RatePoint is a company started by the founders of Geotrust, which was purchased by Verisign. The target market for RatePoint is small businesses. Given the economic environment, there are many entrepreneurs that will go for this type of company. When you sign up for RatePoint you get a free subscription for a month or two. During that time expect to receive phone call(s) from a salesperson with a guided tutorial on how to use RatePoint. Since RatePoint collects phone numbers, a call from them is not unsolicited. The salesperson will also ask if you will sign up for paid subscription.

The advantages of RatePoint are:

1. lower price
   
2. newsletters
3. keeping your customers separate from your other accounts on Twitter, Facebook and email.
4. marketing campaigns via email, Twitter and Facebook
   
5. surveys
6. business and product reviews
   

Ratepoint is advertising like crazy. If you sign up for the free subscription like I did be prepared to see adverts wherever you are on the Internet.

MKT595 Week 7 - Data Growth Explosion: Video is the Next Wave

Data Growth During the Recession
Despite the fact that we are in a recession, data is growing at 70%, according to news from the EMC World Conference currently being held in Boston. The title of this year's conference, "The Journey to the Private Cloud Starts Now."

Digital Universe
EMC calls the total amount of information the digital universe. Amazingly enough, only 5% of data comes from data centers, 35% comes from enterprise and

"About 70 percent of the digital universe is created by individuals, although companies are responsible for the security, privacy, reliability and compliance of 85 percent of that data, the study said."

Video As the Next Wave of Communication & Expression
My inside source tells me that the explosion of video sharing will be the next wave of social interaction. Not too surprising. It seems that I myself am going this way. In building my website I have come to realize that a video will draw in more website traffic. But optimizing video for SEO is not actually that easy. A holistic approach toward quality and best practices are still important for getting a top You Tube hit.

Just Flip It
I am considering buying a flip video camera. I guess all of the advertising on the CTA blue line coming to and from classes at DePaul has finally worn off on me. Once I get enough videos I'll be needing to buy some data storage from Carbonite.

Carbonite
How much cooler can you get than a company called Carbonite? The name carbonite comes from the material that Han Solo was frozen in Star Wars (see image above). I am sure that this dates me, but Han Solo was hotter than Luke Skywalker. Carbonite is a startup company - the "Symantec of Online Backup." This company is doing so well that they just want to go public next year. It is one to watch.

MKT 595 Week 6

Internet Business Models, Retail, Channels, CRM and Advertising

Advertising Alone is Not Enough
The one concept that I will remember from class this week is: advertising alone is not enough revenue to run an Internet business.

Advertising as the Sole Source of Revenue is Risky
A heat map shows that Internet users avoid areas of a website where there is advertising.

The image on the left shows the triangle hot spot where readers look. Actually there is a very small zone on the top right where some readers look as well in this example.

Adblock Used to Erase Advertising
Companies should be careful on how to retaliate, as they may alienate or loose customers by trying to fight Adblock

Fremium is Not the Only Model
Until this week I thought that fremium was the only model. There are lots to choose from.

How Much is Aggregate Data Worth? Where Do You Sell it?
I wanted to learn more about selling aggregate data. The latest controversy seems to be the fact that Mint (infomediary model) wants to sell user data. I think they need to make money somehow. I did a search on the topic of selling aggregate data and did not find much information.

How Do You Know Which Model is Right for Your Business? When to Change the Model?
This is really the golden question. Up to this point in my education at DePaul none of my professors have spoken about business models. How a company makes money and continues to do so is pretty important.

Home Grown Chitown Internet Biz
I follow what SitterCity and Groupon, two local companies are doing. SitterCity is based on a subscription model. SitterCity screens nannies and has also expanded out in to other related areas like elder care. Because they have a smaller market their recent strategy has been to go after a government contract and to consider international markets.

Groupon is an idea that appeals to a wider audience, "group coupons" and has been copied like crazy. Based on a novel idea of building collective action, users will receive a coupon if they get friends to sign up for the daily deal. The CEO of Groupon spoke for MGT570, and I must say that I found it very inspiring to listen to someone who grew a company out of thin air to 200 employees in only three years and receive venture capital worth 26M.

Groupon works on a brokerage model, bringing together companies who want to advertise a promotion and customers who want a deal.

As you can see neither Sitter City nor Groupon use advertising as a revenue stream.

CRM is More Than Software
CRM has three levels that span from the back to the front of the office: operational, collaborative and analytical CRM

Last but not least, the most important topic this week by far:

- plain text
- faces
- cleavage

are three ways to attract desire!

Week 4 BIng and More on Search

Time to Reflect
After taking our midterm last week, I decided to review today what we had done two weeks ago. Attempting to open the video from class resulted in a really long upload time.

Microsoft Bing
We had two guest speakers in class from Microsoft Adam Scott and Jeremy Lamothe. One thing I remember is that market share for Bing is growing - Bing now owns 30% of the market and is growing faster than Google or Yahoo.

Google Losing Their Edge?
With the recent happenings in China with Baidu it seems it has shaken Google's reputation. Recently discussions at the dinner table tend to drift in the direction of - is Google on a downward spiral?

I have noticed lately that some searches I do on Google lately come up with very poor results (ex. what causes a migraine). Using my own personal judgment gives me better results. I did a search recently on a health related topic where the number one hit was really inaccurate and nothing on the first page answered the search box question I was asking.

I do think that Google does spread itself a bit thin on the number of product lines they offer, considering that advertising is the revenue stream. It seems like they will need to start trimming some fat and eliminating extraneous products to focus on their core.

Advice for GOMC
Adam and Jeremy had some great advice for our teams for GOMC. Broad word matches bring in more traffic. The more keywords you ad on may make things too specific and may reach too small of an audience.

Other things we learned from Adam and Jeremy:

• you cannot bid on branded keywords or other trademark words.
• dayparting - advertise on Monday and Tuesday pull back on the weekend
• think about the time of day you advertise
  
• landing page demographics
• use 20-30 words at the most in a campaign of $200
• keyword matching options

More on Search
Topics discussed in the remainder of class were:

• website content above the fold
• organic vs. paid search
• searching "click here" will bring you to Adobe.com
• each webpage should have only one main idea

Best Practices - just a few of many

• use breadcrumbs
  
• three click rule
• spell check your website
• use short paragraphs
• active language,
• bullets
• custom 404 page
• linkbait & many links to your website
• meta tags
• robots.txt
• avoid Flash and pdf