Published on
November 30, 2009 in
e-commerce and from HTI.
Tags: black friday, christmas specials, cnn, cnn.com, coupon codes, cyber monday, decreased productivity at work, holiday deals, internet shopping, josh levs, online buying.
There’s no doubt you’ve heard the term Cyber Monday floating around the last few days.
In fact, it’s been around for the last few years … if you trust Wikipedia: “The term ‘Cyber Monday’ is a neologism invented by Shop.org, part of the U.S. trade association National Retail Federation. It was first used within the e-commerce community during the 2005 holiday season. According to Scott Silverman, the head of Shop.org, the term was coined based on research showing that 77% of online retailers reported a significant increase in sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004. In late November 2005, the New York Times reported that ‘The name Cyber Monday grew out of the observation that millions of otherwise productive working Americans, fresh off a Thanksgiving weekend of window shopping, were returning to high-speed Internet connections at work Monday and buying what they liked.’”
And there you have it – an instant education on what Cyber Monday means. And if you believe the hype, or – better yet – fall prey to it, we bet you’re at your desk right now, reading this post between purchases.
We say go for it. It’s only one day a year, right?
To help you navigate the treacherous backroads of the Internet as you spend money you haven’t yet made, CNN’s Josh Levs has compiled several helpful tips to keep you safe as you browse and buy online – advice that’ll help you get the most out of Cyber Monday.
Watch the video after the jump. Happy shopping!
Continue reading ‘Making the Most of Cyber Monday’
Published on
November 23, 2009 in
Uncategorized and from HTI.
Tags: angel investors, api, applicatio programming interface, foursquare, jack dorsey, location-based social networking, loopt, mashable, pete cashmore, similarities between twitter and foursquare, SXSW, the next twitter, union square ventures, what makes foursquare special.
According to Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of tech blog “Mashable” and a frequent contributor to CNN.com, Foursquare – an up-and-coming social-media service – is poised to make its grand debut next year.
Whereas Twitter dominated the tech headlines in 2009 – a rise to prominence that we’ve document here, here and here – Cashmore presents the case that Foursquare is making all the right moves to make itself a mainstream hit.
The first – and perhaps most important thing it has on its side – is that it has many Twitter connections that are sure to help it gain a foothold across the social media landscape. Cashmore writes:
Continue reading ‘Social-Media Service ‘Foursquare’ Expected to Break Out in 2010′
Over at “The Internet Strategist,” one of Inc. magazine’s featured blogs, writer Maisha Walker has been hard at work on a series of posts dedicated to helping small businesses use LinkedIn as a sales tool.
Everyone has their own way of using the site to his or her advantage, but Walker’s list of power tools is great for anyone using LinkedIn to cultivate new business, network or keep up with existing contacts – and the competition.
Take a look at this comprehensive rundown of what you may or may not be doing to make the most of your presence on the professional networking scene.
Once you’ve studied it – and thought of ways to integrate the techniques into your own marketing strategy – feel free to read some of the LinkedIn success stories Walker has uncovered.
Just think … with the proper attention to detail, someday soon a similar story could be yours!
Continue reading ‘Using LinkedIn to Build Your Small Business’
Published on
November 9, 2009 in
from HTI, social marketing and social media.
Tags: google, Top Advantages and Disadvantages, video, YouTube Ad Revenue, Youtube Overlay Ads, YouTube Parntership Rules and Restrictions, YouTube Partner, YouTube Partnership, YouTube Partnership Benefits, YouTube Users, Youtube.com.
Due to the overwhelming amount of traffic we’ve received on one post in particular – “8 Advantages and Disadvantages of Being a YouTube Partner” – we thought we’d offer up a second helping on insight and info on this topic.
The first time around we outlined a few of the advantages – greater exposure, how ad revenue sharing can make you money, and neat-o page customization – and a few of the disadvantages, such as the language and location restrictions and copyright ownership.
Before we get into the pro and cons of partnering with YouTube, however, it’s important that you understand what a partnership with YouTube is. In a nutshell, partnering with the video-sharing site allows you to share in revenue-generating opportunities. Some of the benefits include sharing revenue from relevant InVideo ads overlaid on your videos and banner ads running next to your videos to earn money, participating in co-marketing & branded entertainment opportunities with top brand advertiser, and utilizing your own sales to sell your own ads.
That all sounds well and good considering the enormous reach of YouTube, facts that the Google-owned operation happily points out:
- People are watching hundreds of millions of videos a day on YouTube, and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily.
- YouTube is the number one video site on the internet and the 4th largest Internet destination in the world. (Nielsen NetRatings, December 2008)
- YouTube attracted over 300 million unique video viewers across the world in December 2008. (Nielsen NetRatings, December 2008)
- YouTube is the #2 Search engine in the world, after Google and before Yahoo! (comScore, October 2008)
Of course, there are lots of good things to gain as a YouTube partner – based on those statistics alone. But there’s another side of the partnership that YouTube doesn’t talk about – and rightfully so.
Continue reading ‘Pros and Cons of Becoming a YouTube Partner – Revisited!’
After the major disappointment that was last December, retailers will be spending more time and energy this year in preparing their Web sites for the holiday season.
You might be thinking though, how can I compete with major retailers whose sites are all shiny and sleek? Trust us, even the shiniest, sleekest sites have their problems. And their oversights could be your gain.
So what exactly should you do to prepare your site for the holiday season.
In an article on MultichannelMerchant.com, James Gardner details a few important steps you should take now to help stay ahead of the curve a month from now.
1. Don’t Forget the Basics
A common mistake that most retailers make, says Gardner – and we agree – is that too many times they concentrate their energy on a particular promotion or holiday campaign. But what about the rest of the site? What happens when all those people who are impressed by the company’s Christmas creativity can’t access others parts of the site because of poor functionality? Well, they answer, all too often, is that leave. They don’t want to be bother with a slow site that isn’t working correctly.
So, before you go spending all your resources on your holiday push, go through your site – meticulously – to make sure that everything is in working order. Make sure there are no unnecessary obstacles that stand in the way of consumer and checkout. Make sure that they have no reason to leave your site because of broken links and videos or images that don’t load. You owe it to yourself and your customers.
Continue reading ‘Preparing Your Site for the Holiday Season’
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