List of Public Website Stats

SEOmoz compiled a list of websites providing data for public access - very useful for the marketer. The list includes:

• Technical Data
• Ownership/Hosting Data
• Statistics/Popularity Data
• Search Engine Indexing Data
• Link Data
• Social Tagging Data
• Third-Party Trust Metrics
• Important Directory & Site Listings
• Press & Media Mentions

File In: Marketing Research Data Statistics

Ten Tips for Monitoring Your Company Online

If you're not monitoring your company online, you should. With the rise in usage of blogs, podcasts, and social networking sites like MySpace, monitoring your company online as well as off-line is becoming more crucial than ever.

With the web, it's easy for a disgruntled customer's negative comments or an employee's insight on confidential information to spread instantaneously reaching mass groups of people. By actively monitoring, you're able to defuse those situations, just as fast as they went up by setting the record straight - online. And, while you're doing so, you may likely find supporters speaking out for your company.

Some companies have actually implemented a policy outlining what can't be said about the company on an employees personal web site.

Monitoring these sites also provides an understanding on what your customers and potential customers like about your company, it's products, and the industry, and a better understanding on what to change, what not to change, and what to innovate.

Read Pronet Advertising's post on 10 things you should be monitoring.

Filed In: Company Monitoring Blog

Apple Seeks to Restrict Use of "Podcast"

Are you confused when terms like "Podcast Ready" and "myPodder" aren't associated with Apple Computer? Well Apple Computer seems to feel so and as such they've slapped Podcast Ready with a "cease and desist" letter. Although it has a trademark on "iPod," Apple has been cracking down on use of "pod" by all sorts of parties.

Podcast Ready CEO Russel Holliman is willing to consider dropping the name myPodder, but seems skeptical about dropping "Podcast Ready." If "Podcast Ready" infringement, Apple is claiming that it owns the word "podcast," which is seen as a general term for downloadable audio shows that aren't affiliated with Apple.

Seems like an aggressive move on Apple's part. But I do find confusion among people who don't understand the technology - they don't realize that you don't need an iPod to download podcasts. I just wonder how many of these "cease and desist" letters Apple's got out there.

Filed In: Apple Podcast Trademark Podcast Ready

Free Coffee

Hurry up and get your free coffee courtesy of Yahoo.

As a promotional gift to its TV, radio, and movie theater blitz, Yahoo will offer coupons for a free cup of coffee at Dunkin' Donuts to anyone who sets Yahoo.com as their home page by tomorrow.

The multimillion dollar campaign is to reinforce its strong cutting edge technology with improvements like its home page makeover, an e-mail upgrade and a service that enables users to tap into their collective knowledge to find answers to tough questions.

Yahoo has been struggling to catch up with Google in the online search market, and it's also battling perceptions that startups such as MySpace.com have become hipper places to hang out.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and Time Warner's AOL are spending heavily to lure traffic away from Yahoo.

I've seen the changes at Yahoo, and I'm seriously considering making my Yahoo my primary personal email service and homepage. Right now I have a hotmail account, that I've had for years, and a My MSN homepage. Both don't seem to offer near the services that Yahoo offers.

For now, I'll at least enjoy a free cup of coffee.

Photo by ttaulli.

Categories: Yahoo Homepage Media Blitz Free Dunkin' Donuts Coffee

Gamers: More Attentive to Ads

Well it looks like playing video games can be a good thing after all - at least for marketers. According to MediaPostPublications, gamers, who account for approximately 17% of the adult population, consume an above-average amount of media and tend to be well-disposed toward product placement in movies and TV.

Characteristics of the adult gamer:

• Spend an average of 2 hours a week online more than the average adult.
• Spend an hour more than average watching DVDs each week - many of them probably subscribing to NetFlix.
• More receptive to celebrity spokespeople and product placement.
• More likely to think of themselves as trendsetters.
• More likely to remember the name of the last brand.

Filed In: Gamer Marketing Advertising Brand Product Placement