Some of these acquisitions we saw coming months ago (thanks to everyone who helped us win cash bets) while others were complete surprises. Everybody’s prediction? This list is gonna get a lot longer very soon. VP’s of Marketing look to your jobs! Quick round-up this week:
– Commerce bought AppNet
– Internet.com bought ClickZ
– O2, Essential Marketing Technologies bought LookSonic.com
– Immedient bought Solven.com
– Engage bought MediaBridge Technologies
– NetZero bought RocketCash
– Rapp Collins bought Innovyx
Insiders at interactive agency WebNet Marketing admitted to us they were being killed — not by the competition but by the dash in their domain name (WebNet-Marketing.com.) Some guy in Michigan already owned the dash-free version, so WebNet made do. But loads of people couldn’t find their site and email was always going astray. Not anymore, after shelling out a reportedly six-figure sum, WebNet’s just been renamed QFactor. And yes they own every possible version of the domain name (including QFactorSucks.com)
“Imagine the government’s response if there were an incredible number of people (sorry, better make that ‘voters’) being harassed with anonymous telephone calls offering services of a sexual nature. Just picture how fast they would take action if there were a sudden prevalence of mail scams.
Sound bites would almost definitely include the words ‘disgraceful’, ‘appalling’ and ‘immediate action’, but with Spam, the reaction is a resounding ‘sorry, it’s your problem’. Yes, the British Government has finally taken an official stand on Spam, demanding that, erm, we look after it ourselves.
I can’t say that I’m surprised, really. Blair himself confesses to being completely ignorant about the web, and E-Envoy Alex Allan’s main qualifications seem restricted to being a ‘computer consultant’ (in the early 80’s) and building an entire site – http://www.whitegum.com/ – all by himself.
Of course Alex has called it a day now, and will stand down from his position in October so he can return to Australia.
If this keeps up, I may do the same myself.
PS – The search for a new E-Envoy begins in a couple of weeks. Feel free to nominate (ahem) worthy parties for this cushy position at: e-envoy@open.gov.uk”
…says Tim Ireland, our Rant Envoy, and Director of Marketing at www.designercity.com
Having been assured by BT that their Openworld site was definitely up and running early last week (and having found that it wasn’t), we’ve been checking progress from time to time…
Well, yesterday morning, there was finally something on view at www.btopenworld.com, but we have a feeling it wasn’t what BT intended us to see – it was, in fact, the Index page to the entire site, complete with countless little yellow folders (how touching that BT feels able to share these things with us)! If you’re curious enough to pay the site a visit you’ll find that you can get into the site proper (yes, it DOES exist) by clicking on any of the folders. Have a quick read – would YOU say it was written in a hurry? We couldn’t possibly comment.
Buses. In London, we’re used to seeing adverts splashed all over buses so, this week, we thought we’d have a look at what’s going on in the Home Counties…
In terms of visibility, e-commerce site Countdownarcade.com has to be the winner, even though they’ve opted to advertise inside, rather than outside the buses, presumably to exploit what is, after all, a rather captive audience of passengers. You can hardly miss their ads – they’re plastered across three or four of the windows. In fact, you’d need to crouch on the floor to see past them. Great idea, huh? Bear in mind that many of the passengers on regional buses are on their way to town centres to do a bit of shopping – where better to advertise your time-saving, hassle-saving e-tail operation?
If only Countdownarcade had chosen a better slogan. Featuring a huge hand of playing cards, their ads say “Don’t gamble on the Internet”. What they mean, of course, is ‘rather than gamble with other shopping sites on the Net, come along to countdownarcade.com where we guarantee you’ll be satisfied’. But, because we thought the slogan was ambiguous (and because we’re inquisitive), we asked a few of our fellow passengers what they thought… and yes indeed most of them interpreted the slogan as a warning not to shop on the Internet at all!
Sometimes the simplest things can make tangible difference in the profitability of your Web site. Visiting SeekingCapital.com’s home page took us back to basics and reminded up how important they are. Their site isn’t ready yet. But, instead of putting up a “under construction” sign (a big Net no-no) or nothing at all (an even bigger no-no), they put up an elegantly simple page consisting of their logo, contact info and a sign-up box for visitors to add their email addresses to the launch notification list.
This little sign-up form is something every business should have on any unfinished sections of their site. In fact email newsletter publishers recommend you start collecting opt-in email names a few months before you start a new service! So, do you have a pending new product or service announcement? Add a sign-up form for news about it on your site today.
OK, we’re unashamedly flag-waving fans of Master Syndicator. This low-cost ($99) software program enables you to syndicate out any content you please (articles, graphics, tutorials, hotlinked headlines, etc.) to any Web sites you’ve got pre-arranged deals with. Aside from being cheap and easy-to-use, Master Syndicator’s benefits include: (1) the ability to send content to multiple sites with just one command; (2) you decide what your content will look like at the other end; (3) webmasters receiving your content can’t change it, steal your content or make your hotlinks inactive; and (4) lifetime product support included in the price, plus for $60 more they’ll even install it on your server for you.
Owner Angela Smith says, “This program is perfect for smaller publishers who don’t have an in-house tech team.” Dozens of publishers including SalesVault.com, AllCritters.com and TheRomantic.com already use MasterSyndicator. In today’s marketplace Angela recommends if you’re charging for content that you lowball your price and go for mass quantity of deals with sites rather than high-priced deals with just a few. She also says your best bet may be to distribute your hotlinked content for free in order to drive traffic back to your site and/or promote your name brand.
[Ed. Note: We’d like to thank reader David Yale at http://www.controlbeaters.com for bringing this great software to our attention!]
We’re constantly contacting PR people as we collect stories for MarketingSherpa. Many do a fabulous job of getting back to our reporters quickly. Some make our lives much harder. Here are the top 3 most annoying things reporters wish (please) you wouldn’t do anymore:
1. Online forms to type our questions into are NOT an acceptable substitute for the email address of a press contact. In fact, we’ve learned if a site gives press an online form to fill out, promising “we’ll contact you” chances are they WON’T.
2. Don’t insist on phone calls and faxing us, especially when the reporter in question has pleaded, “use email!” Worst horror story, one big NYC PR firm won’t even add reporters to their email press lists unless they provide phone and fax numbers. (Yes, please make us jump through hoops to give your clients free publicity!)
3. Don’t email us press releases with non-informative subject lines. We get more than 75 press releases a day in our in-boxes and anything labeled something like “Press Release From…” may not always get the attention it deserves.
We were almost late with this issue because we got sucked into playing Whack-a-Flack online which is pretty much more fun than editorial staff should be allowed to have during the working day. Media companies, if you’re smart you’ll ban this site from your corporate servers or deadlines will go a-missing!
Folks at Newsletter and Electronic Publishers Association annual show are a fairly conservative bunch (we’re talking full business suits at Sunday sessions.) But this year the buzz was the Internet. As one attendee told us, “Last year they were hiding their heads in the sand and hoping it would go away. This year they are ready to embrace it.” Perhaps, but are they ready to invest real money? A new NEPA study shows the average print newsletter publisher spends under $30,000 on outsourced Web site services, which is about a tenth of what the rest of corporate America is spending. Also noted: the numbers of 100% free email newsletter publishers at the show… one, the publisher of MarketingSherpa.
