BlogSmall business, Marketing, Promotion and Web Design

Thanks to Google Trends we can now know the power of Internet users’ will. Take a look at the last 30 days trends chart. While search terms “porn” and “mp3″ dominate the chart, the “super bowl” is on the rise but still way too low.

I tried to include the search term “fashion show”, since there is one under way in New York, but it just hugged the bottom and didn’t produce any significant flows on this chart.

My guess (or guesstimate) is that both “porn” and “mp3″ are too broad terms, therefore they are sought more often and produce more meaningful results. In case of “super bowl” or “fashion show” - latter being even more obvious - there’s only a handful of web sites that provide fulfilling and concise information on the subject. Actually, fashion show addicts are either glued to TVs or to the doors of many New York locations where shows are held.

Popularity: 21%

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These are the features ranked according to the number of top 500 retailers that are using them (as per Internet Retailer Magazine):

1. keyword search
2. daily/seasonal specials
3. enlarged product view
4. what’s new
5. affiliate program
6. advanced search
7. online gift certificates
8. rich media
9. outlet center
10. email a friend
11. coupons/rebates
12. top sellers
13. site personalization
14. alternative payments
15. store locator
16. wish list
17. customer reviews
18. catalog quick order
19. mapping
20. product customization

Interesting enough as well that most consumers (according to Forrester) are willing to decline paying for “flare”:

Fewer consumers are willing to pay for extras such as gift wrapping, or overnight delivery.
(26% of respondents said they would pay for expedited delivery prior to the holiday season, down from 45% who said they would do so in 2006.)

Generally, what this means is that consumers want to get their purchase faster, easier and with less extras then before. For most of the prospective clients that call us, top five requests for web site are:

1. Large pictures/ability for visitor to enlarge product image
2. Search engine optimization/marketing
3. Ability to quickly add and remove inventory items
4. Ability to post featured/for sale items
5. Ability to use various discount codes to track promotions

It is obvious that trends for small and large businesses are almost the same. The slight difference is attributed to overall approach to ways of doing business for small business owners and large retailers.

Popularity: 33%

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After numerous confirmations of scam-like business practices, Network Solution is now looking into implementing a feature that will allow users to “lock” domain for 4 days, instead of doing this for them automatically. Ironically, this feature look just awfully familiar - just like “domain tasting”. With difference being that now anyone can lock the domain without even providing their contact info. Don’t even need to set up various fake registrars to grab and drop domains for tasting, just keep searching for it.

Another bad trick here is that since domain name would appear registered - there is a very good chance squatters may snipe it right the moment it will be released. And it is already very well known what it means. Some of my clients paid pretty large sums for their trademarked name - just to get it faster then through the lawsuit.

Interesting facts:

• In 2000 Network Solutions was purchased by Verisign for $21 billion.
• In 2007 they were purchased for $800 million.

My take? If you have domain names at Network Solutions - move them to someone not so dangerous. GoDaddy, Moniker or NameCheap (we use all three of them) look much better.

Popularity: 34%

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• Available Domain Names (January 22, 2008): According to Moniker, there are not that many domain names with words WebDesign before top-level zone available. Today I ran a search and here's the list of available domain names: WEBDESIGN.AC WEBDESIGN.AERO WEBDESIGN.BIZ.PL WEBDESIGN.CLUB.TW WEBDESIGN.COM.AG WEBDESIGN.COM.KI WEBDESIGN.COM.MU WEBDESIGN.COM.NF WEBDESIGN.COM.SC WEBDESIGN.COM.VC WEBDESIGN.EBIZ.TW WEBDESIGN.GAME.TW WEBDESIGN.GEN.IN WEBDESIGN.IND.IN WEBDESIGN.INFO.PL WEBDESIGN.KI WEBDESIGN.NET.AG WEBDESIGN.NET.KI WEBDESIGN.NET.MU WEBDESIGN.NET.NF WEBDESIGN.NET.SC WEBDESIGN.NET.VC WEBDESIGN.NF WEBDESIGN.NOM.ES WEBDESIGN.ORG.AG WEBDESIGN.ORG.KI WEBDESIGN.ORG.MU WEBDESIGN.ORG.SC WEBDESIGN.ORG.VC As you can see, only two top level domain names left. Time to run!