Krishna De: Insights From Ireland On Digital Marketing, Social Media And Entrepreneurship

Quick thoughts and tips about building visibility, buzz, reputation and profits - plus stuff that doesn't fit my blog 
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Google Analytics “Seminars for Success” 17-18 February 2010, Dublin

The Digital Marketing Institute is delivering the first “Seminars for Success” in Ireland on the week starting 15th February 2010.  Click here to find out more about the Google Seminars for Success programme, which is a worldwide training programme being rolled out by Google.

This page describes the Google Analytics 2 Day course that akes place in Dublin on 17th & 18 February 2010

Where: Radisson BLU, Golden Lane, Dublin 8 (map/directions)

When: Wednesday 17th & Thursday 18th February 2010

Time: 09:30 - 17:00 each day

Cost: €499 per day (or €899 for both days)

If you are looking to learn more about metrics and analytics in relation to Google Analytics you might want to check out this programme which is approved by Google.

You might it's a little more than some training programmes that you have attended in the Internet arena in Ireland - but check the link out here and you will see that the pricing is consistent with Google guidelines. Details here: http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/adwords/seminars/topics.html

The programme is facilitated by Vicky Brock from the UK who is Director of Web Analytics for Google Analytics Authorised Consultants, Highland Business Research.

(Yes I know the team at the DMI who are organising this course as I am one of their training faculty).

I just wish my calendar would have accomodated me attending this programmme.

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Filed under  //   Google   Measurement   Online marketing  

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How much would you pay for a great travel related domain name?

What are you prepared to pay for a domain name? There isn't a month that goes by without me looking to purchase another domain name or three for various projects and assignments I am working on.

Memorable domain names are worth tens of thousands to support your online visibility and digital marketing strategy. If you are in the hospitality or tourism business, what difference could a catchy domain mean for you as being a memorable desination.

I noticed today that Sedo the global domain market place has a Travel Auction taking place between 5-12 March 2010. if you can not wait until then, why not look at their current inventory where you can make an offer - these are some travel domain names that caught my attention:

  • Morocco.com $2,500,000 
  • PuertoRico.com $2,500,000 
  • Scotland.com $2,500,000 
  • SouthAfrica.com $2,500,000  
  • Sweden.com $1,500,000 
  • Nepal.com $1,000,000
  • Belgium.com $800,000 
  • VaticanCity.com $500,000
  • NorthernIreland.com $500,000

And if you wonder what were the most expensive domain names in 2009 here they are according to Sedo (thanks to BarryHand.ie for this information):

   1. Fly​.com – £1,152,173.24
   2. Rus​sia​.com – £904,319.74
   3. Call​.com – £678,749.65
   4. Server​.com – £478,143.83
   5. Amer​ica​.com – £474,977.28
   6. Files​.com – £449,845.74
   7. Chris​t​ian​.com – £366,917.29
   8. Top​.com – £327,916.88
   9. Talk​.com – £303,994.08
  10. Brazil​.com – £302,489.98

The NorthernIreland.com or VaticanCity.com doamin names look like bargains don't they?

 

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Filed under  //   Online marketing  

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eBay Giving Works supporting the Haiti Earthquake Relief and Recovery

I recently write about a number of social media platforms being used as part of a communications plan in times of crisis.

Today I noted that Laura Fitton was posting about eBay being used to help with fundraising for the Haiti earthquake.

As a vendor you can sell items donating 10-100% of your final sales price using eBay Giving Works.

Some of the non profits using eBay Giving Works include the American Red Cross, Unicef, Save the Children, Oxfam and Habitat for Humanity.

So if you work with a non profit why not check out eBay Giving Works and is you are looking to support a cause why not head on over and explore what products are on offer so that even your regular purchase could help a non-profit ot of course in the case of Haiti, support the relief effort.

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Filed under  //   non profit   Online marketing  

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Internet Marketing Breakfast 19 January 2010: Using the Internet for Profit and Politics

Date: Tuesday 19 January 2010

Time: 8.00-9.30am

Venue: The Burlington Hotel, Dublin 4

Cost: Free

I just had word from a colleague of mine on the Digital Marketing Institure that he's hosting a free event with a difference next week. John Ring of RingJohn.com has organised  a session which he tells me will be 'X-Factor' style with a panel and the audience texting in the presenter they want to win.

The three speakers will take one aspect of internet marketing and present a 15-minute fun and informative overview - and there is no charge. Yes there is a free breakfast too! The sessions are as follows:

“Commercial Gain via the Web”

Claire Walsh, Online Sales & Operations Manager UK&IE - www.Google.com

 “Why am I not no.1 in Google?”

John Ring, Search Engine Marketing Specialists - www.RingJohn.com

 “How Barack Obama used the web to win the White House. And how you can use the web to win too.”

Nualan O’Brien, Online Marketing and Writing Specialists - www.TheWordClinic.com

The panel has non other than Damian Ryan, Head of Digital, Results International - www.ResultsIG.com and co-author of 'Understanding Digital Marketing' (oh and me!).

If you'd like to attend just contact Nualan O’Brien at info@thewordclinic.com or on 086604 2895 to book your place - while it's free to attend there are limited spaces available.

Oh if you plan to come perhaps you want to let me know over at the event update on PlanCast.

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Filed under  //   Events   Online marketing  

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Google's decision about China and Baidu's launch of a premium online video's could make Baidu unstoppable

Google has announced that it may end its operations in China following a "sophisticated and targeted" cyber attack originating from the country commenting that is it no longer prepared to censor its Chinese search engine - google.cn.

Last year, the search engine market in China was worth an estimated $1bn and analysts previously expected Google to make about $600m from China in 2010 with nearly 340 million Chinese people online, compared with 10 million a decade ago. Google has 31% of the market compared with about 60% controlled by market leader Baidu, which has a close relationship with the Chinese government. Yahoo has less than 10%.

David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer of Google posted in a blog:


Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.

We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn,and potentially our offices in China.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues.

As a side note, Baidu recently that it is creating an independent company to offer premium online videos to Chinese Internet users including movies, TV shows, sports, and animation, and it will generate its revenue through advertisements. This move with Google and the launch of this new service will no doubt secure Baidu as THE search engine for China.

For more information on this story see the article and short video on the BBC.co.uk site.

 

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Filed under  //   Online marketing   online video  

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Paying for online content: research outcomes from Nielsen

Percent of global online consumers who have paid OR would consider paying for various types of content online – Fall 2009
Content
Music 57%
Theatrical movies 57%
Games 51%
Professional produced video (including current television shows) 50%
Magazines 49%
Newspapers 42%
Internet-only news sources 36%
Radio (Music) 32%
Podcasts 28%
Social communities 28%
Radio (News/Talk) 26%
Consumer-generated video 24%
Blogs 20%

Source: The Nielsen Company.  n=27,548

This is an interesting survey by Nielsen - will consumers pay for your content online?

The survey was undertaken across 54 companies and with 27,548 consumers.

Interestingly many consumers will pay for content online though Nielsen reports that this differs by geography, demographics and the type of content.

We are more likely to pay for music, games and professionally produced video versus podcasts, blogs or consumer generated video - that's not really a surprise is it? Though I have personally paid for programmes delivered by podcast where it has been a training programme.

Almost 47% of respondents said that they would put up with ads to subsidise free content - though this again differs by region according to the survey:
- 57% of people in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan would accept advertising
- 55% of people in Asia Pacific would accept advertising
- 40% of people in North America would accept advertising
- 39% of people in Europe would accept advertising.

I know I have paid for content to be free of ads - even on an application on the Blackberry as the ads were obtrusive.

Have you and would you pay for content online?

Are you tolerant of ads supporting you accessing free content?

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Filed under  //   Online marketing   Research  

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YouTube launches it's own short URL

I've written a number of times about link shortening tools on my main blog and over at Facebook.

This weekend I had a problem with one of the shortening tools that I use who were moving servers and none of my short urls worked - in fact I could not access the system at all.

It is was another great reminder that it's not wise to leave important services that you need and rely on to a free third part resource - but we all seem to use short URL services don't we?

Short URL's are increasingly popular (Facebook and Google recently launching their own) as we share links in twitter and in status updates on Facebook, LinkedIn and Skype just to name a few places that I see short URL's referenced.

Just before Christmas, YouTube launched their own short URL service - youtu.be - only for YouTube links. I think this will be used increasingly as it will mean that people recognise the link and will have more confidence in it as it will mean that clicking on the link you will be being directed to YouTube.

To see this feature in action, use AutoShare to link up your YouTube account to social networks. Autoshare enables you to share your activity on YouTube with your community on Facebook, Twitter or Google Reader. Then, whenever you favorite a video on YouTube, for example, that action will get syndicated out to your network, who will see the shortened edition of the video's URL.

I personally don't use Autoshare, but if you are like me there is still a way to benefit from the YouTube short URL.

Use youtu.be manually -

  • and replace the"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=" with "http://youtu.be/"

 

This means that you can identify to your followers and fans that it's a YouTube link you are sharing with them.

What's your favourite short URL service? Can you impagine using Youtu.be?

Oh and in case you are interested here are some of the other innovations that took place on YouTube in 2009.

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Filed under  //   Online marketing   YouTube  

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Google Goggles - Using pictures to search the web

We've seen search results showing photographs and videos. Now pictures are being used to help you search for results in the search engines.

Earlier this week, Google announced a new way to search the internet - by submitting a photograph from your mobile phone.

This is currently an experimental 'search-by-sight feature', called Google Goggles.

Apparently it can recognise books, album covers, artwork, landmarks, places, logos, and more.

For more about Google Goggles read a CNN article here or visit the Google Goggles page.

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Filed under  //   Google   Online marketing  

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Google offers personalised search even when not logged into Google

Google have recently announced that they have recently changed the way that personalised search works.

Previously you had to be logged into your Google account for this to work. Personalised search will now be available to people based on 180 days of search activity linked to an 'anonymous' cookie in your browser.

Find more details about personalised search HERE.

And if you want to turn off personalisation in your Google search results you can find out how HERE.

If you are an expert on search engine optimisation what are your thoughts on how this will impact search results and what challenges that brings those of us who want to appear higher in the search engines?

 

 

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Filed under  //   Online marketing  

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Cyber Monday - Online retailers predict record sales

Online retailers have forecast record sales as they prepare for the busiest internet shopping day of the year.

The first Monday in December is considered the peak and one-day sales are expected to top £350m, with the busiest hour between 1300 and 1400 GMT.

Stores have already seen a surge in sales compared with 2008, when about £320m was spent on the busiest day.

Whilst shopping online is likely to be at record levels today, The office of Fair Trading in the UK commented that almost a third of internet users do not shop online due to concerns about online security.

The BBC.co.uk aritcle went on to mention that 29 million people in the UK used the internet to purchase Christmas presents - 5.2 million of them doing so at work. And to think that employers are considering banning Facebook at work!

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Filed under  //   Facebook   Online marketing  

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