Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs Passes Away
WashingtonPost.com
Steve Jobs, a co-founder of Apple Inc., has sadly passed away at the age of 56.  An original thinker who helped create the Macintosh also reinvented the portable music player with the iPod and reordered the cell phone market with the iPhone.  The introduction of the iPad also jump-started the tablet market, and now it dominates the field.

Holiday Sales to Rise 2.8% to $465 Billion
MediaPost.com
The National Retail Federation says it expects holiday spending to rise just 2.8% this year, to a total of $465.6 billion.  While that gain is far less than the 5.2% gain retailers saw last year, it is still above the 2.6% average of the last 10 years.  Retailers have posted sales gains for the last 14 months but ongoing concerns about the economy have them worried.

Google Analytics Adds Real-Time Traffic Data
Mashable.com
Google for the first time is providing a window into real-time web traffic with Google Analytics Real-Time.  Real-Time reports are available in the new version of Google Analytics, and administrators with Analytics accounts will get Real-Time reports.  For users trying to gauge how a campaign or post is performing, Real-Time will track the immediate impact to site traffic.

Mobile Ad Spend to Hit $1 Billion
SearchEngineWatch.com
According to eMarketer, mobile ad spending could reach $1.23 billion for U.S. advertisers by the end of the year, up 66% from last year’s $743 million figure.  They also predict that this figure will continue to see escalating growth, reaching $4.4 billion by 2015.

Google Launches Trusted Stores Program
InformationWeek.com
To ally doubts about the legitimacy of the e-commerce sites, Google has announced a new program to highlight exemplary online merchants.  Google Trusted Stores aspires to help shoppers recognize online stores that offer compelling shopping experiences.  Google has already begun admitting merchants into the program, which will require participating sites to share shipping and customer service data with Google.

Flash-sale E-mails Spark More Purchases When Sent Late in the Afternoon
InternetRetailer.com
Flash-sale e-mails sent after 3 P.M. generate more transactions and more revenue than e-mails sent out earlier in the day, according to an Experian CheetahMail analysis.  The data reveals that messages sent after 3 P.M. have an open rate 90% greater than e-mails sent at mid-day.  Late-day messages stand out more in consumers’ inboxes because fewer e-retailers send messages late in the day.

California’s Governor Brown Expected to Sign Affiliate Nexus Tax Repeal
PerformanceMarketingAssociation.com
This morning the Performance Marketing Association delivered a letter to Governor Brown, asking for his signature on AB 155, which would repeal the Affiliate Nexus Tax for one year.  The Governor is expected to sign AB 155 into law and since this is an ‘urgency stature,’ it will go into immediate effect once it is signed.

Michigan Bill Pushes for Affiliate Nexus Tax
DETNews.com
Michigan lawmakers are renewing a push to require more business selling items over the internet to collect the state’s 6% sales tax.  Proponents claim that online retailers have an unfair price advantage and it hurts Michigan businesses that have storefronts and collect sales taxes.

Mobile Landing Page Quality Now Affects AdWords Quality Score on Media Ads
SearchEngineWatch.com
Google has just announced that within weeks, mobile optimization will be a factor in ad quality for AdWords campaigns driving mobile search traffic.  Since advertisers with a higher quality score get a lower cost per click and better ad placement, it is strongly encouraged to optimize mobile landing pages.  Some optimization suggestions include keeping layouts simple, prioritizing content, making it easy to convert and designing the page for thumbs, not mice.

Display Spending Rose 13% in First Half of 2011
ClickZ.com
A new report from Kantar Media has found that display ad spending rose nearly 13% in the first half of 2011.  The report also found that search ad spending rose 8.6% while internet media spending has increased 10.4%.

Behavioral Targeting Comes to TV Ads
MediaPost.com
Companies targeting ads to consumers on TVs based on location, channel surfing activity and more might seem like a futuristic platform to some, but in reality companies offer the service today.  MStar and Channel Island have collaborated to advance TV advertising and applications in set-top boxes by creating new software that supports profiling and geographic targeting for motion video ads.  Network operators will receive audience measurements and response metrics that include behavioral information and, in the future, what consumers watch on TV will influence the ads they see online.

Twitter Influences Consumers’ Purchases
InternetRetailer.com
It turns out that Twitter may be more influential than Facebook in helping drive consumers’ shopping decisions.  A recent survey of over 2,000 online shoppers found that 35% of consumers said Twitter was influential or extremely influential in their decision to buy a product.  That compares with 24% who said Facebook helped guide a purchase.

Email Deliverability Rates Stagnate at 81%
DMNews.com
Only 81% of emails sent during the first half of 2011 reached consumers’ inboxes, according to a study released by the email deliverability firm Return Path.  In addition, the report found that 7% of emails worldwide were classified as spam while 12% went missing.

How Many Pages are on the Internet?
CNN.com
Although no one exactly knows how many websites or individual web pages there are in the seemingly infinite digital universe that is the internet, we are on our way to finding out.  Thanks to a $1 million grant from Google, a group called the World Wide Web Foundation is creating a web index that will be the world’s first multi-dimensional measure of the web and its impact on people and nations.

Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft Band Together for Ad Plan
AllThingsD.com
AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft will begin selling ad inventory on each others’ sites in a plan to make them each more competitive with Google.  The strategy is also designed to help regain some ad spending that has ended up in the hands of ad network in recent years.

August 2011 U.S Search Engine Rankings
comScore.com
Google continued to lead the U.S. search market in August despite losing 0.3% of their share.  Yahoo remained in second place with 16.3% of the market while Microsoft rounded out the top three with 14.7%.  Yahoo and Microsoft increased their market shares 0.2% and 0.3% respectively.

Retailers Should Author Facebook Posts on Wednesday
Clickz.com
Retailers get 8% more engagement out of their Facebook posts on Wednesday than other days of the week, according to new research by Buddy Media.  It was also found that messages longer than 80 characters receive 40% lower engagement while overall engagement drops by 29% if companies post more than three times a day.

A Conversion Boost for Online Retailers
InternetRetailers.com
Nearly two-thirds of online retailers report higher conversion rates over the past year, according to a new report from Shop.org and Forrester.  More than half say their AOVs have increased and 25% are reporting that fewer shoppers are abandoning their shopping carts.

Almost 75% of Active American Social Networkers Shop Online
SearchEngineWatch.com
The value of the time consumers spend online and on social networks and blogs continues to grow, most visible through the influence on purchase decisions, Nielsen reports.  Adults active on social networks and blogs are 12% more likely than the average user to shop online while nearly 4 in 5 active internet users participate in these activities and 70% make online purchases.

Amazon is the #1 Loyalty Leader
MediaPost.com
Brand Keys’ new, 2011 Customer Loyalty Leaders Index shows Amazon having displaced Apple’s iPhone in the #1 spot.  Additional loyalty leaders include Facebook, Zappos, Hyundai and Patron.

Yahoo Fires Their CEO and Puts Itself Up For Sale
BusinessInsider.com
In addition to firing CEO Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s board has now put the company up for sale.  Yahoo decided to fire Bartz after she failed to revive the company and was unable to match the innovative pace of companies like Google, Facebook and Apple.  Upon her dismissal the board stated they were open to selling itself to the right bidder.

Amazon Cuts Deal on California Sales Taxes
LATimes.com
On Wednesday Amazon.com cut a tentative deal with legislative leaders that would allow it to postpone collecting sales taxes from Californians for another year.  The company in turn would drop its battle to overturn the state’s new law that required it and other out-of-state online retailers to collect taxes.

Ebates Buys FatWallet.com and AnyCoupons.com, Starts New Company
TechCrunch.com
Netx’s long time affiliate partner Ebates has acquired two shopping sites, FatWallet.com and AnyCoupons.com.  Ebates, an online cash back shopping site, announced that they will create a new company called Performance Marketing Brands which will specialize in shopper loyalty programs.

Google Adds Shopping Click Metrics
MediaPost.com
Google has added a feature that allows marketers to see the number of clicks products generate on Google Shopping within a specific time period.  Advertisers and marketers can gain the data through the Google Content API for Shopping, which is used to upload product data.

Millions of Mobile Consumers Redeem Mobile Coupons
InternetRetailer.com
According to the research firm eMarketer Inc., 9.5% of U.S. adult mobile phone users will access and redeem a mobile coupon this year.  That’s 19.8 million consumers, up from the 13.3 million consumers that redeemed mobile coupons last year.  The research firm predicts the number of consumers with mobile phones redeeming mobile coupons will jump to 28.7 million in 2012 and to 35.6 million in 2013.

Google Buys Zagat to Support Mobile Local
Googleblog.blogspot.com
Google announced this week that they have acquired the review and ratings service Zagat.  Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of Google’s local offering by providing quality reviews to fuel business listing through Google Places.

Negative Online Reviews Change 80% of Shoppers’ Minds
DigitalTrends.com
A recent survey found that the influence of the internet and online reviews on consumers’ purchase decisions is stronger than ever.  Slightly less than 90% of consumers said they found online sources of product and service reviews to be trustworthy while 80% of consumers have changed their minds about a purchase based only on negative information they found online.  On the other side, 87% of consumers reported that a favorable review has confirmed their decision to go through with a purchase.

July 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share Report
comScore.com
There are now more than 82 million Americans that own a smartphone!  Leading the mobile platform market is Google Android with 41.8% of the market while Apple is in second place with 27% of the market.

Clothes and Social Media Occupy U.S. Web Users in July
InternetRetailer.com
Facebook and Twitter both attracted record traffic in July while back-to-school shopping helped increase visits to e-commerce sites by nearly 13%.  Apparel sites also had strong growth as the category increased 8.2% to 66 million visitors.

Email Volume Drops 14% YoY
DMNews.com
According to a study released by the marketing services firm Epsilon, the average number of emails sent per client fell by 14.3%.  Open rates increased 0.4% YoY to 22.2% while click rates remained flat at 5.2%.

Google Experiments with Infinite Scrolling
SearchEngineWatch.com
With the use of infinite scrolling Google is trying to move beyond the first 10 results of the SERP.  Since infinite scrolling has been a hit in Google Image Search, the same idea is being implemented for the core search results.  Aside from confirming the experiment, Google has shared little else about it.

Those Searching For Google+ Are Younger & Have More Income than Facebook Searchers
SearchEngineLand.com
A recent study has shown that there are some striking differences between those looking for Google+ versus those looking for Facebook.  Surprisingly, Facebook had a larger percentage of searchers over the age of 35, while Google+ trended younger.  In addition to the younger demographic, Google+ searchers skewed towards higher incomes.  Google+ saw 32.1% of searchers with an income of above $100,000 a year, while only 22.8% of Facebook searchers had an income of above $100,000 a year.

Participate In The 2011 AffiliateBenchmarks Survey!
Time is running out and the 2011 AffiliateBenchmarks survey needs your opinions now!  The survey, which is open to advertisers, publishers and anyone else in the affiliate community, is designed to help develop and reinforce best practices and strengthen the relationships between affiliates, advertisers, and agencies.  Everyone who participates in the survey will get the full study sent to them for free (a $3,000 value) within two weeks of the results being published.

Top Google Ranking Captures 18.2% of Clicks
SearchEngineWatch.com
A recent study conducted by Slingshot SEO re-examined the value of the top position in organic ranking.  The study found that the click-through rate for a website in the top position is 18.2%, with the second position at 10.05% and the third at 7.22%.  With the number one spot receiving more clicks than the second and third spot combined, it is still clear that the first position is the ideal place to be.

Google Lost Share in U.S. Searches in July as Yahoo Gained
Businessweek.com
Google’s share of the U.S. search market slipped 0.4% to 65.1% for the month of July.  Yahoo! Sites grew their share 0.2% to 16.1% overall while Microsoft’s market share remained steady at 14.4%.

14 Million Americans Scanned QR Codes on their Mobile Phones in June
comScore.com
According to comScore, 14 million mobile users in the U.S. scanned a QR code on their mobile device during the month of June.  Approximately 60.5% of the 14 million people that scanned a QR code were males while just over half of the scanners were between the ages of 18 and 34.

Google Acquires Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion
TechCrunch.com
Google announced this week that they are acquiring Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.  Google hopes that the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and enhance competition in mobile computing.

Prepare Today for Online Holiday Sales
InternetRetailer.com
Now is the time to get e-mail, shipping offers and site performance up to speed!  More than half of consumers now expect free shipping and 51% of Cyber Monday shoppers say they learned of online deals through e-mail, says Forrester Research.  To accommodate the anticipated spike in traffic and sales during the holiday season, e-retailers need to optimize their sites for speed and functionality rather than style.  With the ballooning popularity of mobile devices and tablets, e-retailers also need to make sure essential site functions work for all screens.

Participate In The 2011 AffiliateBenchmarks Survey!
Time is running out and the 2011 AffiliateBenchmarks survey needs your opinions now!  The survey, which is open to advertisers, publishers and anyone else in the affiliate community, is designed to help develop and reinforce best practices and strengthen the relationships between affiliates, advertisers, and agencies.  Everyone who participates in the survey will get the full study sent to them for free (a $3,000 value) within two weeks of the results being published.

U.S. Retail E-Commerce Spending Reaches $37.5 in Q2
comScore.com
According to comScore, total online retail spending reached $37.5 billion this past quarter, this was an increase of 14% from Q2 2010.  This growth rate represented the seventh consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and the third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth rates.

Microsoft adCenter Begins Rolling Out Improvements
MediaPost.com
Microsoft is working to implement adCenter features aimed at increasing revenue per search in paid-search campaigns.  Between now and the end of October, adCenter will roll out a new user interface, reporting features, targeting, and enhancements to core algorithms for improved matching.  This past week adCenter rolled out upgrades to broad and phrase-match type feature, but the advertising platform also supports exact match and negative match keywords.

Web Analytics Boost E-Commerce Sites
DMNews.com
Multichannel retailers are measuring Web analytics to improve conversion rates among e-commerce shoppers, in addition to pursuing emerging opportunities in mobile and social commerce.  Retailers are finding they can enhance the online shopping experience based on Web analytics data made available by constantly evolving tools.

87% of Brands Plan to Run Twitter Ads
Clickz.com
As social media continues to grow, 87% of recently surveyed brand managers plan on running a Twitter campaign in the next 12 months.  The survey, which was conducted by Pivot Conference, also found that a staggering 98% of respondents said they’d run Facebook ads in the coming year while 81% plan to advertise on YouTube and 65% will buy ads on LinkedIn.

Google Android Nears 50% Market Share, iOS Reaches Second Place
SearchEngineWatch.com
According to the latest report from the technology-focused analysis group Canalys, Google’s Android platform now holds 48% of the global market share, while the iPhone has reached second place with 19%.  The Android has recently exploded growing its market share by 44% over the last 6 months.

Google+ Poised to Become Number Two Network in 12 Months
SearchEngineLand.com
A Bloomberg-YouGov study recently found that Google+ is on a trajectory to surpass other social networks, including Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace.  YouGov projects that Google+ will become the number two network, after Facebook, within the next year.

Netx Selected by Red Roof to Launch and Manage Affiliate Marketing Program
Red Roof, a leader in the economy hotel segment, has selected Netx to create and manage their new affiliate marketing program.  Red Roof opened their first hotel in Columbus, Ohio in 1973 and was founded on the philosophy of providing guests the greatest value without giving up quality.  They are at the top of the economy hotel segment and Netx looks forward to helping them achieve this distinction in the affiliate space as well.

Vayama Selects Netx to Manage Affiliate Program
Netx has been selected by the international travel site Vayama.com to manage their affiliate program.  Vayama.com is a first-of-its kind travel web site that gives travelers a whole new world of choice in international air travel. Using the latest in web technologies, Vayama offers a massive selection of airlines, flights and fares, many of which were never previously available online.

Legislative Progress for Affiliates in California and Minnesota
PerformanceMarketingAssociation.com
The referendum to reverse the affiliate nexus tax in California has been approved by the Attorney General and Secretary of State.  The campaign to gather 504,000 signatures by September 27^th can now begin!  In addition, Minnesota’s Special Session Tax bill has been released and the Affiliate Nexus Tax is not in it nor can it be added now.

Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for June 2011
comScore.com
According to comScore, Yahoo yielded the No. 1 spot to Google in June for the first time in eight months. The search giant drew 182.5 million unique visitors last month, compared to 178.3 million for Yahoo, whose traffic slipped about 6% from May. Google’s audience increased slightly from 180 million.  An all-time high of 116 million people visited the Travel category in June while 32 million people visited sports/outdoor retail sites.

Ad Effectiveness: Above-the-Fold, Repetition Clicks with Users
MediaPost.com
According to Casale Media, above-the-fold ad placements displayed within the first screen of a user’s browser window were found to be the most effective. In fact, they are almost seven times more effective at generating a click-through than ads delivered below the fold.  Casale also found that users were three to four time more likely to act on an ad if it was the first or second one they saw during their session.  From there, ad effectiveness plummeted as the user progressed through their online viewing.

Will Mobile Ad Spend Overtake TV?
AdWeek.com
There’s no question TV is beating digital in the fight for ad dollars but digital ad execs don’t expect that to last long.  According to Paul Gelb, Mobile Practice Lead of Razorfish, mobile is the first true form of mass media noting that there is over three times the number of mobile subscribers as there are TV subscribers.  With higher engagement rates and unmatched inventory Gelb believes the shift may not take as long as most expect.

Web Users Uneasy with Behavioral Targeting
TRUSTe.com
New research from privacy company TRUSTe indicates that a sizable proportion of U.S. Web users are uncomfortable with online tracking by advertisers.  For the report researchers asked 1,004 Web users whether they would voluntarily consent to share their online browsing behavior with advertisers in order to receive targeted ads. Only 15% said they would “definitely” or “probably” consent.  When asked in a separate question whether they were comfortable with online behavioral advertising, just 11% said they were.

Email Marketers Expect 2011 Holiday Season to Top Last Year
DMNews.com
With this year’s email click and open rates outperforming 2010′s numbers by 23% and 11%, respectively, marketers should prepare for a stronger holiday season than last year, said Chad White, research director at email service provider Responsys. Given those expectations, brands should begin to plan their holiday email campaigns now.

More Back-To-School Shoppers are Looking for Bargains Online
InternetRetailer.com
Nearly 70% of shoppers say they will use online comparison shopping sites for back-to-school shopping, a major jump from 2010 when only 23% of consumers said the same.  Additionally, 41% of shoppers said they will seek out back-to-school coupons from retailer web sites, up 33% from last year.

Participate in the 2011 AffiliateBenchmarks Survey!
The 2011 AffiliateBenchmarks survey is underway so don’t miss your opportunity to participate in the industry’s largest research study of affiliate marketing trends and best practices! Everyone who participates in the survey will get the full study sent to them for free (a $3,000 value) within two weeks of the results being published.  Please note that all surveys must be submitted by September 1^st.

AdWords Adds Top vs. Side Reporting
SearchEngineWatch.com
To help AdWords users get more accurate feedback on how their ads are performing, Google is adding a new data table option that contrasts the statistics for ads appearing on the top of search with those appearing on the side.  Previously there was no way to tell how top and side reporting impacted the success of an ad but the new reporting feature will now allow users to view the figures separately.

U.S. Mobile Advertising to Hit $1.2 Billion in 2011
MediaPost.com
A new report by J.P. Morgan predicts U.S. mobile ad spending to grow to $1.2 billion this year.  Despite rapid mobile growth, the report points out that global penetration will only approach 30% this year, indicating there is still plenty of room for expansion.

Brand Campaigns on Facebook Up 104%
Clickz.com
According to research released by TBG Digital, the number of paid brand advertising campaigns on Facebook rose 104% in Q2 when compared to Q1.  The Q2 study found retailers to be the fastest-growing marketing sector in Facebook advertising, accumulating 36% of all impressions.

Subject Line Personalization Doesn’t Impact Click Rates
DMNews.com
Emails that are not personalized with a consumer’s name in the subject line generate a 3% click rate, equal to that of personalized emails, according to a study released by email service provider MailerMailer.  Non-personalized emails outperformed messages with personalized subject lines with an open rate of 11% compared to the latter’s 4%, while emails with personalized body content generated a 13% open rate.

Amazon’s Sales Tax Counter-Attack
InternetRetailer.com
Amazon says it will ask California voters to overturn the state’s new affiliate tax law in a February referendum.  In order for Amazon to get the appeal on the ballot, they will have to submit 504,760 signatures by September 29^th.

Participate in the 2011 AffiliateBenchmarks Survey!
Don’t miss your opportunity to participate in the industry’s largest research study of affiliate marketing trends and best practices.  The 2011 AffiliateBenchmarks survey has officially begun and we hope you’ll join us in making it the biggest one yet!  Everyone who participates in the survey will get the full study sent to them for free (a $3,000 value) within two weeks of the results being published.  Please note that all surveys must be submitted by September 1^st.

IAB Sets Rules for Online Ad Research
AdWeek.com
The Interactive Advertising Bureau has introduced a set of best practices for conducting online ad effectiveness research.  The guidelines are intended to provide the online ad market with a practical set of recommendations for standard operating procedures with respect to using ad effectiveness studies.

June 2011 U.S. Search Engine Rankings
comScore.com
Google Sites remained atop the U.S. search engine rankings in June with 65.5% market share.  Yahoo! Sites and Microsoft Sites rounded out the top three with 15.9% and 14.4% market share, respectively.  In total, there were over 16.7 billion explicit core searches conducted in June.

Smartphone Adoption and Usage
PewInternet.org
In its first standalone measure of smartphone ownership, the Pew Internet Project found that one third of American adults – 35% – own smartphones. The Project’s May survey found that 83% of US adults have a cell phone of some kind, and that 42% of them own a smartphone.  Approximately 87% of smartphone owners access the internet or email on their handheld, including two-thirds who do so on a typical day.

Paid Search Budgets Rise, Gain Efficiencies at Lower Costs
MediaPost.com
Advertisers spent 20% more on paid search campaigns in Q2 2011, compared with the year-ago quarter, but also increased efficiencies.  Click-through rates rose 12%, while overall cost per click remained the same.  The Paid Search Quarterly Benchmarking Report by Marin Software also found that despite a 15% drop in impressions, the average marketer saw an 8% increase in click volume.