Perhaps someday native advertising will mature into a viable alternative to traditional web advertising but today it creates more problems than answers.
What matters here is not just the distinction between marketing material or informational content (and the bias the former brings with it), but also how the intent behind the content is communicated to the reader.
Read the full post at Econsultancy.
Technorati Tags: native advertising, online marketing
The phrase “growth hacking” has become an incredibly popular buzzword over the past couple of years but what does it really mean?
Not only is growth hacking a meaningless phrase used to rebrand online marketing by the very people who’ve spent the better part of their careers maligning online marketing, but at its worst, it is actually harmful to your company.
Read the full post at Marketing Land.
Technorati Tags: growth hacking, online marketing
Either you don’t realize it, or you may think the benefits outweigh the costs, but every bit of code you add to your site has the potential of slowing it down. As you’ll see in a minute, this slowdown is eroding your business.
The point of this article is to give you a good sense of the following:
1. Growth in average website size, the primary culprits contributing this, and how this increase in size results in latency.
2. The importance of website load speeds and the wide-ranging impact of latency on the bottom line.
3. Average website visitor expectations and behavior and industry benchmarks.
Read the full post at The Future Buzz.
Technorati Tags: the future buzz, response time, load speed, latency, bounce rate
What could’ve caused the impressive spike in Amazon Prime subscriptions, and will these new users stick around – i.e. did Amazon lock-in another $79 million this holiday season due to growth in prime?
In light of all this it should be obvious that while while Amazon may have registered 1 million new amazon prime members, many of them are probably using it to expedite shipping on last minute purchases and are likely to cancel after, and many others are probably taking advantage of months-long free Prime access for students and moms, and will not be paying the annual fee of $79.
Read the full post at VentureBeat.
Technorati Tags: venturebeat, amazon, amazon prime, holiday shopping
Business Insider — as well as Buzzfeed, Upworthy, and a growing number of others – definitely show impressive traffic numbers, but are they a good indicator of a successful business?
Virality mills are ultimately reliant on ever-increasing page views to deliver impressions to advertisers and are prey to the same pitfalls as traditional publishers seeking inorganic audience growth. Furthermore, virality mills as a business model are no different from any publisher embracing viral content marketing for audience development – write with the singular goal of widespread exposure with complete disregard for a search acquisition strategy
Read the full post at VentureBeat.
Technorati Tags: venturebeat, viral mills, buzzfeed, upworthy