Vastplanet Blog - Internet Marketing | Ecommerce

Google Flu Trends using Google search data

Michael Vorel — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:45:16 +0000

Have you seen the new Google Flu Trends that uses aggregated Google search data? I am preparing to leave for Christmas and was curious to see if a flu was going around.

Good News! United States flu activity: Low
New Jersey flu activity: Low

Google Flu Trends uses Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than traditional flu systems. You can put in your zip code or choose your state and will give you a good estimation on what’s happening in your area. Each week, millions of users around the world search for online health information. There are more flu-related searches during flu season, more allergy-related searches during allergy season, and more sunburn-related searches during the summer. You can explore all of these phenomena using Google Trends.

But can search query trends provide an accurate, reliable model of real-world phenomena?
YES

Microsoft Windows Live Writer 2009 Beta - Download it now!

Michael Vorel — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 01:34:59 +0000

I am writing this post in the new Microsoft Windows Live writer 2009 Beta and is great! I encourage you to try it and see for yourself. Personally I really appreciate software that is useful and free and wanted to say thank you to Microsoft for creating it. I download this on my laptop and my desktops and use it for al my blogs. Enough said – enjoy!

Writer makes it easy to share your photos and videos on almost any blog service—Windows Live, Wordpress, Blogger, Live Journal, TypePad, and many more.

Amazon iPhone Application - Future of mega mobile e-commerce?

Michael Vorel — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:40:12 +0000

I recently purchased an Apple iphone 3G and downloaded a free application called Amazon Remembers from the Apple App Store. If you work within e-commerce and social networking you need to try this as you are seeing the future of mega mobile e-commerce. What if you could shop at any store from your phone? What if you could compare, price shop, read reviews, research and discuss products all in one place?

Concept:
You take a photo of a product with your iPhone and it automatically gets sent to Amazon for review. Within a few minutes they fire back an email to you with what they think you are looking at. I tried this in the car holding my SIRIUS Stiletto 2 Portable Satellite Radio (which I highly recommend) and within 3 minutes it gave me confirmation. Upon clicking the link it takes you directly to the product page where you can decide to research, buy or consider alternatives. The beauty of this approach is that it puts Amazon involved in your e-commerce purchases.

Don’t forget that Amazon partners benefit in this approach
Amazon has been integrating outside merchants into Amazon for a few years now and the list is up to 9,000 merchants and creating the one-stop solution. The Amazon system is extremely polished and with the 1-click integration of your Amazon account you have the ability to purchase anywhere!

Amazon Page explaining the Amazon Remembers iphone Application

My Email from Amazon
Includes link directly to product page
” Dear Amazon.com Customer, The Amazon Remembers service has found a product similar to the photo you recently submitted.
<- This was my photo I took

You may view the result from your iPhone here: Amazon Remembers B000WOT6O0

If you prefer, you may view the result from your web browser. The result has also been posted to your Amazon.com home page and Your Lists (link available at the top right of any page on the Amazon.com site).

Thank you for using Amazon Remembers.

Product Page
- I can buy the item in 1-click
- See what others purchased
- Review Recent history
- Buy from other vendors (that’s key)
- Add to Wish List / Shopping List / Registry
- Access Amazon Prime for regular purchasers
- Consider a used one
- Read reviews
- Join the Sirius Community Group and discuss

Frequently Bought Together
- increases upsell margins

Product Description
- outstanding details

Buy this Product and Related Accessories
- car kits, speakers, etc.

Related Items from external sites
- part of the 1-stop shop concept

Customer Reviews
- extremely important part of the process

Social Community
- apparently a Sirius community exists at Amazon to discuss the products.

Overall, a fascinating application that should change the way consumers shop. As smart phones, Internet speeds and applications evolve the consumer will have full ability to compare, price shop, research and share products with just a few clicks. My advice to merchants to get on board with Amazon as this will play a significant role in the future of mobile e-commerce.

Barack Obama Internet Marketing Strategy & Traffic Analysis

Michael Vorel — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:20:46 +0000

I wanted to dig deeper into the impressive traffic patterns of Barack Obama and his ride to Internet stardom. I reviewed various Internet statistics on unique visitors, average stay, attention, velocity, search, online advertising and how this all worked in his favor. Overall, I am really impressed with the Internet Marketing strategy of the Presidential Election Campaign as it involves a complex plan for seo, inbound links, sub-domains, paid advertising, e-commerce store, donations, collectibles, videos, social networking and ultimately news sites. I noticed recently the attention is starting to drop significantly as the Google PPC ad budgets have been slashed and overall excitement has waned. An important point with this campaign is that many sites placed hard links back to www.barackobama.com and numerous blog posts which helped the surge of visitors. Please note, the discussion on Barack Obama’s social networking utilizing Twitter, Facebook and MySpace is a post in itself and working on that one! Let me know your thoughts on this post.

Compete Graph - clearly July 2008 was a turning point for “Unique Visitors” for Barack Obama. Was that his trip to Europe and the Middle East? On a side note, Compete triangulates multiple data sources, including ISP, Panel & Toolbar to estimate U.S. traffic.

Average Stay - something happened here - people stayed on the site less, why? Seems like a mistake happened on content.

Attention - Measures all the time we collectively spend online and then determines what percentage of that time was spent on a given site. As you can tell from the graph the Internet attention on Barack Obama has dropped off significantly in share of total internet attention.

Velocity - Velocity reports the relative change in daily Attention. Velocity is used to determine the relative growth of a domain over a particular timeframe or compared to other sites. See the significant drop.

Google Trends Analysis - last 365 days with August showing the popularity rising for “barack obama” search in Google

Wow! 59 Subdomains for Barack Obama - other sources of traffic for him

Top 5 Subdomains - sending traffic to www.barackobama.com

my.barackobama.com (2017) www.barackobama.com (620) store.barackobama.com (89) donate.barackobama.com (27) factcheck.barackobama.com (19)

Full List of 59 Subdomains

Top Keywords Driving Traffic: (note the misspelling of #5)

barack obama
obama
barack obama website
barackobama.com
barak obama

Top 15 Domain sending traffic to the Barack Obama web site

www.democratnationalcommittee.com
www.democrathq.com
www.unitedheadlines.com
www.liveobama.com
www.billpressshow.com
www.democraticstuff.com
www.liberalstore.com
www.bumperstickermagnet.com
www.21stcenturydems.org
www.democracymatters.net
www.politifact.com
www.aerialartistry.com
www.chicagotribune.com
www.current.com
www.themiddleclass.org

Search Results on Barack Obama - note Myspace on #10 and not Facebook.

Hope you enjoyed the research, what are your thoughts?

Chinese Online Shopping Trends - Taobao, Alibaba, Baidu

Michael Vorel — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:39:29 +0000

According to iResearch the Chinese are really shopping online and companies are investing as well. Alibaba is investing 5 billion Yuan (US$ 725 million) in Taobao.com the online shopping site. Taoboa is China’s #1 auction site by sales volume. Yahoo is an investor in Alibaba and they compete with the search giant Baidu.com which Google invests in. Baidu is creating a new e-commerce concept in China that will have 10,000 sellers by the end of the year.

How big is the Chinese E-commerce Market?
Chinese Online Consumer Sales will increase to 126 Billion Yuan this year from 16 Billion Yuan in 2005 (WOW)

How any Chinese are Online?
253 Million Users have shopped online in China (roughly 1/3 of the population)

Did you Know Ebay doesn’t charge auction fees in China?
Yes, that’s true due to Taoboa not charging them and Chinese Ebay users jumped ship.

Who controls search in China?
Baidu has 65.8% of the China Search Market, that’s a challenge for existing companies as we have seen how Google has changed the landscape in the US.

Taobao.com - Main Site

Taoboa.com (blue line) vs. Baidu Statistics (red line)

Taobao Mall - Sub Store example

Taobao - Product Page
Very similar layout to an American e-commerce site in design and layout. In this case they are selling a Pomegranate whitening milky lotion

Taobao - Shopping Cart

Taobao - Customer Registration Screens

Alibaba.com
Alibaba.com connects millions of buyers and suppliers from around the world every day through three marketplaces: an English-language marketplace (alibaba.com) for global importers and exporters, a Chinese-language marketplace (alibaba.com.cn) for domestic trade in China, and a Japanese-language marketplace (alibaba.co.jp) facilitating trade to and from Japan. Together, its marketplaces form a community of more than 32 million registered users from over 240 countries and regions. Alibaba.com has offices in over 30 cities across mainland China as well as offices in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Europe and the US. The company had around 6,000 full-time employees as of June 2008.

Baidu.com - main Baidu site

Baidu.com - even U.S. viewers is way up

Baidu Services (looks just like Google right?)

Baidu - Search Results (extremely similar to Google Search display)

Overall, a dynamic landscape for both auctions, search and e-commerce in China. As the #1 market in the world emerges how will you profit from it?

OJ Simpson - definition of brand destruction

Michael Vorel — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:28:51 +0000

Orenthal James OJ Simpson is a dead brand and that’s amazing but true (sorry Juice). I was thinking about how his life was really on a roll from a potential branding perspective. For example:

Scholarship to USC, Earned the Heisman Trophy in 1968
NFL Player of the Year in 1973, and played in six Pro Bowls.
Simpson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985
Film career in television series Roots, The Cassandra Crossing, Capricorn One, The Klansman, The Towering Inferno, Back to the Beach and The Naked Gun trilogy.
Hertz Rental Car, Pioneer Chicken, Calistoga Water, Honeybaked Hams and Napa Natural drinks spokesman
TV appearances, Sports Announcer

What went wrong?

Domestic Violence Issues
A long Criminal trial for murder murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in 1995 with questionable outcomes.
Civil Trial for wrongful death
All brands dropped OJ quickly
Canceled TV and Book Deals
IRS Tax Lien in 1999 for $1,435,484.17 in past due taxes (ouch)
Las Vegas Robbery at Palace Station Hotel Room over sports memorabilia

OJ, clearly took a wrong turn on his personal brand. At this point I wonder what brands would want OJ to be a representative. A definition of brand destruction!

Zappos Facebook Integration into E-Commerce Design

Michael Vorel — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:08:22 +0000

On Zappos today I purchased some shoes and as always was a great shopping experience.

I liked the final part of the shopping experience when they confirmed the order because they take the integration of social networking into e-commerce to heart and I believe it pays off for Zappos. I am always consulting at vastplanet with e-commerce merchants on the way they can maximize Facebook and Twitter so take a look at how Zappos does it.

This is what I saw on the Zappos order confirmation page:

What would you like to notify your friends on Facebook about?

THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING AT ZAPPOS.COM!
We appreciate your business! Your order has been received.

Click Here for More of Our Furry Zappos Customers!

Zappos.com is Hiring!
Locations include Nevada and Kentucky - USA
View Our Current Job Openings

Take a Peek Inside Zappos!
Read Our Company Blog

Tony (Our CEO) Invites You to
Follow Him on Twitter!
Follow Tony on Twitter

If You Have a Facebook Account,
Become a Fan of Zappos!
Become a Fan of Zappos

Human Behavior in Search Results - plural vs. singular matters

Michael Vorel — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:32:59 +0000

I spend a lot of time learning how people search for things on the Internet. Sometimes you can be very surprised at what you think is the obvious answer and what isn’t.

Q. How do people search for oil painting or oil paintings?

Results 1 - 10 of about 12,200,000 for oil painting
Results 1 - 10 of about 5,930,000 for oil paintings.
A. People search for a single painting since they want to solve one problem

Q. How do people search for shoe or shoes?

Results 1 - 10 of about 136,000,000 for shoe
Results 1 - 10 of about 389,000,000 for shoes
A. People search for a shoes because they want many choices

Q. How do people search for car or cars?

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,420,000,000 for car
Results 1 - 10 of about 856,000,000 for cars
A. People search for a car because they want just one

Q. How do people search for dvd or dvds?

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,110,000,000 for dvd
Results 1 - 10 of about 311,000,000 for dvds
A. People search for a dvd because they want just one

In summary, most people are singular in nature and go to Google to solve an individual problem or inquiry. However, unless you check you may be buying ads in the wrong place!

PopShops - Automatic Merchandiser for Affiliate Marketing

Michael Vorel — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:42:32 +0000

I originally posted a how to guide on using Popshops in the AffSpot.com Affiliate Marketing forum and and wanted to share with you on the blog as well.

PopShops & Grooming Lounge - Easy Merchandising Tips with datafeeds

We are huge fans of what PopShops.com is doing these days and wanted to make sure you know all about how easy it is to merchandise products. PopShops has over 37 million items in it’s database and 1498 vendors ready to integrate with Commission Junction, LinkShare, Google Affiliate Network, LinkConnector, PepperJam Network and ShareASale Affiliate Programs.

Did you Know:

100% Free to use
With PopShops you keep 100% of your commissions
Customize titles, descriptions, colors, fonts, image sizes, etc.
WordPress, TypePad and Blogger widgets
Product prices/availability automatically updated in shops
Upgrade plans to use PHP, ASP, HTML for your site or blog

The Grooming Lounge is integrated via Google Affiliate Network on PopShops and encourage you to follow these steps:
Step #1 - Go to www.popshops.com
Step #2 - Signup for an account and select the Grooming Lounge Store
Step #3 - Choose the category of product you are interested in.
Note - if you haven’t signed up for the Grooming Lounge Affiliate Program, head over to Google Affiliate Network or PepperJamNetwork!

Screen Shot - Left side is stores, middle you pick products, right side is matrix (you can choose a variety of grid options)

Grid Choice - alternating content (nice for blog, coupon site)

Grooming Lounge Vertical Alignment (smaller space needed)

Grooming Lounge Text Links (easy way to add links and copy)

The Grooming Lounge is the premiere destination for quality men’s grooming products, advice and services. Whether a man is looking for a new shaving regimen, hair product, skincare solution, gift or a way to deal with an embarrassing problem the Grooming Lounge can help. We have 3 store locations, booming catalog sales and are rapidly growing! Be Part Of A Hip Brand – As seen on TV – Good Morning America, CNN, CNBC, Fox News. Magazines – GQ, People, US, Playboy, Style, Business Week, Golf Digest, Trump, Cargo, Men’s Journal and Cigar Aficionado.

Commission Structure: 8 – 10% commission with 60-Day Commission Duration
Average Sale: $100
Coupons: YES
Datafeed: YES
Join Today: Visit Google Affiliate Network or PepperJamNetwork

Open Trademark Bidding Policy
We made a decision to allow you the flexibility to bid on Grooming Lounge keywords in the search engines. Some of you have taken advantage and had great success with it. If you haven’t already, go ahead and bid on Grooming Lounge keywords. PPC is a great way to hit $1000 in sales and boost your commission from 8% to 10%. We ask that you please don’t use our trademarks in a domain name or destination URL in anyway.

My SEO Secrets by Wil Reynolds of Seer

Michael Vorel — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:54:12 +0000

I was at a great SEO session at Affiliate Summit with Wil Reynolds of Seer Interactive. His slides from the presentation are now available and thought I would pass them on as they are excellent.

Wil covered the following and very good at SEO:

- What is Google Knol - what are the advantages of Google Knol
- How Google Knol is killing your content is King Strategy
- SEO Tools you can use from linkdiagnosis and SEO quake
- Longtail approach
- Google keyword tool
- MSN Adcenter Plug-in - use with excel macros
- Google advanced Queries
- How to get .edu links
- His personal SEO bookmarks at delicious

My 5 Favorite SEO Strategies Exposed

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ase08 affsum)