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PRIVA HOSTING OFFERS FIRST ALERT
As part of its Total Managed Hosting, Priva offers our innovative
First Alert system. First Alert is a real-time error reporting
and diagnostic system that allow us to deal with a problem at
its first instance. When an error, such as a broken link, missing
image or failed functionality occurs, our system gracefully handles
the error by serving a special page to users to provide alternatives.
Most importantly, we do not have to depend upon visitors to tell
us there is a problem. We know it first! The server emails our
technicians with the relevant details of the problem, including
its exact location within the code. With such a headstart, resolution
of the problem is eons quicker.
Other hosting companies are negotiating to license this Priva
exclusive.
Here’s a comparison between Priva’s First Alert system
and normal hosting operations:
Company A: Steel Nerves, Inc.
A web development firm developed their website. A traditional
hosting firm provides traditional hosting services. When something
goes awry, SN first calls the hosting company who prepares a job
ticket. Two business days later, an engineer emails SN to advise
there’s no problem with the server. SN then notifies their
internal IT department to see if they will take a look. They also
open a job ticket. Growing impatient, SN also tries to reach the
original web developer, but turnover means an entirely new group
of technicians are unfamiliar with the website. Give them a few
business days and they’ll take a look.
Company B: Lucky Shores Corporation
A web development firm developed their website. Priva hosts the
site under its Total Managed Hosting service. Something goes awry.
Priva is first to know about it using its First Alert system,
and has completed diagnostics on server, connection and the website
coding. Priva is able to advise LS where the problem is within
a couple of hours, and what will be required to fix it.
Are you Steel Nerves or Lucky Shores? For more information,
click here.
YAHOO ANNOUNCES INTENTION
TO ACQUIRE OVERTURE. HERE COMES MSN!
Yahoo! announced their intention this week to acquire Overture.
What does this mean? Well, it means that Yahoo! will control quite
a bit of search technology, including Overture's PPC technology,
AltaVista, FAST Web Search (AllTheWeb.com), and Inktomi. So, assuming
the deal does go through, we're left with three players in the
US search engine space:
Google saw this coming. They hurried up and launched their AdSense
program, which syndicates advertisements to qualified content
providers. It was an overnight success. Reports are coming from
the SEM front lines that AdSense is generating 50-75% more revenue
than traditional networks for content site producers. Webmasters
are flocking to sign up for AdSense. Overture has no program that
an ordinary webmaster can sign up for and be online with ads within
24 hours.
Microsoft was already prepared. After the Inktomi acquisition
(remember that MSN is currently powered by Overture for PPC and
Inktomi for search) they hired an expert research team at Microsoft
Research, and have started spidering the web with their own MSNBOT.
Look for it in your webserver logs.
Prediction: MSN will drop Inktomi/Overture. Microsoft will buy
a PPC engine to complete the MSN Search offering (FindWhat is
my guess at this point).
Truth: Many of my friends in the SEM world don't believe Microsoft
can build a real natural search engine. It almost sounds like
a flashback from the past... remember that little program called
Netscape Navigator Gold? Microsoft has enough resources to outright
buy Yahoo!, but regulatory bodies in the US would make that incredibly
difficult to do. Instead, you can bet they will keep feeding money
until they have developed a search engine that works. And Google
may have trouble stopping them; Microsoft is perhaps the best
product marketer (next to Coca-Cola) this world has ever seen.
Consequence: Concentrate now on increasing visitation from MSN.
Stop optimizing for Google alone. This whole thing will happen
quickly; my bet is within a year. Google will clearly IPO at some
point within the next year, as they simply don't have enough capital
to compete if Microsoft joins the mix. As much as you don't want
to believe it, MSN is important because it will continue to be
the default homepage on all Windows installations. If 20-30% of
your traffic isn't coming from MSN, you need to re-evaluate your
Search Marketing efforts.
 SEARCH
ENGINE MARKETING: WHAT’S THE POINT?
Increasing visibility on search engines insures a stream of visitors
to your website. But it does not assure increasing visitation.
A paradox?
No. Unless you build a base of visitors, you’re pouring
visitors like sand into a bucket with a huge hole in its bottom.
What is needed is a continuous accumulation of return visitors
to build the foundation upon which visitation can grow.
For Amazon and other sites that offer products that are regularly
purchased, i.e. books and CDs, building a base of return visitors
is less of a problem. Visitors become users because they’re
frequently in the market to buy.
But what about those sites selling products or services that
are less routinely purchased? Some advice…
INDUSTRY RESOURCE: Offer content that makes your site an acknowledged
resource for information about what you sell. You may wish to
stretch a bit beyond the narrow definition of your product line.
Best Buy started out by selling appliances and electronics that
are not routinely purchased; so they became a major CD retailer.
You can similarly redefine your website by adding a content area
that is related to your product but would attract more regular
traffic.
CUSTOMER RETENTION TACTICS: Permission-based newsletters, promotions,
loyalty programs and graceful failover techniques are just four
tactics Priva has implemented with a welcome impact on customer
retention.
BANNER ADS: According to a well-publicized University of Chicago
Graduate School of Business study conducted at the end of last
year, the time between visits to a site is shortened and level
of purchasing is increased by the accumulated impressions of banner
ads, even if there is not click-through. So while banner ads have
an average click-through rate of about .7% currently, they play
an important role in motivating customers to return to sites they
have already purchased from.
If you would appreciate help in formulating a strategy to increase
visitation beyond search engine optimization, please call Jake
Baillie (Cleveland) or Michael Knab (Chicago).
Chicago: 312.337.2010
Cleveland: 216.621.4266
PRIZM INSIGHT: THE NUGGETS
YOU'RE LOOKING FOR IN THE DATASTREAM
 When
you see your first PRIZM report, you might be a bit overwhelmed
by all the information it provides – even just on the primary
report screen. It is not that the report isn't clearly
and intuitively organized. Just the opposite: PRIZM boasts the
easiest to read reports of any conversion-based software available.
The challenge is typified by one of our first customers: they
discovered that searchers used over 100,000 different search terms
to find their website – in a month!
With so many different terms demanding attention, analyzing the
data is inherently complex. PRIZM has many innovative features
to facilitate your decision-making, but we can provide some guidance
as to patterns you should be looking for.
Take our favorite example of scale model cars. Relevant search
terms can be categorized in numerous ways.
Specific vs. general: “1970 pontiac gto” vs. “pontiac”
Domestic vs. foreign: “ford” vs. “jaguar”
Muscle car vs. luxury car: “pontiac gto” vs. “porsche”
Does or does not include qualifying term like “model,”
“miniature,” or “diecast”
If you keep these distinctions in mind as you examine the data,
you’ll discover (for example) that the names of German luxury
cars – without any qualifying term like “model”
– provides the highest sales per referral (i.e. visitor
from a search engine or email campaign). In other words, you’ll
find that the top performing search phrases follow a pattern.
The pattern exists within the PRIZM results because there are
some underlying behavioral processes that explain why a searcher
of “porsche” is more likely to buy several high priced
models than a searcher seeking “pontiac” or “1970
pontiac gto”. A hypothesis might be that lots of people
wish they could own a Porsche, but only a few can… so loading
up on relatively inexpensive models might satisfy the craving.
(Substitute your own arm-chair marketing psychology here.)
The bottom line (and PRIZM is all about the bottom line) is that
identifying patterns within your search terms will allow you to
quickly discover highly useful patterns within your PRIZM results.
If you have the PRIZM service installed on your website, and
wish help in formulating strategies to make the most of its insights,
please be sure to call or email us. If you’re considering
PRIZM, learn more from our website, www.privaprizm.com
and then contact us!
Chicago: 312.337.2010
Cleveland: 216.621.4266 Seattle:
206.213.0076
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