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It seems over the past three months - each week we found something worth bringing to others attention about E-Marketing and E-Commerce. Stories ranging from E-Commerce startup tips, radical transparency, and hidden Intranets. I have enjoyed this project much more than other "final papers" - It gave us a chance to document happenings in the E-commerce world as they occurred. Although this isn't my first blog (check out coleorton.com/blog for juicy Apple and technology news, as well as monthly playlists of what I've been listening - plug), they can be a bit time consuming. There becomes a fine line between posting too much and posting too little. How much do you want to detail in your post versus just linking a story to your readers? You owe it to your readers to find that medium where you keep them interested - current - and up to date.

Like I mentioned above a slight disadvantage of blogging is the time you have to set aside to update your posts. I would also say that it is hard to attract readers to your view your blog - however popular blogs, such as gizmodo, engadget, digg, seem to attract their viewer virally - word of mouth promotions. If you have a good product online people are going to tell other people - which generates more hits per day. It's just hard to get that initial "buzz" around - I have yet to view the stats of this site - but I doubt a lot of people outside of this class have visited. However, the advantages of blogging is the timeliness of it. You can have immediate access via the Internet of breaking stories, products, or services you feel are important enough to share. I've sat through a couple of MacWorld keynotes that refresh themselves every 30 seconds to detail what Steve Jobs' next "bing thing" will be. Also - costs of blogs - especially this one is FREE. However, my own blog that I mentioned earlier is setup through godaddy.com, which costs me $50/year to run. So, you can set one of these up for next to nothing (especially from a corporate view).

As far as the merit of other commenting on my posts - I love it - it stirs conversation. I just wish more people did it on my own blog - it's gratifying that someone took a moment out of their time to comment rather than just being a passerby. As long as they don't completely deface your blog I enjoy when viewers leave comments (most blog sites allow you to monitor and allow/disallow comments before they are acutally posted to the web).

As far as blogging in the corporate setting - I believe my last post about radical transparency - proves that corporate blogs are indeed out there. These corporate blogs range from the Redfin real estate blog all the way to Microsoft's Channel9 blog. These corporate blogs allow their customers into the inner workings of large companies through the eyes of the people who go to work for them everyday - making customers slightly more at ease and makes these corporations less daunting and more believable.

As far as managerial advice to corporate blogs - be careful. Blogs are great if used properly. Don't allow all employees to post. Take a look at other successful corporate blogs and see what they've done to properly use blogs in a corporate environment.

And with that - this blog is complete.

The See-Through CEO

I recently read this article in the April 2007 edition of W.I.R.E.D. magazine on a topic we discussed not too long ago in class - collaborative commerce. This article takes the idea of collaborative commerce a step further into a business tactic called radical transparency - that is bearing your business secrets - online. The article details Glenn Kelman, CEO of online real estate brokerage frim Redfin, says he saved his company by stripping it "absolutely bare" on his blog. Kelman's blog began posting witty screeds about the nasty underbelly of the real estate business. His enemies got nervous - but customers loved it. "Instead of discouraging customers, being open about our problems radicalized them," Kelman says. "They rallied and started pulling for us". For more on the Redfin blog and radical transparency check out the article here.

Google Buys DoubleClick

Google is now $3.1 billion lighter thanks to its cash purchase of the controversial ad service - DoubleClick. This will esentally gives Google a virtual LOCK on the online advertising world.

The acquisition, which is expected to close sometime later this year, also will give media agencies and advertisers the ability to manage integrated search and display ad campaigns through one centralized console, Schmidt said. “The whole system will run faster,” he said. “Users will benefit from more targeted ads.”

Article Here

VeriSign to increase eCommerce operating costs

On April 5, VeriSign said it will increase the fees it charges individuals and organizations to register Web domain names ending in the .com and .net extensions. VeriSign, which controls the two most popular domain name extensions on the Internet, said the annual increase for .com will be of 7 percent to US $6.42, and that the .net fee increase will be 10 percent to $3.85.

Why?

The rate hike is a response to increased Internet traffic and DNS (domain name system) queries on VeriSign's global servers, which have increased from an average of 1 billion queries per day in 2000, to nearly 30 billion plus queries per day in 2007, the company said.

VeriSign added that, additionally, there is a need to create a better security infrastructure to protect the domain name system, and to fight back against cybercriminals and potential Internet hackers.

Article

Are websites just for Ecommerce?

A short but good read can be found below. It points out a great statistic from a recent study by eMarketer.com - 58% of broadband users who did research on a product made the purchase in a store, and not online. You may not be selling product online, but you’re definitely selling your brand.

To continue the article please click the line below, and be sure to check out the user comments:

Article

E-Comm Website Tips

Building a E-Commerce website soon? If so, check out this article on "10 Tips to Build, Manage, and Profit from an E-Commerce Website". This article just so happened to fit in nicely with our PCI discussions about a month or so ago. Some of the tips include: Promoting your site everyday, make the login process a breeze, and providing multiple payment options. I'd hate to spoil the next seven tips, so check out the article in the link below.

Click

I D Theft

A little something on ID theft.

Click for article.