New research from Media-Screen suggests that brand managers and media planners should pay attention to smaller sites with less traffic when placing ads online as large sites are sometimes less effective when it comes to results.
Conducted by Netpop/Response, this study also found that small, long-tail websites could be very advantageous, providing novel ways for brands to position ads in places where users like to see them. The results show that more interest was shown in products and brands advertised on smaller sites than on larger sites.

• 42% of sites with less than one million unique visitors per month received a healthy response to advertised products from their site visitors
• 39% of sites with more than one million uniques per month received a health response to advertised products from their site visitors

While the difference is small, advertisers looking for an edge may find this strategy worth pursuing.

Yesterday, we told you it won

Spam, Viruses and Botnet Attacks to Increase in 2007
January 24, 2007

Contrary to what Internet users would like, spam, viruses and botnet attacks are going to increase this year. Research by Postini indicates that the volume of email spam continues to grow at unprecedented rates. Can you believe that Spam accounted for almost 94 percent of all Internet emails in December 2006? That

It won�t be long before your customers will be accessing your web site from their mobile phones. They�ll be searching for resources through mobile search engines and VSEs. You may want to get your dot-mobi demain and start building a mobile web site. Look for a quickie course in creating mobile web sites tomorrow.

How close are we to simple, robust web surfing from cell phones and PDAs? A new comScore report on wireless use in the U.S. provides insights on mobile phone trends. Did you know that 14 percent of mobile users have given up their land phones completely? In fact, 33 percent say they “feel lost” without their cell phones.

With the new year upon us I thought it might be time to take a look once again at some the new, innovative, and occasionally simply silly products that fall into the As Seen on TV category. While it is easy to make fun of many of these items it is important to remember just how popular many have them have been. Retailers and wholesale suppliers ignore them at their own economic peril.

A 2006 Choice Stream Personalization Survey shows that consumers are letting down their guard when it comes to privacy. Why? They like the idea of receiving more personalized content.

This survey, conducted since 2004, provides insight into consumer desire for personalization. The personalization trend is good news for apparel retailers and wholesalers because they will be able to mine more data for targeting customers more accurately. It’s a win-win: sellers are happy – buyers are happy.

In 2006, the survey included 1,100 respondents aged 18 to 50+, 56 percent female and 44 percent male. Key findings show that interest in personalization is strong, as 79 percent of consumers indicated an interest in receiving personalized content.

Everyday, every minute in fact, it grows more and more difficult for online retailers and wholesalers to stand out from the crowd of other ecommerce websites. Each and every new website that appears, and hundreds do everyday, dilutes the pool just a little further and makes it just a little harder to attract and keep customers. Necessity being the mother of invention assures that Internet merchants and marketers are constantly creating new ways to catch shopper’s eye.