Making Money Online

Search Engine Optimisation consultant, Pascal Fintoni, shares his take on the latest in the world of internet marketing.

In the News

Tracking online conversations is becoming a key activity for most internet-savvy marketers and businesses. What’s more there is a direct correlation between the amount of online advertising and the ensuing online debate by consumers and users according to Adage.com. So promote online and get your customers talking.

The Google Feed Reader is now available on the Nintendo Wii, so now you can wave you arms about whilst catching on essential online information. To find out more check out the Google Reader page on the official blog.

A fascinating report from Hitwise would suggest that US online retailers with no physical presence saw an average of 64 percent of consumers hail from a search engine. I am very sure we have a similar situation in the UK.

Google’s vision for universal search was announced recently and created a lot of reaction on the web. The aim of the search giant is to ultimately search across all its content sources and offer a blended set of search results. I wonder what this might mean to our web pages’ ranking.

Mobile banking is growing in the US with an expected 17 millions users by 2010. This recent report by eMarketer will give you a taste of things to come.

Internet users aged 55+, so-called silver surfers, are set to overtake 35-44 year olds as the demographic age group representing the largest share of UK Internet visits reports Hitwise.

More information is now available to online marketers targeting women. According to a report by the BBC, women in the 18 - 34 age group account for 18% of all online Britons. More essential data can be accessed from marketingcharts.com. Or read more here.

Rave of the week…

Amazon.com recently announced it has acquired Brilliance Audio the largest independent publisher of audiobooks in the United States. The acquisition will enable Amazon to provide customers with an even greater selection of audiobooks to discover and buy.

Rant of the week…

According to the Financial Times the BBC is considering a proposal to carry advertising on its non-UK websites within the next two months. How long before we see advertising on the UK sites?

Try something different this week…

If you are looking for information on a person as opposed to a product or service you will enjoy trying out Pipl.com. The search engine trawls a number of sources then displays webpages where a person can be found, as well as photos and addresses if available. Go on try searching for your name, you know you want to…

Specialising in SEO, Pascal is a dedicated search engine marketing consultant and offers search engine optimisation consultancy services. He is currently developing a new SEO service to help exporters and international traders.

Pascal has also created successful search engine optimisation training courses that he hosts on a regular basis across the North East of England.

Search Engine Optimisation consultant, Pascal Fintoni, shares his take on the latest in the world of internet marketing.

In the News

With the growing interest in social networking and the impact of those ‘virtual influencers’, it is worth checking out an article featured in the Wall Street Journal about the rise of Reddit.com (recently purchased by Condé Nast), Del.icio.us (bought by Yahoo), Newsvine.com and StumbleUpon.com to name but a few.

Google made the online world spin around a few times with the acquisition of DoubleClick, the ad serving agency, on Friday 13 April 2007. Reported as a dangerous virtual monopoly by some, it is very likely to cause some unrest within Yahoo! and MSN.

A fascinating report by Forrester is suggesting that the demand for web design services in the US is showing no signs of slowing down. This is putting pressure on agencies which are suffering from a shortage of qualified employees in everything from copywriting to account management. A trend that we may well be experiencing the UK.

An article by eMarketer highlights interesting trends in the UK online advertising sector: 56% of UK businesses spend more than £10,000 per year on paid search; e-consultancy estimates the market for search engine optimisation services, or natural search, reached £147million in 2006, an increase of 50% over 2005.

With the rise of web video, it’s no surprise to learn that Microsoft will be launching Silverlight a player that can display Web applications on both Windows and the Mac in Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari. The download of the player will be less than two megabytes reports CNetNews.com.

Last month, USA Today re-launched its website with video, blogs, dynamic content-sharing and recommendation tools. The result? An increase of 380% in registrations since the re-launch, while its unique visitor rates have grown 21% reports Mediapost.

Just in case you missed the news: Google is bringing its online payment solution, Google Checkout, to the UK. Find out more about this important development here.

Google is still in the news with a report by Clickz which states that the search giant is tinkering with its Adwords. Account holders will now be able to set preferred per-click and per-impression costs by specifying what they’d like to spend on average.

Rave of the week

An alternative to YouTube has been launched in the UK. Called Jalipo, the company claims to be the first online market place for content owners allowing them to provide access to programmes, live shows and concerts. Made in the UK, I like!

Rant of the week

Incredibly someone agreed to waste money on research to find out that the favourite pastimes among children aged two to 12 years old group includes reading, using the computer, spending time with friends, listening to music and watching TV. How about a research on how to get children to tidy up their bedrooms? That would be more useful.

Try something different this week

Have you ever wondered how online collaboration could help you at work? Before spending money on clever software why not try Google Groups for a while to find out what it takes to manage an online group.

Specialising in SEO, Pascal is a dedicated search engine marketing consultant and offers search engine optimisation consultancy services. He is currently developing a new SEO service to help exporters and international traders.

Pascal has also created successful search engine optimisation training courses that he hosts on a regular basis across the North East of England.