7 Growing Social Bookmarking Sites Worth Exploration

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Forecast: 1.7 billion mobile web users by 2013

If you have a website--especially a company website--and you are hoping to grow business, you might want to pay attention to this data, and take a good, hard look at how your site functions:

 

The emergence of collaborative Web 2.0 applications including social networking, user-generated content, location-based services and instant messaging will galvanize the mobile web according to a new report issued by market research firm Juniper Research, which forecasts the number of mobile web users will grow from 577 million in 2008 to more than 1.7 billion in 2013. Juniper also credits expanded 2.5/3G penetration as a catalyst for mobile web uptake, but argues that mobile operators and handset makers will have to adapt their commercial strategies to accommodate greater collaboration with other segments of the value chain if its growth projections are to become a reality.

Additional findings from the Juniper report:

• The Far East & China will represent the largest market for mobile web use, topping 415 million users by 2013, up from a year-end 2008 total of 190 million.
• The greatest potential for mobile web adoption lies in South America, while growth opportunities in markets like Western and Eastern Europe (which enjoy greater fixed broadband penetration) are more limited.
• A number of mobile Web 2.0 applications will hinge on flat-data or even free pricing, meaning industry players must seek new revenue streams.

Half hour of new Harry Potter film leaked

Thirty-six minutes from the latest Harry Potter saga appeared on an Internet downloading site, four days before its official release date.

The previous film in the saga, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, became one of the most pirated films of 2009, with more than 8 million illegal downloads being made, according to date from a report on pirate downloading websites. The film still managed to collect 934 million dollars in cinemas worldwide.

Gang...if you are in the Fun Food business, you should be all over this with business calls! No movie makes theater cash registers ring like Harry!

Social media builds biz - Video - Small Business

Clicks But No Conversions? It's the Landing Page Every Time.

Are you putting enough thought into your landing pages? If not, it's probably the main reason your conversions, or more importantly your revenue, aren't higher. At PubCon in Las Vegas, WebProNews spoke with Brad Geddes, Founder of PPC training firm bgTheory about advanced PPC and landing page optimization.

Clicks But No Conversions? It's the Landing Page Every Time.

Buying unmeasurable media

Should you invest in TV, radio, billboards and other media where you can't measure whether your ad works? Is an ad in New York magazine worth 1,000 times as much as a text link on Google? If you're doing the comparison directly, that's how much extra you're paying if you're only measuring direct web visits...
One school of thought is to measure everything. If you can't measure it, don't do it. This is the direct marketer method and there's no doubt it can work.
There's another thought, though: Most businesses (including your competitors) are afraid of big investments in unmeasurable media. Therefore, if you have the resources and the guts, it's a home run waiting to be hit.
Ralph Lauren is a billion dollar brand. Totally unmeasurable. So are Revlon, LVMH, Donald Trump, Andersen Windows, Lady Gaga and hundreds of other mass market brands.
There are two things you should never do:

1. Try to measure unmeasurable media and use that to make decisions. You'll get it wrong. Sure, some sophisticated marketers get good hints from their measurements, but it's still an art, not a science.
2. Compromise on your investment. Small investments in unmeasurable media almost always fail. Go big or stay home.

And if you're selling unmeasurable media? Don't try to sell to people who are obsessed with measuring. You'll waste your time and annoy the prospect at the same time.

Why the Best Online Marketing May Be Headed Offline

Why the Best Online Marketing May Be Headed Offline - An article talks about the emergence of QR Codes and their use in marketing and the real world.