Tag: Internet

Get (or Atleast Try ) Clicky

After writing about various tools on online analytics, a good favorite is Clicky from http://getclicky.com/

It is recommended especially to WordPress users because it has a customized WP Plugin (which means all the fun without any of the code), has an affiliate referral program (it’s a tough economy !) and can help you track individual visitors with a great deal of analytical value.

You can view the www.getclicky.com site for their own benefit list.

Short of actually building a click stream capturing application (which is quite useful for tracking and building models for web mining), clickstream data is extremely helpful in generating insights as it is at a record /visitor level and can be sliced /diced and viewed for your custom insights.

As for building automated models using web data, their is another software from Kxen (www.Kxen.com). They have been around for some time , though losing out on a couple of big chances , but their web scoring module is definitely worth a dekko.

Future Online Advertising Revenue Sharing Models

Imagine if one company had control to 60 % of all advertising in other media channels like Television ,Newspaper or Radio throughout the globe.

Given Google’s current dominance of the online Online Advertising revenue, there are likely to face significant anti trust operational risk within the next three years.Especially if they continue to play hardball on Uncle Bill from RedMond like the one they did with botched Yahoo -Microsoft deal.

The current model of pay per click for Adwords and earn per click for Adsense is unfair to both content generators and online advertisers leaving them vulnerable to  Google’s algorithms trying to cope with increasing click fraud perpetuated systematically.

Future  Online Advertising Revenue Sharing Models could include –

1) Pay per impression or time spent on site for content generators getting a higher weight age for  content generators and Pay per actual purchase for Adwords/online sales.

This removes the cost per milli (C.P.M) model to cost per customer model for advertisers which is only fair.

2) Enhanced social network and Instant Messenger advertising- If blog owners can make money from popular blogs,emails can contain ads , why can’t social network users on myspace and Facebook and orkut make some money atleast from people visiting their pages/profiles.This may involve some discreet ads below posts /messages.

This can only boost Google’s revenue in the long run and be good for the whole industry also.

3) Text Ads to Banner Ads – Banner Ads /Flashier Ads to actually increase appeal on online plain vanilla text ads. Also include some flash ads in all You Tube or Video content. This content /ads will be priced much differently and distinctly than treating it as just glorified text ads like it is treated currently. It could also create a new wave of new media advertising creative professionals savvy in Silverlight and Flash.

4) The 100 $ limit for adsense – Google really should disclose to investors how much money it owes to people for the adsense revenue below 100 $ as the long tail on the Internet can be very very long. Why have a limit on the internet anyways especially if the adsense customer is willing to provide electronic transfer details or Paypal equivalent payment transaction details, then those limits should be much lower as transaction costs per unit transaction would be lower.

What prevents Microsoft from launching a lower priced alternative to Adsense/ Adwords really beats me !!

5) Offline advertising/Microsoft moves – Imagine ads on your windows desktop like any other software supported by ads. Lets say Office without discreet ads on right hand side comes for 250 $ and Office with ads comes for 100 $ lower .(Assuming lifetime value of a customer to be  100 $ here). Tying ads to sell more Vista ?!!!Might just work.. 🙂

The online ad world is  ready for price wars —-as economies slow down, advertisers demand better bang for the buck from media partners and competition ready to heat up in the lucrative online ad world.

Virtual Networking- Linkedin as a Case Study

I am Ajay Ohri,from Delhi ,India and I have been on Linkedin for almost a year now. I got an invite from an American client of mine who became friends with me. LinkedIn seemed a great way to keep in touch. As a data mining and analytics specialist , I was part of the SAS , SPSS and R groups (technical email groups in data mining). But something was missing. Thats right..the interactive touch that Linkedin increasingly provided. I have now 2580 contacts, get atleast 8 invitations every day , have 11 recommendations from professional collegues and have best answers in 2 questions .( ok, I am bad at the questions). These are some of the things I found help me grow my network and gain a lot by devoting 15 minutes of my time to online networking everyday.

1) Put up a nice professional photo – It helps people who have stumbled on your profile with a good impression.

2) Put all the companies and schools you have been to. Complete your profile. Then use the search feature to build up initial contacts.

3)  Ask and get atleast 1 recommendation per company. That should not be hard if you are a good  worker whom people remember.People with more recommendations are trusted and get more invites.Give honest and credible recommendations yourself.

4) Answer atleast one question a day belonging to your domain. Or Atleast ask 1 question. Ask atleast 1 question a week. That helps build up your noticeability.

5) Be an open networker- If you are open to sharing your email address (which is any ways available with a lot of people) you can be an open networker and join the Open Networkers and Linked In Open Networkers (LIONs)

6) Publicise your profile using the public profile feature. Use the link as an email signature.

7) Try and learn more about your area of work by going through questions. It helps build up skills. Accept all recruiters invites. They and your enhanced skills will help you in a rainy day in a tough economy.

8) Be humourous in your profile message (eg Ajay Shrugged …or Ajay is changing the world one mega byte a time). People love to network with humourous people.

9)Be sensitive to cultural differences when answering questions. Eastern and Western cultures think differently about what is private, public and what is rude.

10) Have fun doing this. Otherwise if it becomes a chore , like mowing the grass, it will remain unattented to and you will miss out on the free benefits of Linkedin.

11) Pass on forwards to help other people get jobs or get in contact. This will establish you as a good person to stay linked in too.

12) Join as many groups and associations that you find interesting. Start from your school alumni groups, then with groups of your friends and so on.Found a group. I founded two Decision Stats for data mining and statisticians and Creative Destruction for lateral thinkers.

Linked In help me get a contract for my firm, numerous inetrviews,domain specialists for technical help, and friends , and fortunately Linkedin allowed me access to fabulous people who did that.It helped me learn a language called R , which is open source and helped me give ideas to make two websites www.iwannacrib.com and www.decisionstats.com. Above all it gave me 2580 acquaintances whom I can fall back on in tougher times. Collectively they do help make a difference.

All the best for your online social networking. If Bill Gates can be on Linked In after retirement, then why can’t you ?

Surprising Hi5 and networking within social networks

Recently I visited my old account at Hi5 and was extremely surprised at the changes.


1) Much cleaner layout

2) and a lot of good looking applications (minus the Facebook Application Spam) with familiar faces from Rock You etc etc.

I guess the Google Social API seems to be working. Which leads me to ponder , since most people prefer to visit atmost 2-3 social networks , and will soon  have the ability to port material across social networks,

could there be a new wave of IPO’s and mergers and acquisitions in Social Networks to capture and consolidate audiences.

Much will depend upon Google itself (as it tries to lift the whole internet advertising industry all alone with a potential Yahoo deal)  or the Return of the Sith from Redmond who could buy , bully and  bludgeon their way into the new web 2.0 especially with Rich Internet Applications (like Silverlight from Microsoft coming) and Google facing anti trust scrutiny for a change.

Watch this space! Till then play Triumph on either My Space or FaceBook

 www.hi5.com

Facebook has a cool change !!

After a rather big series on outsourcing, we are back reporting on technolgy.

Facebook now has chat available between contacts.

Yes it is quite light and fast.

No you might not voice chat as of now.

Yes the design is much better than Gtalk, Yahoo, Skype,Hotmail combined.

facebook-chat.GIF

I uploaded my entire Linked In list (2500 contacts ) (using export CSV function in Linkedin and upload contact file in Facebook) and sent them a facebook invite.

With a 10 % response rate and luckily 0 % no complaint rate  , I aim to chat with some of the top 250 professionals I know of, besides some fast aging batch mates.

Web 2.0 is cool ,huh !

Ning with the Xing

Recently created a social network on www.ning.com.The site is quite cool , as it allows you to create your own social networks.

It has features for blogs,forum,ADS,rss and even Open Social Gadgets. You can view my bad attempt at creating a social network here …http://startupsindia.ning.com/

If you plan a more commercial venture the rates are even more decent,from the Ning Site

”

Run ads on your social network
You can use any ad serving service you’d like. You can also use this premium feature to protect your social network from showing any ads at all.
$19.95 per month
Use your own domain name
If you own your own domain name (also known as a URL or website address) and want to use it for your new social network, you can.
$4.95 per month
Remove Ning promotional links
This will remove the “Create Your Own Social Network” button from the top of your social network.
$7.95 per month
Increase your quota
If you are concerned that your new social network will exceed 10GB of storage and 100GB of bandwidth, you can purchase more storage and bandwidth from us.
$9.95 per unit per month

 ”

And I got interviewed on my views at another much better Ning Network called Analytic Bridge. You can view the interview here .And post comments .

http://www.analyticbridge.com/group/interviews/forum/topic/show?id=2004291%3ATopic%3A11703

Web Forms through Internet:FREE

That is corrct. Thanks to Google Docs, you can create a web form like a spreadsheet, share it with some people, and voila ..its like web form through the internet.

Possible applications:

DATA COLLECTION from multiple sources, then aggregate,download it ,import  and submit it to SAS,SPSS or any statistical software.

OUTSOURCED ON THE FLY Data Entry.

ONLINE SURVEYS also become more easy, given widespread usage of Gmail. I can create a form, short survey send it to all people in my egroup and then collect the results.

“””

Go to http://docs.google.com/

and follow the instructions for creating a web enabled form that collects data into a spreadsheet.

http://documents.google.com/support/spreadsheets/bin/answer.py?answer=87809&hl=en

Features: Creating forms

Print

You can create a form from any spreadsheet. Just follow these instructions:

  1. Open a new spreadsheet.
  2. Save the spreadsheet.
  3. Click the Share tab.
  4. Under ‘Invite people:’ choose the radio button to fill out a form.
  5. Click Start editing your form… In the form template that opens, you can add any questions and options you’d like.
  6. Click the Next, choose recipients tab. Here, you can add email addresses, a custom confirmation message, and choose whether you want people to see the responses.
  7. When you’re finished, click Send.

Here are some additional tips:

  • If you’ve edited a form and need to send it again, click the Edit and resend button in the lower-left corner of the Share tab.
  • To see the results of a form, open the original spreadsheet. It’s a good idea to use the same name for the form as your spreadsheet, so it’s easier to find.
  • To turn off a form, go to the Share tab of your spreadsheet and click Turn off form in the lower-right corner.
  • Remember, the spreadsheet row, cell and column limits apply to the spreadsheets attached to your forms too “””