E-Commerce is bigger than online shipping

E-commerce doesn't necessarily mean online shopping; as Gartner analyst Adam Sarner said, "J. Crew knows that someone going to jcrew.com is 27% more likely to visit a J. Crew store soon afterwards. The Web is a powerful influence."

"'Click-and-mortar' stores are really starting to understand that they must have a consistent and crisp user experience all the way through the site," Jilk said. "It's not just the credit card page that matters. It's not just a store -- it's also a research tool."

Click here for the complete ECommerceTimes story.

Paid versus non-Paid Search Results

Does it matter? Of course it does, but a new Pew Study seems to show that just one in six Web searchers can understand the difference between paid search results and results that are ordered on the basis of relevancy or link popularity.

What does this mean?

For one thing it means that you can buy traffic, but that might not last and the numbers are a bit confusing.

Twenty percent of Internet Surfers fully understand the difference between paid ads and link popularity results. Another 20 percent are fuzzy on the distinction. The rest appear clueless.

Ironically, the far majority of Internet surfers expect the distinction to be clear - a surprising fact since the distinction appears unclear for most. Most analysts blame this on the newness of the Internet for so many users.

Overtime, as users become more sophisticated, marketers should expect those users to become more interested in relevancy, rather than ads. Nonetheless, the Pay-Per-Click model is a useful Internet marketing tool, especially in the short term

Click here for the complete Wired article

Microsoft adding pay-per-click?

There is speculation that Microsoft will also be adding pay-per-click to its search services. It's not really that surprising since the model has become a huge portion of Internet marketing budgets.

While I do like pay-per-click marketing, and I do sometimes use pay-per-click results, I think it is too often used in place of organic search, rather than as a complement to organic search.

Many feel they just don't have time for organic search, or they don't feel like they have the required knowledge. Yet, some very simple techniques can go a long way.

More important, organic search can help you achieve more ROI with your pay-per-click program.

If you would like to find out more about using organic search in your Internet Marketing Campaigns, click here.

Video blogs are coming on strong.

Many analysts are starting to think that vlogs, or video logs are the next big Internet thing.

With broadband in more than 40% of online U.S. households, streaming video is now accessible to "the people".

Vlogs are no different than blogs, it's just that their focus is video rather than text, and the opportunities are unlimited. Obviously indie filmmakers are one of the first groups trying to exploit this medium, but how to videos and more also gaining popularity.

Microsoft's Channel 9, attracting 900,000 viewers per month offers interviews and demos for its software-developer community.