Why Yelp is the Digg of local (05/7) | SEO Advice
The other day, I tweeted “I should be able to ban anyone who rates Applebee’s 4* from ever influencing a Yelp result for me.” that sentiment touched a nerve among my followers. Shervin Pishevar of Menlo Ventures coined it “ The Agrawal-Applebee Law”.
Although it was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek tweet after a particularly disastrous eating experience (not at Applebee’s), it reflects a core consumer problem with Yelp: there is little personalization. Yelp is Digg living in a Facebook and Twitter world. (I documented Yelp’s problems for local advertisers earlier.)
Yelp is still the best source for restaurant and nightlife information in the country thanks to its large database of reviews, but it requires users to do too much work to get information. As with Digg, a tiny group of users provides all of the content on the site. As with Digg, the barriers to participation are too high for casual users. Like Digg, Yelp’s traffic is driven by SEO. and like Digg, Yelp has failed to show any meaningful innovation in the last several years.
Many consumer decisions are based on tastes. A 4-star restaurant for one person may be a 2-star restaurant for another. something that is the pinnacle of dining for one could be stuffy, pretentious, and overpriced for someone else. I only eat at Pizza Hut or the Olive Garden when I’m really desperate, but those are special occasion places for my parents. I won’t take them to the places I really like to go because I know they would feel uncomfortable there. (I’ve tried.)
Yelp’s default searches make it hard to distinguish between the nice casual places and the truly outstanding restaurants. I’m in New Orleans this week for Jazz Fest and had a wonderful lunch at Satsuma Cafe, which is rated 4 stars. I paid less than $10 for lunch. On Sunday, I’ll be having brunch at Arnaud’s Restaurant, which is rated 3 1/2 stars on Yelp and will likely cost more than $40.
There’s no way that these two places are even remotely comparable. Satsuma is a very accessible place. Arnaud’s is expensive and one that many would consider a bit pretentious. Someone who rates Applebee’s 4-stars is unlikely to appreciate what Arnaud’s is; their opinion is irrelevant to the type of place Arnaud’s is.
Yelp has a lot of data that it doesn’t seem to be using:
- The distribution of ratings by a given rater. I’m a tough grader (as regular readers may have noticed). if I rate something 5-stars, that’s a really big deal. Others give away 5-star ratings like candy. Individual distributions should be factored in.
- Ratings of similar places. different types of venues should be grouped together, not sorted against an arbitrary scale. I can appreciate a great dive bar like Zeitgeist, but it’s not the same as Press Club.
- Anomalous reviews. if someone regularly reviews low-end places and than has a review at a high-end restaurant, that review should be downweighted versus someone who regularly eats at high-end restaurants.
Yelp can improve dramatically based on the data that it already has.
But it’s missing key pieces of information to make the best recommendations for users: the interests of the reader. more than half of Yelp’s traffic comes from SEO, and Yelp doesn’t know anything about those users, so it has to serve them the same generic content that everyone else gets.
Yelp optimized its site for SEO. There’s a reason that it focuses on long-form reviews with lots of words: It’s great for search. in its S-1, Yelp touted that “We feature full-text reviews, providing detailed, searchable information about local businesses with greater depth of content than most competitive offerings” and that those reviews contained an average of more than 100 words. Yelp’s claims are similar to newspaper restaurant reviewers who looked down on Yelp because they provided higher quality. (The “100 words” stat likely includes the portions of the review spent talking about being dumped by the girlfriend at dinner or the horrible day at the office, which seems to be a staple of many Yelp reviewers.)
Although some mocked Google’s purchase of Zagat as the equivalent of buying Encyclopedia Britannica to fend off Wikipedia, as long as Yelp follows a publishing model, it’s just another point on the same spectrum.
Local needs a low-friction, low-effort way to get recommendations. It needs a model similar to that of Netflix, where each rating is personally relevant, not universally irrelevant.
But that requires scale of data that Yelp doesn’t have. for that reason, companies with real data on their users, such as Google, Twitter, Facebook, and American Express will eventually eat Yelp’s lunch.
[Image credit: Tony Bowler/Shutterstock]
Bulk Email Marketing – Deliver Mass Email to Generate Mass Profits
Bulk email marketing can be a very useful way of making money by using nothing but an email list. An effective list will be built on a foundation of trust between you and your subscribers, and this will ensure that they are interested in any related product you promote. There are many ways you can use to turn a large mailing list into cash. This article will outline some of the most popular ways to go about bulk email marketing.
Bulk email marketing can be particularly interesting to other advertisers who want to reach the target audience that your subscribers belong to. Depending on the size of your list you can offer them a varying price in return for ad space in emails you send out to your subscribers. you may also want to earn an income offering product reviews to such advertisers that you can send out to your subscribers to read.
Perhaps the most common bulk email marketing technique is to join a number of affiliate programs related to your niche so that you can earn commissions on sales you refer to a particular product. many Internet marketers with large lists make a high amount of sales each day and this can result in a very substantial income. It's important, however, to recommended only products you have some level of personal experience with. if you blindly promote products of poor quality and tell your subscribers that they should purchase them, then your subscribers will lose trust in you very quickly.
The most effective way to use bulk email marketing is for promoting your very own products. This is because your subscribers have already come to trust in the information you have to offer for free, and will know exactly what they can expect from one of your products. you can offer any product of value to list that can be delivered digitally - although by far the most common are e-books and instructional videos. if the product you offer is of a high quality then this will strengthen the relationship you have with your subscribers even more, and this can develop into repeat customers to make your business much more profitable in the long-term.
There are many other ways you might use bulk email marketing, but the important thing to remember is to build and maintain subscriber trust by first providing quality free content. This will ensure increased interest in any promotions you run, and will result in a much higher income.
Online video, mobile and social media drives record UK online ad spend (04/5) | Social Media Advice
Allan Swann Published 03 April 2012
Online video, social media and mobile advertising are proving to be winners for advertisers struggling in the downturn, as online display advertising passes £1 billion for the first time.
If you think online video ads are already annoying, prepare yourself as its only going to get worse. Video advertising has been doubling year on year and is only getting more popular, Facebook ads are also on the rise while the nascent mobile advertising industry is starting to kick into gear, according to a new report.Advertising on the internet increased by 14.4% in 2011 to a new high of £4.78b according to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau's expenditure report, conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. this is a rise of £687 year on year, the biggest rise in five years. Tim Elkington, director of research and strategy at the IAB believes that advertisers are increasingly drawn to new media as consumers become more connected.
"Online and mobile advertising have experienced staggering growth since this study began in 1997. The 2011 results are full of breakthroughs for digital; with online display passing the £1billion barrier for the first time, proving that advertisers increasingly recognise the central role that online plays in their marketing campaigns."
As any website owner knows, the big driver of advertising revenues is banner display ads and other embedded formats. Growth here was fuelled by richer ads that spiked display ad spends by 13% to a high of £1.13b - up from £945m the year prior.as bandwidth expands and consumer's internet access speeds grow, so does the opportunities for advertisers in the video segment. Formerly a niche area of online advertising that could cripple the user experience for anyone using low end computers, video advertising has come into its own.
A recent Nielsen survey proved that UK consumers are voracious video consumers online. of the 38.5 million people online on their PCs in February this year, 27.3 million viewed streamed video content. according to the IAB, 40% of marketer respondents plan to use online video to increase brand awareness in next 12 months.
Video advertising now accounts for 10% of all online display advertising, and expenditure on online video doubled year on year to £109 million (£54 million in 2010). The format has grown more than eight-fold since 2008, when video spend was just £12 million. Advertising on mobile devices saw similar growth, booming by 157% in 2011 to a new high of £203million. this reflects the UK's 50% smartphone ownership rate, and the proliferation of touchscreen technology (such as iPads).
Touch screens have revolutionised advertising, as IAB reports that 27% of respondents claim they are more likely to interact with ads because they have a touchscreen.
The expansion of mobile device internet speeds through 3G (and the soon to be launched 4G) has also sparked a surge in interest from brands, especially in the Retail and Consumer Goods (FMCG) sectors (see table below).
The UK remains addicted to social media, with social networks accounting for 27% of all the time spent online in the UK in 2011.according to Comscore, 38% (18.8 million) of the UK mobile audience accessed social media via a mobile device in the three months up to January 2012, an increase of 35.6% year on year. Banner ads on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn increased by 75% in 2011 to £240 million - an eight-fold increase since records began in 2008. Anna Bartz, strategy manager at PwC believes that the results reflect the continued appeal of digital media to advertisers.
"this year's results reflect the continued appeal of digital media - on desktop, mobile or tablet - to advertisers for both brand advertising and direct response. all formats grew, with strongest increases in video and social media, and in search. Internet ad spend's 14.4% growth is exceptional when compared to an estimated advertising growth of less than 2% across all media in 2011."
Despite the growth of in-site advertising, the kingpin of all online advertising remains Google. IAB's report showed that search marketing is proving to be recession-proof, accounting for 58% of all online advertising spends. this segment grew by 17.5% to £2.8b up from £2.3b in 2010.
Classified ads grew 5.2% to £785 million from £751 million in 2010. however, consumer and B2B Classifieds (property, cars, holidays and B2B), reached the half billion milestone for the first time at £509 million (£485 million in 2010).
Top industries by share of online display ad spend in 2011
Finance 15% Consumer (FMCG) 15% Retail 12% Entertainment & the Media 12% Technology 9%
Realizing The Real Assistance Of An Ad Center Management (04/2) | Social Media Advice
Utilizing adcenter management, most institutions and firms are able to attain their ideal consumers right at there own place without losing so much of their precious time. From their exact spot, they will be able to keep in touch with the right customers that they are trying to find. The other way around, every potential client can easily locate these companies of the bests that are ideal for their business.
In the world market, competition continues to rise in relation to promotional pursuits and applications. some have come to thrive and stay harmoniously among other rivals. But there are entrepreneurs who really fight to go forward and be contented.
Adcenter management has solid targeting functions that may help every person to seek out what they desire. This will assist every person to identify every search items and concentrate on it. It is similar to an online assistance which permits advertisers to publicize great and strong ads for a special events and programs. Ad center management is the perfect option for your advertising needs.
Geographical marketing in the local market best works with the help of an adcenter management. This net based support will help make every institution stop wasting their money from paying inexperienced IT staffs with minimal results. with this particular device, everything about internet marketing will be catered fine and well
A short while ago, all individuals are anticipating for this type of web based assistance. you have no reason to ignore this one. you might be getting worries on this issue if you are not yet engaged with it. But when you try to avail of this web based support, you really can say that it is great and is advantageous above all other manual marketing techniques.
There can be more choices to take and there may be lots of offers that you can meet along the way. Checking the capabilities of an adcenter service provider is the best thing that you have to conduct. you need to recommend to some trusted resource person and comments in order to be led accordingly.
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Email offering takes small steps for greater results (02/1) | Email Marketing Advice
"What has been in place, for email, has been a system that doesn't take consumer data into account. It's been Brand a telling Publisher B to send out a message," said Lynn Dalsing, Director, Marketing Communications, ividence. "We feel that doesn't serve the market. Our platform works for the advertiser and the publisher by offering controls and sending relevant messaging to consumers on those lists."
ividence is a stand alone email exchange targeting certain groups within a list to maximize campaign ROI. the platform uses behavioral targeting so that brands send fewer emails overall with a higher campaign ROI because of the relevance of the messaging. using the platform advertisers determine who is opening emails and the type of campaign - Cost Per Open, Cost Per Click, etc. - meanwhile publishers obtain control by accepting or rejecting advertiser offers. Publishers also determine how often emails are sent.
"Essentially our system takes a 'bid' from an advertiser and determines who to send messages to based on past behavior and campaign goals," said Dalsing. "This enhances ROI for advertisers and for publishers rather than sending the same message to every list member, certain members are chosen based on interest levels increasing their revenue."
Tags: email marketing, email tools, email trends, ividence
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