Dotbiz Blog: Free Web Content from Reuters

Fresh website content is a big thing for every online site. Now, there's a new, free and perhaps unexpected source, Reuters. Yes, Reuters, the 160 year old news agency, recently announced that it would begin offering text, photos, video and other multi-media packages to online publishers through Reuters Media Express. Not every available story will work for everyone, but free and prestigious is difficult to beat.

The content will be made available through Reuters Media Express on a metered basis, allowing publishers to use an allotted portion of the newswire’s content each month. Users will be allowed to search and view content without registration, and only require a log-in to download content from the Media Express site.

As the media industry navigates the unprecedented shift to digital publishing and online news consumption, Reuters said that it is committed to innovating and challenging conventional models in order to help publishers and expose more readers to its award-winning news content.

DotBiz Blog: The Growth of E-tail in Social Media

E-tailing through social media sites is known by most as social commerce. This sector has been growing in popularity for a number of obvious reasons. 1) Setting up a business site on Facebook is free. 2) Having Shopify set up a store for you costs $9. 3.)Facebook is approaching 1.5 million users. Together, these figures are important even if you already have a traditional e-commerce site or even if your main product is information. The increasing realization of social markets by e-tailers is why social commerce is expected to ramp up significantly during the months ahead.

Sure, Amazon.com has 270 million users and eBay has 155 million, which is why e-tailers will, no doubt, want to maintain these venues in addition to venturing into the social commerce waters. Small retailers on the Web benefit from using every option available to both drive traffic to their main store and to grow their customer base by putting their goods in front of more people.

DotBiz News: What Will Happen to Digital Rights Over the Next Five Years

Digital rights management(DRM)is a growing topic in global web conversations. According to Report Linker,analysts have identified and described the market dynamics in important segments offering promising possibilities for companies to boost their growth. The DRM market has been studied by major application segments, revealing that mobile content, live streaming video, mobile game, digital music industry and global e-book market are the basic driving forces behind the growing demand for DRM. The global DRM market is estimated to grow in double digits during the next five years. Key trends include increasing government support for a safer digital economy, growing pay TV services market, and rising digital watermarks technology. Growth in digital broadcasting, is expected to push the global DRM market to new heights.

Also, a thorough analysis has been conducted on industry players that will help provide a detailed understanding of the competitors in the digital rights management market. The full report is available online from ReportLinker.com,an award-winning market research solution that finds, filters and organizes the latest industry data.

Dotbizblog: E-commerce Sites Should Dig Deeper Into Content

One of the big trends in e-commerce is the burgeoning of content on retail sites. This goes to underscore the fact that customers, including online retail customers like to get a few tips and feel a little personality from the people they do business with. Some sites cover this base by including an onsite blog or at least a link from their site to their blog site. Others look to more descriptive copy and fun sidebars not only to woe customers to make a specific purchase, but also to keep them onsite a little longer and draw them a little closer to their brand.
Even if the site only offers an email newsletter by offering a sample copy or two, customers can actually decide to subscribe, particularly if from time to time a special discount code is included in the e-newsletter. Bonus? The e-tailer's name is in front of its customers more often and if the content is good, loyalty can blossom. Bottom line: content is king even if content is not the main reason for your site.

Dotbizblog: Good News For U.S. Ecommerce Through The Next Four Years

Good news continues for ecommerce. Recent forecasts from eMarketer project that through 2018 U.S. ecommerce will grow by 11%. Even then, the U.S. will trail worldwide ecommerce projections which top out at 15% growth. In terms of traditional retail, the U.S. ecommerce figure is three times the projected total U.S. retail growth of 3.3% for the same time period.

Dot Biz Blog: What is Jake At State Farm Saying?

Okay, I haven't posted for awhile. [Okay a long while.] I
am a little conflicted. Should this blog be actual tips
for online businesses or should I just continue to point
out weird advertising observances from time to time? Who knows?

However, for now, I have another observation. Does State Farm
Insurance want to lose female customers or fail to attract them?

Every time, I see their "Jake at State Farm" TV commercial, I for one,
am glad I am not a customer. What does anything about that commercial
have to do with getting a good deal on insurance?

For instance,
(1) Why do I as a viewer, along with any other viewers
who may actually be in the market for insurance, want to know
that the husband in this commercial is calling State Farm in
the middle of the night and that his wife, obviously a light sleeper,
is jealous?

(2) Why does the wife [who has this man for a husband] care who
the heck he is calling in the middle of the night?

(3) Why does anyone need to know that the night shift
State Farm customer service rep is wearing kakhi pants?
Does this fact instantly identify him as a man and not a woman?

(4 What does this couple's angst have do with good service or
good rates from State Farm Insurance? Since the husband is not
stranded on the roadside and his house is obviously not on fire,
this commercial simply begs the question of why the husband has
an urgent need to talk with State Farm in the middle of the night.
[Surely, State Farm has not actually embarked on an outbound calling
plan to wake up customers and potential customers in the middle of
the night.]

Aside from the several customer targets who may actually be
offended by the commercial, this :30 sec spot fails to deliver
any benefit as to why I, or anyone else should be doing business
with State Farm. I did get the fact that they have 24-hr service,
just sayin', but isn't there a better way to point this out?

Dotbizblog: Should Companies Spend Money to Show Small Children Emulating the Bad Behavior of Adults? really?

Okay, I no longer have small children, but I couldn't help but note one evening this week that two back to back TV commercials showed small tots setting very bad behavior examples. One showed a toddler repeatedly flushing a toilet including craming a stuffed toy into it. Another, I believe a Nationwide Insurance commercial, showed children acting in adult roles of impatience and rage. Really? isn't it bad enough that children often have to see their own parents acting out without having television reinforce this type of behavior?