Pamela Parker says, “Online holiday shopping activity slowed during the Christmas week but certainly didn’t stop entirely. Traffic was still clocking in at 1.6 times the holiday baseline while conversions dropped precipitously, to only .9 times the baseline number. Traffic was especially notable on the day after Christmas, when it spiked to 2 times the baseline number. Interestingly, conversions stayed fairly strong through Christmas Eve, according to this week’s Marketing Land Online Retail Sales Report. The report is based on data from HookLogic, a company which gathers data on online... [...]

Danny Sullivan says, “Take a look at your “Following” list on Twitter. You might find some brands or people showing up there, even if you don’t follow them. If so, that seems due to either a new change or a newly noticed change in how Twitter is doing placement for promoted accounts. Credit to William Shatner who spotted this first — or if not first — has been the most vocal about it. He noted that MasterCard was showing up on the list of accounts he was following, even though he wasn’t actually following them”. Twitter Ads Make It Seem Like People Follow Brands, Even If... [...]

Chirag Leuva says, “In a span of only four years the ecommerce industry in US has grown more than double the size and is still continuing to keep the same pace of growth. From just $164 million turnover to $304 million in only four years is really huge and this growth story indicates the importance of web design focused on higher rate of conversion for online shopping and ecommerce sites. Whether it is business to customer or business to business web design is an important building block to propagate growth and boost conversion from traffic volume to business. Increasing the conversion rate... [...]

Mashable team says, “How do CEOs stay calm? A few pointers would be great — would also like to hear about personal experiences. Answer below by Jason M. Lemkin, partner at Storm Ventures and CEO of EchoSign. First, you must fake it. You cannot let anyone see you look like you are losing control. Ever. Once [your employees] see that, they will lose faith. Second, you need help. Ideally, two or three others on the management team who can really help carry the workload, so that you don’t have to worry about multiple key functional areas, at least not at an execution level. If you don’t... [...]

Chow says, “Finding a decent content strategy for your website may not be as easy as it would initially sound. Sometimes, we take a bigger issue with what the content LOOKS like.  Other times, we take issue with what the content SAYS.  These are both good, important things to worry about, and they are issues that need to be included in your strategy.  You obviously want to make sure that people can access the part of your site they want to easily, and they need to be able to find what they are looking for in a timely manner. Over the last few years, I have noticed more and more websites opting... [...]

Gina Broom says, “Content creation is such a huge slice of the Internet marketing pie. Ever had someone cut a piece of a pie, and then joke that the rest of it is their piece? When content creation does that, it’s not joking. Google updates its algorithms all the time, This isn’t news, but the changes aren’t complicated to understand, either. Basically, it’s all about providing value to site visitors. And what do site visitors want? Quality content. BAM! Just like that, you understand it”. Video Content: Super Fun! Super Effective Mark Ling’s  ’Affilorama’... [...]

Greg Finn says, “Come January 1st, there will be more than just a new year, but new opportunities for marketers as well. In 2015 Pinterest is bringing their reservation-based (CPM) Promoted Pins out of beta for all partners. This release won’t include the auction-based pins purchased on a CPC basis. According to Pinterest they are “making tweaks to the product and want to make sure we get it just right” before rolling out the auction-based ads“. Promoted Pins Set To Make Debut To All Partners, Early Data Shows Suprisingly Effective Results Marketing Land  [...]

Mellie Akalp says, “Ready to launch your own business in 2015? You’re not alone: Each year at CorpNet we see an uptick of new businesses formed in January. The New Year marks a new beginning, and what can be more fulfilling and exciting than making things happen with your own business? As a serial entrepreneur myself, I wouldn’t trade the opportunities and exhilaration for anything in the world, but I also realize that launching and running a business isn’t for everyone. While you can’t prepare yourself for every aspect of the entrepreneurial lifestyle, here are six important... [...]

Erin Hogg says, “What is on the mind of marketers today? This year, we shared a multitude of discoveries achieved in the MarketingExperiments research lab. We learned about hot topics in marketing today including responsive design, the effectiveness of green marketing and how to improve a Web form without significantly reducing the number of fields. In the MarketingExperiments Blog, we covered a wide range of topics on website optimization, testing strategies and real-world tests straight from the lab. To help aid your efforts going into 2015, read on for the most shared posts this year, indicated... [...]

Pete Prestipino says, “Search engine marketing software WordStream has launched a performance grader for Bing Ads advertisers. The tool allows Bing advertisers to evaluate the relative strength and weakness of their search advertising accounts across several important metrics including click-through rate, wasted spend, negative keywords, landing page and text ad optimization, and well as what Wordstream considers best practices for the search advertising network”. Did Bing Ads Bring the Holiday Cheer? Website Magazine  [...]