1.8 Billion and growing

The world-wide economic crisis, or Great Recession, had no effect on Internet growth. On the contrary, we see growth in all parts of the world during year 2009.

The following table shows the estimated population for each geographic region, the number of Internet users, and the penetration rate (this term means the percentage of the population that uses the Internet) in each region.

From this table, the year 2009 ends with 1,802,330,108 Internet users. This represents a 26.6% penetration rate.

Source: http://www.InternetWorldStats.com estimates for December 31, 2009. Notes: a) Population data comes from the US Census Bureau; b) Internet estimates come from ITU, Nielsen Online, GfK, official telecommunications regulating agencies and other trustworthy sources; c) Mexico is included in Central America and Turkey is included in Europe, according to the United Nations grouping; d) P.R. means the Penetration Rate, in percentage.

Copyright © 2010, Miniwatts Marketing Group.

"Social Networking" has taken over porn's top spot

Photo CreditOnline fever has everyone all atwitter. An article on Reuters highlights that Social networking sites are the "hottest attraction on the Internet", taking over the top spot long held by "porn". This is a MAJOR change in how people communicate. And, a welcome change in online users' "interests", too.

Research done by "data geek", Bill Tancer, analyzed the information of over 10 million web users, indicating that one of the major shifts in cyberspace has been a drop in the surfing of porn sites. Over the last ten years, porn searches have dropped from an all-time high of 20% of all web use.

"As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased," said Tancer. Marketers take note of such an increase in social networking.

American celebra-mania is still affecting us, though, especially in the current U.S. presidential election. Web surfers are busy looking for photos of Republican VP candidate Sara Palin photoshopped in a teeny bikini or "researching" how tall is Barack Obama vice researching any real campaign issue.

Information spreads so quickly on the internet that the speed and the "need" for instant gratification predilects fact checking, too. The old adage of "just because you see something in print, it's not necessarily true" holds for online as well. Get the facts!

Now there's a business opportunity for someone: creating an online fact-filter search engine! And, I'm sure, those whose business models somehow combine porn and social networking are even happier with the survey results. They win either way.

So how popular are social networks worldwide? According to Synovate's survey, 42% of us are using social networks (like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn). The other 58% have no idea what we're talking about.

The survey was conducted over 13,000 internet users ranging from 18-65 years of age in 17 different global markets. Countries with the largest understanding of social networks? Holland 89%, Japan 71%, U.S. 70%.

Interesting factoid: on average only 26% of the users were actually using social networks. Holland 49%, United Arab Emirates 46%, Canada 44% and U.S. 40%.

Lots of people are uncomfortable giving their personal information online. Only 26% of all users surveyed , as a matter-of-fact. The highest fear rates: Serbians 71%, India 57%.

According to Synovate's Sr. VP, Bob Michaels, identity theft continues to be a major U.S. problem. Another growing issue is online defamation — posting negative and/or false information about someone online — so people are becoming more and more careful about the information they share. It's much easier to blast someone or something online if we only know you by your cleverly anonymous "handle".

So, who's most uncomfortable handing out their information? Japan and Germany both with 85%, Taiwan 83%, Canada 79%, Brazil and South Africa 77%, Poland and U.S. 70%.

And, then there are those people surveyed who think social networking is dangerous. Overall 51%. Brazilians 79%, U.S. 69% and Poland 62%.

Of interesting note, approximately 1/3rd of those surveyed claimed to be losing interest in social networking. Wonder who they are? No one I know.

From what source do you enjoy the news?

Read an 8/21/08 article from the AP By JEREMY HERRON which quoted a survey claiming that TV remains the top source of news even as online news grows. The Pew Research Center's biannual study also confirms that fewer Americans are reading newspapers.

So how does this all shake out? The younger you are, the more you tend to get your news on the Web. The older you are, the more likely you use traditional media such as TV and newspapers.

The Pew survey also shows that while there's a significant shift toward the use of online news, there's a large group of more engaged, sophisticated, affluent and highly educated people that use both traditional and online sources to get the news. Researchers refer to this group as "integrators," who spend the most time with the news on average.

This is the group that advertisers typically target which definitely helps explain why newspapers have seen ad revenues plummet as the spending shifts online.

Of those polled: 46% have a "heavy reliance" on TV for their news at all times of the day. This group is the oldest (average age 52) and least affluent, with 43% unemployed. They are unlikely to own a computer or go online for news.

Of those polled: 13% rely on the Internet for news. This is the youngest group (average age 35). 80% of this group is college educated and twice as likely to read an online newspaper than a print newspaper.

Of those polled: 25% say they go to an Internet site for news at least three times per week, up from 18% just 2 years ago.

Of those polled: 11% with just a high school education go online for news while 44% of college graduates surveyed say they read news online every day.

Of those who get some news from TV, most are opting for cable news such as CNN or Fox News Channel.

Readership of newspapers (those surveyed who said they read a newspaper the day before) has dropped to 34% from 40% just 2 years ago.

This new youth group and the shift among integrators to online news sources has led to this decline. The same trend is reflected in print newspaper circulation figures.

The scariest part of this survey? About 1/3rd of those 25 and under said they get NO NEWS on a typical day, UP FROM 25% in 1998. That's a trend going the WRONG WAY!


NOTE: The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. It polled 3,615 adults 18 years or older by telephone between April 30 and June 1, 2008 and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Do you make people search for "Search"?

80% of website visitors don't even explore the navigation links you provide on your website, they go straight to the search box. (If they can even find one!)

Do you have a search feature on your site? Does it work? Is it easy to find? Search is often the first thing people do when they visit a website.

Do you know what people search for? If you know, you can fine tune your website and site navigation to help people find what they need.

Did you use my SEARCH? If not, give it a try and give me some feedback.

Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web

At the Dec07 EG Conference, Kevin Kelly explained that The World Wide Web, as we know it, is only 5,000 days old. In this TED talk, he predicts what's coming in the next 5,000 days (10+ years). Web 3.0, machines and human consciousness irrevocably linked? Food for thought...

One more EXPONENTIAL way the Chinese will overrun the US

The number of Chinese Internet users reached 123 million at the end of June 2007, with two-thirds of them using broadband connections, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). The number of Chinese Internet users increased by 19.4 percent over the same period last year, CNNIC said.

As the number of Chinese Internet users grows, so has the number of users with broadband Internet connections, which grew by 45.3 percent over the last year. At the end of June, 77 million Internet users logged on with broadband Internet connections, CNNIC said, noting this represents two-thirds of the country's Internet population.

By comparison, CNNIC reported that just over half of Chinese Internet users had broadband access at the end of 2005.

China boasts the world's second-largest Internet population, behind the United States. However, less than 10 percent of the country's 1.3 billion population has Internet access, leaving plenty of room for continued growth.

Just wait...

Blogs and Social Networks Foster Internet Growth

Recently published in the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's Measurement and Metrics Research Blog:

Blogs and Social Networks Foster Internet Growth
While the growth in the number of visitors to the biggest brand sites has slowed, traffic to newer sites built around user participation has soared, according to comScore analysis of recent online traffic data. Between February 2005 and February 2006, monthly visitors to these sites rose dramatically. Ranked from the most to least, the sites growing the most were:

1. Blogger.com
2. Myspace.com
3. Wikipedia.org
4. Citysearch.com

Check out the full article in the Washington Post.

I recently had the pleasure of hearing Andy Sernovitz, the CEO of WOMMA , speak at the ASAE Membership & Marketing Conference. Check out their website for archives of presentations.

The Million Dollar Homepage -- Internet Marketing Phenomenon

The Million Dollar Homepage is a website conceived by Alex Tew, a 21 year old student from Wiltshire, England to help raise money for his university education. Launched on August 26, 2005, the website generated a gross income of $1,037,100 USD and has a Google PageRank of 7. The site's Alexa ranking as of January 14, 2006 is 127.


The index page of the site consists of a 1000 x 1000 pixel grid (one million pixels), on which he sells image-based links for US $1 per pixel, in minimum ten by ten blocks. A person who buys one or more of these pixelblocks can design a tiny image which will be displayed on them, and also decide a URL which he or she wants them to link to, as well as a slogan displayed when hovering the cursor over the link. The aim of the site was to sell all of the pixels in the image, thus generating one million dollars of income for the creator, which has been accomplished.

On January 1, 2006, the final 1,000 pixels left were put up for auction on ebay.co.uk. [1]. The auction closed on January 11 with the winning bid of $38,100.00. This brought the final tally to $1,037,100 USD in gross income.

Compliments of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Dollar_Homepage

Thinking of starting your own Million Dollar Homepage? Check out:
http://www.pixelprofitsecrets.com/

Especially check out Testimonials of marketing successes for the $1,000,000 Homepage:
http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/testimonials.php

Help Drive More Traffic to YOUR Web Site, Direct Mail + Web = SUCCESS

Send Catalogs! Southwest Indian Foundation is one of my favorite examples of a direct mail SUCCESS story, starting out with a one-page flyer and growing to an over 100-page catalog and webstore...check them out! They combine catalog sales and their mission for an awesome combination of superior customer/donor relations.

Catalog recipients account for 22% of web site traffic and 37% of e-commerce dollars.

Online consumers who received a catalog from any given retailer were TWICE AS LIKELY to make an online purchase at that retailer's web site. They made 15% more transactions than those who did not receive catalogs, and their spending was 16% higher. Catalog recipients made 16% more web site visits, viewed 22% more web pages and spent 15% MORE TIME at the retailer's site.

Catalogs lift sales! Catalogs play a decisive role in driving conversion (which is the % of catalog recipients who visited the cataloger's web site and made a purchase) for BOTH prospects and existing customers. In fact, the conversion rate was 260% higher from catalog versus non-catalog recipients for NEW customers and 67% higher from existing customers. Catalogs transcend deomographic groups, too. Catalog recipients across the board were more likely to buy from the retailer's web site -- regardless of household income, geography or education factors.

Based on this study, 1 million web site consumers who recieved catalogs (spent an average of $260 per transaction) versus those same number of visitors did not receive catalogs (spent an average of $224) would result in a revenue "lift" (or increase) of $21.1Million more in sales.

Direct Mail and the Web are on online partnership for tomorrow!

Source: USPS and comScore