The figures shown in the following graph based on Internet Advertising Bureau and Price Waterhouse Coopers recent analysis of the New Media advert insertion market.

I wonder if this 11% rise suggests that the new media market place will be able to stand the continual statement, re: the world entering a heavy recessional period?

From a non-commercial context I do consider what I said in a recent statement, re: government departments considering the use of such technologies - this relates to a posting I read about how the UK government are holding New media awareness/training sessions. A few years back, actually as early as 2005 I wrote a paper for one government department on the potential of RSS. It was considered as useful but needed someone to champion it / give it a chance. I called up their marketing department a year later. They said that they had tried Corporate podcasting but it had failed in their view due to inaccessibility. The key point here is the need to consider that although from a non-commercial perspective, advertising revenue is not of concern, what is just as important is the need to consider savings and the cost of paying third party agencies to produce print media that tends to advertise for example, government project successes or updates.

From a commercial perspective a lot will dependant on the type of organisations that consider value from this type of marketing / advertising. It will require clearer descriptions on what a multi-channel strategy can deliver. Maybe the fact that it track-able and had greater international reach will also help. Recently we consulted with a firm that were spending huge amounts on Pay Per click. Their backward links consisted of a single online site. In addition, although they had lots of video talking about the confidence of their medical procedures, they were not utilising multiple channels to market. Their advertising was blended, incorporating radio and print media.

What I find difficulty with is the possibility that New media is sometimes perceived to be threathening rather than complementary. In another example, Knowledge Hemispheres have contacted publication houses and suggested that their print media could be complemented with new media, for example a podcast that has special/exclusive features, advert insertion and previews or incentives for people to purchase the extended / actual print version. They also suggest a online advertising placement rate card, similar to pricing matrix typically used to sell printed classifieds.

In summary, I’m optimistic about these figures, especially in the recent development and take-up of mobile and push-type technologies. At last people are using RSS readers on their cell phones and making available corporate blogs. What we need now is for some bold companies to integrate develop mash-up strategies to ensure that they can communicate better both internally and externally - Let us also not forget the importance of subtle advertising too ! Now that is a different matter, especially with the poor reputation of pop-ups and recent surveys suggesting that sms advertising can be annoying…

Link building is the most important activity which ensures higher search engine rankings. The desired results are gained once the links are exchanged with good websites. The link building may seem to be very easy but it requires lots of research and analysis before embarking on any link building campaign. One can’t go on link exchange spree with any site in view, it requires understanding of linking partners site and possible search engine penalties which may happen in case of link exchange with irrelevant site. Typically, link building services are designed to improve your websites search engine visibility and targeted traffic.

There are basic SEO activities that can be implemented immediately:

• Develop separate pages for services
• Avoid frames and heavy flash in websites
• Add images that says the exact message (Image optimization is also a part of Search Engine Optimization
• Place a complete website site map in the footer of the website - So that the user can reach all the major pages of the website.
• Use unique title and description for each page - This will immediately help the website’s ranking, thus improving search engine result pages
• Avoid use of complex tables
• Use External Scripts such as (Java Script, CSS) to reduce the page size
• Implement headlines on each webpage. This assists in rating identifying what pages are more important than the others on the site, when searched on by search engines. NB To take advantage of this, we also recommend keywords in each page headline.
• Use keywords in the website inner pages urls, when linking or cross-referencing other parts of the web page
• Establishing http://delicious.com/ for global shared / social bookmarking
• Start a parallel blog and forum site.
• Understand the sites sub-domain strategy and implement a separate domain for related sites or partner organisations.
• Ask more related sites to link their first pages to your site, thus allowing your site to inherit ranking from these sites.

NB It is important to understand that SEO is not an instant ‘fix’ or ‘cure’ to improve low visibility sites. Content availability, associated quality and impact on respondents is variable and unpredictable. The nature of the Internet is similar to living networks, this organic penetration is what sustains a websites presence and therefore, ranking and visibility.

Search engine optimisation services can include:

• Keyword analysis
• Page optimisation
• Copywriting
• Search engine submission
• Search engine reporting
• Analytics review - Understanding and optimising pay-per click costs

I was always told never to use the term, ‘Stress testing’ when it came to assuring solution reliability and resilience.
Often user and steering groups are a great way to gather opinion.

I was intrigued by an article by Christian Rohrer. He suggests:

The field of user experience, is blessed (or cursed) with a very wide range of research methods, ranging from tried-and-true methods such as lab-based usability studies to those that have been more recently developed, such as desirability studies (to measure aesthetic appeal).

You can’t use the full set of methods on every project, but most design teams benefit from combining insights from multiple research methods.

3 Dimensions are suggested:

1. Attitudinal vs. Behavioral
2. Qualitative vs. Quantitative
3. Context of Website or Product Use

Read more from his article here.

However, what we need to understand is the various stages of development and their various inputs from participants whether they be developers/ technical or user - the latter can vary from moderate users to power user types. NB Power user types are better for pilot / trial stages.

In addition, there needs to be an understanding of testing stages for web development, for example:

1. Specify
2. Design and agree testing methodology
3. Prototype
4. Refine Prototype
5. Develop components
6. Component Test
7. Systems Test
8. Integration Test
9. Release Test
10. Pilot user test - Normally 10-20% of the entire end user population.

The article also suggests a polarity between qualitative (direct results) and quantitative (indirect).

This test cycle is an ideal application for New media deploying RSS feeds. For example, test status / project updates.

Interestingly, this area of project support or control through say, a project office could be an ideal Project / corporate podcasting application.