NEWS BYTES
VeriSign reports
that 4.7 million new domain names were registered in the first quarter of 2004
-- a new record. There are a total of 63 million registered domain names
world-wide in the .com, .net and .org space.
In their report, Verisign also notes that 72% of all domain names now resolve to an HTML Webpage, up from 55% in December of 2002.
It's harder and harder to find a decent name that's available and, as the years pass, many companies will be forced to buy names on aftermarket for hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of dollars each. (Anybody want YET.com, owned by SitePoint?)
If you registered hundreds of decent domain names, park them at the cheapest registrar, and hold them for the long-term.
The question of average conversion rates and what constitutes a good conversion rate frequently comes up in discussion lists and message boards.
Fireclick Index, a company offering Web analytics solutions, allows their customers to benchmark conversion rates against each other.
The client list on which the numbers are based represents a who's-who of online retailing, giving a great average against which to benchmark.
Here are their latest average conversion rates, by category:
Catalog - 6.1%A Decade of www
February 2004 - The Internet - as we know it - is ten years old!
That was when the web's first graphical browser, MOSAIC
appeared.
Back then - less than 400,000 computers worldwide made up the world wide web.
Today? Over 170 million!
Internet Survey December 2002 from Which magazine
19 million adults in the UK have access to the Internet
Average time online is now seven hours a week
Online shopping continues to grow. Nearly 9 million people made an online purchase last year.
45% of UK users have now been online for more than 2 years
Average time online up by 2 hours, number of shopping transactions up by 1 million
The (internet) medium reaches more people, affects more aspects of our lives and is seen by seven out of ten of us as a fundamental part of twenty-first century living.
January 2003
SME's warned over technology failure
Business finance experts have warned that many of the UK's small firms are failing to fully embrace new technology and risk falling behind in the global marketplace.
According to research by Bibby Financial Services, 70% of 300 small company owners polled said the investment in IT is key to business success, but some 54% admitted they are planning to spend less than £1000 on IT during the next 12 months.
David Robertson, chief executive of Bibby, said: "These findings should strike fear in the hearts of their technology sector, which is already struggling to maintain sales in the current volatile economic climate. They should also serve as a warning to the small business sector to raise their game in the IT stakes or risk falling behind in the global marketplace.
(FSB First Voice, August/September 2003)
Broadband in Wales
An extra £15m on top of the £100m already announced for the Broadband Wales programme, to help increase affordable, broadband access throughout Wales.
Welsh Assembly, 2003
Over a million Broadband users in UK
"The concept of a Broadband Britain is becoming a reality - BT is connecting around 25,000 people to broadband every week; the company receives a new broadband order every 24 seconds, and BT engineers upgrade the equivalent of one new exchange every day."
BT, August 2003
E-commerce popularity continues unabated
In spite of the tribulations endured by many large technology-based businesses, fresh evidence shows that smaller companies are increasing their use of new media. The latest e-commerce report from marketing researcher Continental Research shows that Internet access and company websites are on the rise amongst UK businesses of all sizes.
The report shows the trend towards e-commerce continuing in the first quarter of this year and predicts that it is set to rise still further in the coming twelve months. The survey interviewed 500 firms, half of which were small businesses and almost a third were classified as medium-sized.
It revealed that 40 per cent of all companies were involved in some kind of e-commerce activity, including taking customer enquiries and complaints and processing sales orders. This included over half the medium-sized companies and 36 per cent of the small businesses.
There was also an increase in companies setting up or outsourcing production of their own websites. 38 per cent of all companies now have their own sites, compared to 33 per cent in the last quarter of 2001 and 25 per cent a year ago. A further 14 per cent expressed an intention to have one launched within the next year.
Extract, Lloyds TSB Business News, Sept 2002
Internet use growing with SME's
One in four SMEs in the UK is using the Internet as a primary element of its business strategy, according to new research commissioned by Cisco Systems and carried out by the International Data Corporation (IDC). This figure, one of the highest in Europe (where the average is just one in five), is up by 50 per cent on last year.
by Stickycontent, August 2001
Real Stories at Success4Business.com articles
'If we had gone to a big design firm they would have charged the earth. Instead we went to someone we knew locally. Even then we thought we had made a mistake at first. The orders were thin to begin with, it took a couple of months before they started to move.' Abdul Ismail Sweet Mart, www.sweetmart.co.uk.
The Internet gives small and medium sized firms a way to compete with firms ten times bigger than themselves, an opportunity to provide innovative products and the potential to grow quickly.' Roger Till e-centre
October 2001
~ HOSTING
~ DESIGN
~ IMPLEMENTATION ~ E-COMMERCE
~ OPTIMISATION ~ SUPPORT
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~ PORTFOLIO ~ DOMAINS
~ SEARCH ENGINES ~ SEARCH
TIPS ~ SUBMITTING ~ WEB
FAQs ~