Listen Now:

 Episode 4: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Headlines

According to a study by Outsell Inc., a leading marketing research firm, click fraud now costs online advertisers nearly $1 billion per year, with advertisers believing almost 15% of all paid click-throughs are fraudulent. Among the studie’s other findings, 75% of online advertisers claim they have been victims of click fraud. It is estimated that Google and Yahoo, the two major players in the pay-per-click market, have lost up to $500 million in revenue as a result of click fraud.

The New York Times is reporting the results of a major SPAM study. The study found that Spam messages promoting pornography are 280 times as effective in getting recipients to click on them as messages advertising pharmaceutical drugs, which are the next most effective type of spam. The third most successful variety is spam advertising Rolex watches, with a 0.0075 percent click-through rate. Major analysis for the study was provided by CipherTrust, a large manufacturer of devices that protect networks from spam and viruses.

Microsoft appears to be taking major aim at the iPod’s dominant lead in the mp3 player market with a new line of devices set to launch in November of this year. The portable audio and video player will have a screen that’s “bigger than that of the iPod video models” The units will also ship with built-in WiFi so you can download content directly to the player.

Most notably, to attract current iPod users, Microsoft reportedly plans to allow new customers to download for free any songs they have already purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they apparently believe the extra cost will pay dividends in gaining a larger share of the lucrative mp3 player market.

For small American companies, selling goods abroad can be complex and costly. At least one piece of the puzzle - offering a local phone number, and thus giving the impression of a local presence, just got a little easier.

A new company called JetNumbers allows you to pay a set monthly fee to offer a local phone number in a foreign land, which then redirects to your American phone. Callers only pay for the local portion of the call just like they were calling a local number.
The company offers several plans that can be set up directly through their website within a matter of minutes. For more information, visit www.jetnumbers.com

Controversy swirled among the blogging community last week over the creation of a service called PayPerPost.com. The website is a new system that pays bloggers a bounty to write about products and services. Companies sign up for an account, and pay bloggers when they cover their products or services. There’s no requirement that the blog run a disclosure that the item is paid.

The general blogging community is so far exerting strong social pressure on those bloggers who are found to be working with the payperpost.com system.

Wonderful Wikis - what the heck is a wiki anyway?
To understand the true power of wikis, we talk about perhaps the most famous wiki-generated site of all time – wikipedia. We also give it a test by looking up the history of ice cream. What is a wiki? about the ebay wiki

Shelley Hendricks with Arni’s Restaurants visits to tell us all about the
2006 Arni’s Charity Classic
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
The Brickyard Crossing at the IMS
call: 317/875-7034
email: shendricks@meetyouatarnis.comclick here to register online!