WebProNews

Bloggers Battle Over Sponsored Conversations

A Forrester report released yesterday kicked off once again the debate over paying bloggers to write about products and companies. Blogging purists, new media marketing experts, and Google’s Matt Cutts have all weighed in, indicating this is hardly a debate that will soon be put to rest.

People Don't Trust Your Blog

Forrester Research has released a report (you must fill out a form to get it) that details how much people trust different information sources. At the top of the list is email from people they know. At the bottom are company blogs. This is precisely why company blogs should be treated more like emails to friends.

Continued Growth For Online Advertising

Online advertising will continue to grow despite economic woes according to the latest analysis from eMarketer.The majority of analyst firms expect to see spending growth for online advertising to continue to show double-digit increases in 2008 and 2009.

More Holiday Shoppers To Go Online To Save

U.S. online retail sales this holiday season will reach $44 billion, a 12 percent increase over last year and the slowest growth rate to date, according to Forrester Research.Consumers are pessimistic about the state of the economy but they still have a significant interest in the ability of the Internet to save them money. Forty-eight percent of consumers, compared with 41 percent in 2007, said they can find the best values and deals online.

RSS Adoption Not Reaching The Levels It Should

RSS feeds are not catching on like some of us thought they would. New data from Forrester Research indicates that only the slim minority of consumers are using it, and furthermore, a great deal of those who don't have no intention of doing so in the future. When Forrester asked if people currently use an RSS feed:

Web 2.0 Spending Set To Take Off

Enterprise spending on Web 2.0 technologies such as social networks, blogs, wikis, widgets and mashups will increase over the next five years, growing 43 percent each year to $4.6 billion worldwide by 2013, according to a new report by Forrester Research.Forrester says that Web 2.0 technologies represent a new way to connect with customers and employees. Large companies such as General Motors, McDonald's and Wells Fargo have all used these tools and 56 percent of North American and European companies consider Web 2.0 to be a priority in 2008.

Online Holiday Sales Grew 29%

Sales volume and the number of transactions conducted at 10 of the largest U.S. online retail Web sites increased 29 percent during the 2007 holiday season according to the Chase Paymentech Pulse Index.

Online Video Ads May Be Worth $7 Billion By 2012

Ask the average person about ads, and they’ll think of television commercials.  Mention computers, and they’ll move on to text ads.  But a new report from Forrester Research suggests that video ads deserve attention, too, because as much as $7.1 billion might be spent on them by 2012.