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Why Google Outshines Yahoo and Microsoft

December 6, 2008

In the virtual realm of the World Wide Web, only three companies are vying for the top spot – Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Although Microsoft still holds the crown in terms of profits, recent events showed that Google has outshined its competitors as it monetizes the advertising and marketing opportunities provided by the internet.

Failure of the much anticipated deal.

Google continues to prosper as Yahoo suffers. The hopes of Yahoo shareholders evaporated after their recent deal with Google failed.

Knowing that Google reaps a lot from internet advertising, Yahoo attempted to divert its rival’s income to the company’s gradually depreciating funds. Such attempt was made through an advertising alliance with Google. Since the latter was obviously prospering through its series of advertising campaigns and programs, Yahoo thought that it can gain its fair share of profits without the need to take uncalculated risks posed by competing with Google.

Why did the deal fail?

Yahoo bosses assumed that an advertising agreement with Google with boost their profits and shares. Unfortunately, they were terribly wrong.

After much anticipation and hope, Google backed-out from the deal and proved that Yahoo’s persistent efforts were ineffective. While Yahoo modified its agreement in order to please some regulators, Google cancelled the agreement implying that pursuing the deal would be an attempt to “damage” their relationships with their partners.
 
According to experts, the said alliance failed primarily because the team-up didn’t achieve support from various companies and competition watchdogs. Aside from the fact that even the US Department of Justice strongly objected the team-up, many other trade and business regulators did not express their appreciation of the alliance. In fact, companies in other fields – from those in the advertising sector to those in the trade and commerce industry – also noted that they were worried.

If the deal pushed through, Google and Yahoo would have conquered the online advertising market. Being the main medium for modern communication, the companies would have gained much from the deal. The monopolization of display advertising and paid search advertising would have resulted to the dependence of other companies on them. Unfortunately, that would have led to unfair competition and online dominance.
 
Yahoo left with no reprieve…

Before its failure with its alliance with Google, Microsoft offered a takeover bid to Yahoo.
The big-time company offered $33 for every share. Unfortunately Mr. Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s founder and chief executive rejected the take-over.

Yang and his company board noted that there was no need for a sale since the advertising deal with Google seemed to be very profitable. Promising rewards to the shareholders, Yahoo now face embarrassment as its shares has been significantly reduce to just $11 now. Moreover, experts notes that although Yahoo sites are still the most commonly used internet destinations around the globe, such is not enough to generate enough profits for sustenance and further development.

They point out that the company lacks the “buzz” that it needs in order to continuously prosper. They also note that Yahoo lacks a concrete business model.

The ultimate victor – Google.

Undeniably, the scenario turns to be another success story for Google. It has successfully hindered the collaboration between Yahoo and Microsoft. Such brought much of Microsoft’s corporate efforts and funds into waste.
 
On the side, Yahoo obviously suffers from the need to find more investments for opportunities of growth and expansion. However, the sad news is that – it might lose its present shareholders instead of gaining more. Many doubt Yang’s business leadership.

Written by admin · Filed Under Reviews 

Traffic Building Techniques – Drive Traffic And Attract Visitors

December 3, 2008

In order for an online business to continue to make money, it must drive traffic and attract visitors who click on advertisements or purchase products. What methods you use in order to attract visitors depends on what kind of website you run, personal, blog, company, etc.

The basics are essential

Regardless of what industry you’re in and who your target market is in order to attract, and most importantly retain, visitors you need need to have a solid foundation for your website to stand on.

When starting out, choose a domain that fits your website; the name of your business, the genre of your blog, or your name (a psuedo-name even) will give an easy-to-remember domain for visitors.

Proper spelling and grammar are a must for visitors to return. Though a website appearing unprofessional may attract many unique visitors, they won’t stay long on the site, won’t click ads, and are unlikely to return. Most importantly, proper written language is key for information dissemination, which is why you have a website to begin with.

Internet Advertising Works!

Webmasters should never give up on traditional methods of online advertising. Text-ads (more famously, Google adWords) is an effective traffic producer when used properly. Though, webmasters may incur a high cost to use this type of advertising, usually companies only charge when your ads are clicked. Hypothetically, you will still receive visitors from people who viewed your ad, but did not click it. Just out of my experience with this system, I have seen a substantial increase of visitors stemming from adWords advertising.

A second option is to start an affiliate program. If you don’t have a large advertising budget, affiliate programs are a perfect solution. They cost nothing to start (unless you purchase a script to handle tracking) and you only need to worry about paying people if an affiliate leads to a sale. Unfortunately, this option is unavailable to most bloggers, since in order to run an affiliate program you need to have a product or service to sell.

Though primarily found on a bygone era of the internet, Web Rings and Directories are still a viable marketing solution. For the most part, the listing fees are either low or non-existent. Though compared to other advertising methods it is ineffective (resulting in only a few additional visitors a month) the low cost justifies this method.

Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Using proper search engine optimization increases your organic visitors through search engines by making your site appear sooner on search results. Essentially, SEO is about making your websites as easy as possible for search engine spiders to crawl. Having an easy means for spiders to navigate your website should be a top priority for webmasters. A highly ranked website will have links, at the bottom of each page, to the most important pages on the site. A text-based site-map should list every single page and can be quite basic as in SEO the site-map’s main purpose is to help spiders – not lost visitors.

Other things that can increase your search engine rankings are the meta tags located in the head section of your design. Properly using these tags will give search engines additional keywords to categorize your site while not affecting the visual design of your site.

Written by admin · Filed Under Marketing Tips 

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