Earlier this year, Peter Ian Cummings, founder and managing editor of XY, an online magazine, filed for personal bankruptcy. Among his assets, he listed only his $1,500 vehicle—which at times has doubled as his home—and the customer list and personal data for his publication. Surprisingly, the most valuable asset in that list isn’t the car—it’s the subscriber information. And that’s precisely what XY’s creditors have set their sights on.

But here’s the rub: XY wasn’t just any ordinary online magazine. XY’s target audience was gay youth, which included openly homosexual young men as well as willfully closeted gays. To protect the privacy of young readers who may face social and familial backlash if they were outed, XY promised to never disclose their information to other parties and offered them the option to "sign on as hiding.” For XY readers, anonymity was an integral part of the community that they paid for. ... Read more »

Nielsen Online recently released a study that found that time spent on social networks and online games is on the rise, while e-mail and instant messaging are on the down tick. According to the study, Internet users now spend 22.7 percent of their time on social networks—a 43 percent increase since June 2009—and are spending a mere 8.3 percent of their time on e-mail—a 28 percent drop since June 2009. Possible explanations?

The most immediate and most obvious is the meteoric rise of social networks. Facebook has easily gained critical mass, with everyone from your grandparents to newborn infants having Facebook pages. But not only that, social media has also been directly eating into the shares of email, music sites and instant messaging platforms. That’s because social media outlets now have these features built in. Facebook, for example, has its own chat feature and robust messaging system, which obviates the ne ... Read more »

In a world where the full significance of Internet marketing is still fighting for recognition, it’s hard to believe that another sea change is building on the horizon

. But the key to dominating a market is to get in front of the benefits before the rest of the world does. And in this way, mobile marketing and customer outreach could present some of the biggest opportunities of the century. While all of the 

following trends are still somewhat nascent, they easily warrant increased attention from online and 

offline businesses alike.

The notion of eCommerce—that is, customers going online to buy products using their credit cards—had doubters when it first hit the scene, too. Mobi ... Read more »

On Tuesday, Apple announced the release of a peculiar little peripheral: the Magic Trackpad. The smooth glassed surface touchpad is, essentially, a disembodied version of the trackpad that’s included on the latest Macbooks. The Magic Trackpad, which sits at a slight angle, just like Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard, brings all of the wow-worthy gestures—including pinching, swiping, rotating, scrolling and, of course, clicking—to desktop Macintoshes. While the Magic Trackpad is certainly novel, few journalists have gone as far as sounding the death knell for the mouse. For many, the precision and intuitiveness of a mouse, replete with physical buttons and the almighty scroll wheel, leaves little room for improvement.

But if the Magic Trackpad doesn’t supplant the tried and true mouse, which niche does it fill? In a sense, the Magic Trackpad most easily falls into the middle ground between touchscreen and the usual deskto ... Read more »

What’s in a filename? Would a website by any other URL rank as sweet? If you’re asking a search engine, the answer is a resounding "no.” The URL and file path of each web page on your site helps search engines index and rank your website. In a way, it’s a bit like judging a book by its cover—but isn’t that how you browse titles in a bookstore or at the library? You may have the best content in the world, but if a search engine never bothers to "pick it up” and see what’s inside, you won’t rank well in the search engine results pages. Here are some quick tips that will help you craft search engine friendly URLs and filenames.

Getting users to subscribe to your email newsletters is one of the top conversion goals for any type of website. Email newsletters are an enduring, intimate connection with past, current and prospective customers and can be the heart and soul of some Internet marketing campaigns. However, email newsletters can be double-edged swords. The reasons for encouraging signups for your email newsletter are equally as compelling as the reasons for making it easy for users to unsubscribe.

Why? For one, it’s the law. Anti-spam laws require that all email newsletters present clear instructions for unsubscribing. But other than federal law, it’s also better for your longterm customer relations to allow easy unsubscribing. The Nielsen Norman Group’s email newsletter usability study found that most users won’t unsubscribe from an email newsletter, even if they don’t want it. Meanwhile, they grow more and more annoyed each time t ... Read more »

The shuttering of Lala was a dark day for music discovery. The intrepid cloud-based music website allowed users to listen to virtually any song imaginable once for free—legally, too. The service was an amazing accompaniment to record reviews (Pitchfork included a Lala player with each review) and was a risk-free way for users to give new artists or albums a try without the frustration of the 30 second clips featured on Amazon and iTunes. Now that Apple bought it up and shut it down, there’s a gaping void in the music discovery realm.

That void has always been partially filled by YouTube, where many a user would upload authorized (and more often than not, unauthorized) tracks from popular artists. From music videos to pre-release singles without accompanying video, YouTube has been a destination for freebie one-off listens. Now, it looks like YouTube is stepping up this utilization and making it official.

... Read more »

Careful what you tweet—it could get you canned. At least that’s what’s apparent from the latest clash between corporate employers and their employees who use Twitter and Facebook to voice their thoughts and opinions. After tweeting that she was "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah … One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot,” Octavia Nasr was fired from her position as a senior editor at CNN. Fadlallah, one of the spiritual leaders of Hezbollah, is widely regarded in the U.S. (particularly by the government) as a terrorist. Not wanting to be associated with a terrorist sympathizer, CNN acted swiftly in their decision to terminate Nasr, who later expressed regret over her attempt to address such a complex issue in a forum that demands brevity by design, such as Twitter. Nasr later clarified that she was referring to Fadlallah’s "pioneering” positions on womens’ rights, rather than his terroristic tendencies. But by then, it w ... Read more »

What’s going on here? Are Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Overstock opening up offices in Colombia? No, the recent buzz about the .CO top-level domain isn’t because an awesome new business park in Bogotá. According to domain name registrars, .CO is going to be the next .COM. Dot-CO could stand for Commerce, Company or Corporation, according to eNom resellers. Which is precisely why you should register YourBusiness.co right now. Or so they say.

.CO certainly isn’t the first new top-level domain name to hit the scene. In the past years, we’ve seen the rise of .info, .mobi, .me, .us, .co.uk, .biz and scores of others. Yet, the only ones that have really stuck seem to be .org, .net and .com (.edu and .gov aren’t for sale). To a lesser extent, you see legitimate websites bearing the .us or .info top-level domain, but for the most part, the reign of the big three remains unchallenged by any serious contenders.

Years ago, when the iPhone was first released, Apple introduced an elegant solution for its lack of Flash support: the YouTube app. This native video viewing app allowed iPhone users to whisk between user-uploaded videos in a tidy interface that didn’t compromise YouTube’s peripheral features, such as comments, ratings and suggested similar videos. But as YouTube continued to develop, the native iPhone app began falling a step behind. For example, YouTube no longer uses a five-star rating system, a change that has not yet been reflected in the iPhone app interface.

Now, Google has regained control over how iPhone and other smartphone users experience YouTube by launching the m.youtube.com. This mobile-optimized version of the website is accessible through a mobile browser and provides mobile users a suite of updates and features that go beyond the iPhone app. Google touts the mobile version of YouTube as faster an ... Read more »