Rock You, Rock On

Widgets are not just a MAC thing they are any mini digital application.

RockYou is one of the most popular widget developers and is to launch its own ad network on its site.

Its rumored that they are making $20cpm in the application imstallation page, which goes to show you can monetise free content.

Facebook have in excess of 32m users but with most of those users visiting rockyou the merger over to their new networking platform may be a breeze.

Facebook Closes In On MySpace

More people searched for Facebook in the UK last week than for MySpace. According to stats at Hitwise Facebook yet another social network is closing the gap on its rival.

Recent stats from Nielsen//NetRatings also showed faster visitor growth for Facebook, with MySpace's UK visitors falling by 300,000 in May.

So how can you take advantage of the Facebook craze? If you are a retailer why not start off your own group and become the authority on a certain subject. If you promote this from your own site you can allow your users to create the viral buzz which will generate signups to your group.

Remember users have short attention spans, so keep content short and relevant.

Abandon That Trolley

Marketing Sherpa and Webcredible surveys recently released stats on shopping cart abandonment. It's estimated some 60% people abandon their baskets, with 48% of that happening at the point of checkout.

Problems with the checkout process constitute the single biggest loss of revenue for many e-commerce sites, suggesting that there is much room for improvement for etailers.

Here are the top 6 reasons for leaving a basket.

Hidden charges at checkout - 36%
Be clear about all your pricing, the consumer is very aware if you are trying to hide it!

Register before buying - 31%
Keep registration down to a minimum, afterall people tend to shop online to save time.

Comparison shopper - 30%
This is probably more applicable to electronics or high price items. Think about adding in a comparison element to highlight your price V competitors. Remember if competitors charge delivery and you don't - add those into the comparison.

Shipping cost too high - 27%
Think about free delivery incentives. Consumers do not think about operational costs of online, therefore presume delivery charges are lower if not free than making a trip to their local highstreet/mall.

Product out of stock 16%
Consumers should only ever be able to put items in their basket which are instock, so be sure you only promote those. Figleaves is a great example of intelligent selection where by they track your size and very quickly tell you if a product is unavailable in your size.

No clear delivery details - 13% & No phone number provided 9%
Creating a brand online relys on more trust than your highstreet counterparts. Be upfront about all your details.

The other reasons were;

Checkout process to long - 9%
Uncomfortable with buying process - 8%
Shopping cart technical problems - 8%
Price was too high 6%
Product wasn't what i wanted - 4%
Payment issue/ Site didn't take my sort of card - 2%
Other - 7%


All the above are about usability, so we recommending employing a good usability company to test your site and checkout process to highlight issues. Don't just rely on your technical team, sometimes you can get too close to a website and be blinkered to problems.