Microsoft’s websites saw nearly 94 million unique U.S. visitors, according to Nielsen’s State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report.

Among top brands in the category, consumers spent the most time on Apple’s websites, where 68.7 million visitors averaged one hour and two minutes per person, compared to 42 minutes on Microsoft’s sites. Adobe, Mozilla, and CNET rounded out the top five brands, with 24 to 28 million visitors going to their sites and spending 2 to 6 minutes each on average. CNET was the only news website among the top 5 in this category overall.

Amazon emerged as the clear category leader among mass merchandiser brands. Seventy-two million visitors, about one in three active web users, browsed the online shopping site in September 2011 for an average of 29 minutes per person.

Walmart’s followed as the second-ranked site, where 34.5 million visitors spent an average of 13 minutes per person on the site. Target, Shopathome.com, and Overstock.com rounded out the top five most visited mass merchandiser websites.

Women made up the majority of visitors to both categories of websites. More than three out of four women who were active online visited consumer electronics sites during September 2011, compared to seven out of 10 men. Women were also 7 percent more likely to visit mass merchandiser sites.

Young people aged 18-34 were slightly more likely than the general population (4 percent more likely) to visit consumer electronics sites.

The newly released data underscores the ongoing power of social media and text messaging as communication tools with the highest likelihood of getting more young Americans to vote. The polling data was made available during the same week that Generation Opportunity, which was publicly announced in June of 2011, topped a combined total of two million fans on its popular Facebook pages “Being American” and “The Constitution.”

In answer to the question of which communications tool would be most likely to get more young Americans to vote, 66% of Millennials indicated Facebook reminder messages, 58% indicated text reminder messages, 38% indicated email reminder messages, 28% indicated public service announcements, and 13% indicated telephone reminders.

“Our data underscores the ongoing power of social media and text messaging among the generation hardest hit by record unemployment and the poor economy. Young adults use these technologies daily to discuss how the economy has delayed their futures and how to manage their lives in the midst of very little economic opportunity,” said Paul T. Conway, the President of Generation Opportunity and former Chief of Staff of the United States Department of Labor. ”One message from young adults is abundantly clear – they are tired of the status quo in Washington and have lost patience with elected leaders who are more focused on their own re-elections than on fixing the issues that have put America on the wrong track.”

Generation Opportunity is a social media and grassroots organization focused on organizing and mobilizing young adults through a strategy based on social media and ground operations. Previously released data from the same Generation Opportunity survey of young adults indicated that 69% believe the current leadership in Washington fails to represent the interests of young people, 61% said they would vote based on a candidates standing on the issues or record in office versus their charisma, 57% said that in 2012 they will learn more about the policy positions of presidential candidates than they did in 2008, and only 31% approve of President Obama’s handling of youth unemployment.

2012 – Most Effective Platforms to Encourage Young Americans to Vote:

Generation Opportunity commissioned a poll with the polling company, inc./WomanTrend (April 16 – 22, 2011, +/- 4% margin of error) and select results for all young Americans ages 18-29 appears below:

• When asked, “Which, of the following, would make young people more likely to vote?” – young Americans indicated:
  • 66% Facebook Message Reminder
  • 58% Text Message Reminder
  • 38% Email Reminder
  • 28% Public Service Announcement
  • 13% Phone Call

How the Economy has Negatively Impacted the Future for Young Americans:

• 77% of young people ages 18-29 either have or will delay a major life change or purchase due to economic factors:
  • 44% delay buying a home
  • 28% delay saving for retirement
  • 27% delay paying off student loans or other debt
  • 27% delay going back to school/getting more education or training
  • 26% delay changing jobs/cities
  • 23% delay starting a family
  • 18% delay getting married

ABOUT GENERATION OPPORTUNITY

Generation Opportunity is a non-profit, non-partisan 501 (c)(4) organization that seeks to engage everyone from young adults, to early career professionals, college students, young mothers and fathers, construction workers, current service men and women, veterans, entrepreneurs and all Americans who find themselves dissatisfied with the status quo and willing to create a better tomorrow.  Generation Opportunity will continue to engage young Americans on issues that impact their lives and the nation as a whole and encourage them through both social media and grassroots organizing to become more civically engaged and make their voices heard.

Generation Opportunity operates on a strategy that combines advanced social media tactics with proven grassroots tactics to reach young Americans 18-29. The organization’s social media platforms – “Being American” on Facebook and “The Constitution” on Facebook – have amassed a total fan base of more than 2 million. Both pages post links to relevant articles and reports from sources ranging from the federal General Accountability Office (GAO), to The New York Times , The Washington Post, The Brookings Institution, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, and The Heritage Foundation.

According to Bing searches, 2011 was the year of musical superstars, continued celebrity fascination, concern for human tragedy and new royalty. From rising stars and weddings to intense trials and natural disasters, Bing has captured history through the searches that mark the year’s most important people, places and moments in time.

Based on the aggregation of billions of search queries conducted on Bing this year, here are the much-anticipated top 10 lists for the most searched people, news stories, sports stars, musicians, celebrity events, consumer electronics and TV shows. The complete report is available at http://www.BingTrends.com.

Most-Searched Person of the Year

Bieber fever was contagious this year, making Justin Bieber the most-searched person on Bing in 2011, compared with his No. 6 ranking in 2010. Sandra Bullock, Jesse James, Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods, Barack Obama and Kate Gosselin fell off the list this year, while Katy Perry, Jennifer Lopez, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Megan Fox and Miley Cyrus were newcomers to the top 10. Biggest gains year-over-year belonged to Jennifer Lopez, who didn’t crack the top 50 last year and rocketed to No. 5 in 2011; Katy Perry, who went from No. 26 in 2010 to No. 7 in 2011; and Selena Gomez, who jumped from No. 50 in 2010 to No. 11 this year.

Other Top Search Results

Top News Stories

1. Casey Anthony trial
2. Osama Bin Laden death
3. Hurricane Irene
4. Japan earthquake and tsunami
5. Amy Winehouse death
6. Joplin Tornado
7. Michael Jackson–Conrad Murray trial
8. 9/11 10th anniversary
9. Republican primaries–Herman Cain, Rick Perry
10. Haiti anniversary

Top Sports Stars

1. Maria Sharapova
2. Tiger Woods
3. Serena Williams
4. Brett Favre
5. Caroline Wozniacki
6.  Kobe Bryant
7. LeBron James
8. Lamar Odom
9. Hope Solo
10. Carmelo Anthony

Top Musicians

1. Justin Bieber
2. Katy Perry
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Britney Spears
5. Lady Gaga
6. Selena Gomez
7. Nicki Minaj
8. Rihanna
9. Beyonce
10. Taylor Swift

Top Celebrity Events

1. Royal wedding
2. Final “Harry Potter”
3. Kim Kardashian wedding
4. Beyonce baby bump
5. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson dating
6. Demi Moore–Ashton Kutcher scandal
7. Kate Hudson baby bump
8. Lady Gaga coming out in the egg
9. Lindsay Lohan arrested
10. Russell Armstrong suicide

Top Consumer Electronics

1. Xbox and Kinect
2. Kindle
3. PlayStation
4. iPhone 5
5. iPad
6. Wii
7. iPad 2
8. Nook
9. Windows Phone 7
10. Macbook Pro

Top TV Shows

1. “American Idol”
2. “Dancing With the Stars”
3. “Glee”
4. “Jersey Shore”
5. “Family Guy”
6. “Chelsea Lately”
7. “The Young and the Restless”
8. “True Blood”
9. “Audrina”
10. “Big Brother”

What Banner Ads Can Do For You
Banner ads can help bring visitors from others sites to your own. Although monthly fees can be expensive to advertise on high traffic sites, in the end it may be cheaper and/or a faster way to start seeing significant revenue from your website efforts, rather than waiting for SEO techniques to bring your own site to the top of search engine results. Aside from paying to advertise on someone else’s site, there are also free banner exchanges to choose from. We will look at the pros and cons of each banner advertising method below.

Free Banner Exchanges
Free banner exchanges are when you and other sites exchange each others banners. Their banner will go on your site and your banner will go one their site. Although this option is free, there are two main problems with it. First, if you want your banner on a significant number of sites, it will mean cluttering your own site up with these banners. This could even shot you in the foot if you run an affiliate website because, instead of clicking on your affiliate links, your visitors may be clicking on your banner exchange links. Secondly, you have to be really careful about the types of sites that you exchange banners with. Some sites like to gather a lot of banners so that they can be a directory or portal site and not have to have any real content. These “banner farms” or “link farms” will do nothing positive for your site and, in the meantime, you will be bringing them potential traffic.

Paid Banner Ads
As we saw above, paid banner ads cost money, but they will eventually pay off if you choose the right ones. You need to ensure that the site produces the amount of traffic that they say and that they have your ad placed in a way that invites visitors to click without being too pushy. You also want to choose a site that does not house too many other banners on the same page as yours or that there are no competitor links on the same page.

All in all, banner ads can end up being profitable for you site if you go about it the right way. If you do decide to check out banner advertisement as a marketing avenue, be sure to keep the above tips in mind.

“Social media is one of the most popular and fastest growing mobile activities, reaching nearly one third of all U.S. mobile users,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president for mobile. “This behavior is even more prevalent among smartphone owners with three in five accessing social media each month, highlighting the importance of apps and the enhanced functionality of smartphones to social media usage on mobile devices.”

More than Half of Mobile Social Networkers Access Sites on a Near Daily Basis

In August 2011, more than 72.2 million people accessed social networking sites or blogs on their mobile device, an increase of 37 percent from the previous year. Nearly 40 million U.S. mobile users, more than half of the mobile social media audience, access these sites almost every day, demonstrating the importance of this activity to people’s daily routines.

Research also indicated that although more people accessed these sites via their mobile browser, the social networking app audience grew five times faster in the past year. While the mobile browsing social networking audience grew 24 percent to 42.3 million users in the past year, the mobile social networking app audience surged 126 percent to 38.5 million.

Facebook Mobile Audience Approaches 60 Million Users

A look at selected social networking brands, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, revealed that each grew their mobile audiences by at least 50 percent in the past year. Facebook was home to the largest mobile audience among the three destinations with more than 57 million mobile users in August, up 50 percent from the previous year. Twitter saw its mobile audience jump 75 percent to 13.4 million people, while LinkedIn’s mobile audience climbed 69 percent to 5.5 million users.

70 Percent of Mobile Social Networkers Posted a Status Update While on Their Mobile Device

Understanding how mobile users interact with social media is important for brands looking to engage with on-the-go consumers. comScore recently released new social media metrics through its MobiLens service, offering deeper insights into mobile consumers’ social media activities. Of those accessing social networking sites or blogs on their mobile device in August 2011, 80.3 percent read posts from people known personally, while 69.5 percent posted status updates while on their mobile device.

Mobile social networkers also were likely to interact with brands on these sites with more than half (52.9 percent) reading posts from organizations/brands/events. One in three mobile social networkers received a coupon/offer/deal, with one in four (27.7 percent) clicking on an ad while on a social networking site.

Donovan added, “Advertisers and marketers should take note – mobile users are not only engaging with their friends through social networking, but a majority are also interacting with brands in these social media environments. Knowing that fans and followers engage with branded content on mobile devices opens the door to a world of opportunity for location-based services.”

The September 2011 Namecheap Coupon Code HOTNCOLD.

To use the Namecheap discount code all you have to do is enter it into the coupon box in your cart when you are checking out with a domain and one can save some cash with a coupon code at namecheap every day in September 2011.

The discount promotional coupon code lowers the reduces the price of a Top Level Domain at namecheap for the whole month of September 2011.

Users can import information from Twitter, Facebook and email accounts using many third party tools. However, although these contacts are added to a user’s ‘circles’ – which is Google+’s contact management and content filtering functionality that draws from elements of both Facebook and Twitter – some will be added as email contacts rather than Google+ contacts.

Consequently, when sharing with those contacts that do not yet use the service, they will receive an email, rather than an ‘in-network’ update to their ‘Stream’, which is Google+’s version of the Facebook newsfeed. Whilst this is clearly intentional from Google’s perspective to help grow usage of the service – and certainly in the user’s interest initially – the majority of recipients of such mails are likely to prefer not to receive them – and to even regard them as spam.

Pete Goold, MD of SEO Agency Punch, said:

“Whilst it’s certainly recommended to play with the functionality of Google+, which is undoubtedly a terrific new platform as it has built on the proven functionality of services such as Instagram, Flipboard, FourSquare, Twitter, Skype and, of course, Facebook – it’s worth understanding who will receive what updates, and how.

“In the early stages, most recipients of an email from Google+ will presumably be relatively happy to receive them but, given that many users will update their Google+ account several times per day, it’s unlikely that those that either have yet to use the service itself – or simply chose not to – will be happy to have their inbox filled with such content.

“The key is in importing contacts from other services but then using the circles tool to segment contacts – through looking for those contacts which contain the email icon – and thereby ensuring that content can stay within the network, unless it’s intentional to genuinely distribute to all – which of course, will certainly be the case in many instances as this is useful functionality when used correctly.”

Affiliate programs that programs that are run by a number of different business. Most of those businesses either sell a product or a service. Since the goal of any business, especially those selling something, is to make money, many businesses use unique marketing methods. One of those methods is an affiliate program.  Affiliate programs allow webmasters to connect with these webmasters. A webmaster, once they are approved for the program, will be required to place banners or links to their advertiser’s website. In the event that those links or banners generate a sale, the webmaster is able to pocket a portion of that sale.

The above described process is, in fact, one of the benefits of joining an affiliate program because it is easy to do.  As previously mentioned, most affiliate programs require an approval.  Often times, the approval process is only used to make sure that your website looks professional and does not contain any inappropriate content.  Once you have been approved, you will be provided with pre-designed banners. To get these banners on your website, you only have to enter in a few codes. The process sounds easy, doesn’t it?  After that, you are ready to start making money.

The money that you will make is another benefit to joining an affiliate program. Each business, that has their own affiliate program, is likely to compensate their business partners in different ways.  In most cases, you will find that you will be given a percentage of each sale that resulted from the links or the banners on your website. These percentages will vary; however, they tend to average around ten percent.  While the average percentage, for most affiliate programs, is ten percent, you may find programs that have a higher or even a lower rate.  If you are interested in making more money, you are advised to find affiliate opportunities with higher commission rates.

When it comes to finding high paying affiliate programs, you are in luck. There are literally an unlimited number of affiliate programs to choose from.  Many businesses, including retail stores, are making the decision to use this popular and effective form of marketing.  More retailers mean more affiliate programs for you to choose from. In fact, you don’t even have to choose just one. You can make even more money by joining a number of affiliate programs; you will find that, in most cases, there are no limits on the number of programs that you can join.

While you may not have a problem choosing to participate in a number of different affiliate programs, you may have a problem keeping track of those programs.  To ensure that you are being paid all of the money that you earned, you will need to monitor all of your affiliate programs.  Unfortunately, with a large number of affiliate programs, this can be difficult or even impossible to do.   If you find yourself having a difficult time keeping track of all of your affiliate programs, you are advised to think about affiliate tracking software.  These software programs are available for free or for a small fee.  They may be able to assist you with staying organized and up-to-date on all of your affiliate programs.

As you can easily see, there are a number of advantages to joining an affiliate program.  All you need to get started is a website and the desire to make money. In most cases, the rest will all fall together on its own.

But the bottom line is that your visitor may not come back to your website again. If 1,000 visitors visit your website, leave and never come back again, you can imagine the amount of potential revenue lost, simply because they do not come back. You could have converted a fraction of the visitors into your customers.

Some may say that creating unique content can keep some of the visitors coming back, but very often, unique content is not the solution. The real, long-term solution lies in converting your visitors into subscribers of your mailing list.

Before your visitor leaves your website, you want to convert him or her into your subscriber via a simple opt-in to your mailing list. You do this by asking for your visitor’s name and email address through your opt-in form.

And if your visitor signs up to be on your mailing list, you can still follow up with him via email. You can get your subscriber to consider your offer, or endorse another offer to him or her.

All in all, you want to convert as many visitors into subscribers as possible and obtain the potential revenue you rightfully deserve – the easy, wise way.

Here are a few tips that can help you boost your site traffic:

1. Optimize for the search engines. The most successful sites on the internet are the most visible ones. Now there are various ways to achieve increased visibility on the internet, but the foremost method is that of search engine optimization. The details are too technical to discuss here, but the purpose of search engine optimization (SEO) is to help your site achieve higher rankings on the search engines. If you have used a search engine, you will notice that any particular keyword search will return thousands, if not millions of results. Most people will not bother to browse through all those results; they will prefer to look into the sites already displayed. Statistically speaking, the sites listed on the first results page will garner the highest amount of traffic, putting those sites in a better position to make money.

2. Joining internet directories. While internet directories are no longer as widely used as search engines, some people do use them. It is important that you do not overlook the potential customers that these directories can bring to your site. To join an internet directory, you will have to submit your site for approval, and you will be categorized accordingly.

3. Provide fresh content. Your site must continually be updated if you expect your visitors to keep coming back. Your site must have useful content, as well as tools that will help your target audience. Make your site as easy to navigate as possible, and be sure that your links work the way that they should. There is nothing that frustrates people more than a “broken” website, and once your site has been labeled as such, chances are slim that many people will want to come back.

4. Build an online community. In other words, build relationships with your potential customers. Make your visitors feel welcome and appreciated, and they are likely to come back. Be interested in solving their problems and they will thank you with their business.
Making your affiliate marketing program work is really not that much different from operating a traditional business. The only way you can keep your customers is to treat them right. The Japanese have a saying: The customer is God. As long as you treat your customers with respect and exert effort in trying to meet their needs, you will find that they will be more than willing to help you with yours.

Affiliate Marketing and Requesting Customer Support

As a webmaster, you are bound to run into problems. Even though you have spent a good amount of time learning the affiliate marketing trade, sooner or later you will run into some challenges that you will need help to resolve. Areas such as e-mail services, affiliate marketing software, and online services are often particularly troublesome.

Unfortunately, getting help is not often easy, even from your web host. But there are ways to make the process simpler for both sides. Here are some questions that you might consider before you call your service provider:

Who are you? This is a common problem. Many people report their problems without providing their personal information, such as their username. Unless the support team knows who you are, how do you expect them to solve your problem?

What is the problem? Be specific. Identify which product or service is not working properly. Keep in mind that you are just one of your web host’s customers. Unless you can pinpoint the problem, chances are pretty slim that you will receive appropriate and timely help.

What software are you using? Your web host’s support team will need information on the software you are using. For instance, they will ask you what type of system you are using in your computer. It is a well-known fact that certain applications do not work well on certain systems. Be sure to give any relevant details about the services or applications that you use.

When did the problem start? Identifying the time you became aware of the problem is important. If you have recently made any changes to your system and the problem appeared soon after, it is quite likely that particular change is the cause. Don’t withhold information from the support team; every bit of knowledge is crucial to identifying the source of difficulty.

What have you tried to fix the problem? If you have attempted to fix the problem yourself, be sure to include an account of your attempts in your report. Letting the support team know what you’ve already done will help them save time, and also make a more accurate diagnosis of what’s wrong.

Have you kept it simple? For security purposes, some support systems do not allow HTML display. To avoid having your e-mail intercepted, it is best to send your messages in plain text format.

Remember to be polite. Keep in mind that the support team is composed of human beings – they certainly will not appreciate if you maltreat them. Never insult them; never use profanity. If you want your problem to be resolved, it is better to hold your peace and act civilly. Despite what you may think, you are just one of their customers — they reserve the right to discontinue their services to you whenever they like.

These pointers will not always get you the speedy service that you deserve, but they can certainly help.
Affiliate marketing is a difficult business enough without making enemies. By taking a little time to see things from your support team’s point of view, you can drastically improve the quality of service you get.