An invasion of privacy, you be the judge…

I recently attended a virtual trade show put on by the wonderful folks at marketingprofs. One of the vendors there was a company called VisiStat. According to their website:

“VisiStat™ is a powerful real-time visitor tracking service for business, marketing and sales ROI.”

When I logged on to their site this morning I noticed in the bottom left hand corner of the screen this little box:

Ok..this is a little creepy. I like to check out vendors and such, but I don’t need to be shown this sort of information. I am sure that this product has some sort of value in having the ability to track visitors in peoples website, but I guess how much info does one company really need and do they have the headcount to actually look at this stuff? Version 5 of their software appears to have just been released with a host of features that seem useful, but some that I would question as an invasion of my privacy. One in particular is called Activity Alerts. Rather than try to summarize here is what VisiStat states on their site:

Activity Alerts™ bring specific report information directly to you. It is now fast and easy to keep up to date on specific activities on your Website. Activity Alerts give you the ability to receive e-mail or text message notifications for a variety of Website visitor activities. A great way to remotely keep track of your site activity as it is occurring.

“You no longer have to wonder how your site is doing — know what it is doing, right now!”

• Know when a specific page is viewed.
• Know when page views exceed a particular amount, either site-wide or by page.
• See when specific visitors return to your Website.
• Get a notice whenever specific keywords are used in a search to reach your site.
• Watch link response activity for referrals, promotions or banner campaigns.
• Share your Alerts with anyone you choose, without giving them access to your account. Let sales staff see their campaign responses. Let your real estate client know when their listing is being viewed. And that’s only the beginning…

Call me crazy, but as a user on someones site, why would I want someone to be alerted based on my activity. Curious to know if anyone out there has deployed this type of technology and if they had to change their privacy policy to do so.

Technorati Tags:
visistat, website tracking, web analysis, marketingprofs, seo, keyword, campaign management,

The Dark Side of Blogging

There is an excellent article written by Michael Stelzner at Marketingprofs.com about the dark side of blogging and how it can be addictive.

While I do find that sometimes maintaining a blog can be time consuming, I find it extremely rewarding both professionally and personally to exercise my thoughts. Sometimes I have alot to say and others not so much.

Thanks Michael.

Technorati Tags:
marketingprofs.com, blogging, addiction

Online Marketing….with little money

There was a recent article posted on marketingprofs.com talking about online marketing on a shoestring budget. The author Jodi Bash makes a couple of really good points in her article, but seems to have left out a couple of different angles that you should be aware of.

First off, I am a big believer in worth of mouth marketing. Companies should look for a way to create awareness of their brand via word of mouth and the web is a perfect way to do this. Working with influential bloggers in their respective industry is a great start. Second, a company should start a blog of their own. They can provide insight about their industry as well as act as experts all while providing a subtle way to push product.

Second, a company can do podcasting relatively cheap and offer up some more insight and expertise into their industry. Anyone can podcast and companies should really look into all cheap forms of media to promote brand and product.

Third, do something that will create a little buzz within the industry. Renaming a town is one thing (thanks Mark Hughes) but doing something that will attract attention within your specific demographic group of prospects is another. Whatever your industry or product is, there is certainly ways to get a level of buzz going for very little money.

The above to me is just the tip of the iceberg IMHO. Comment on this post and give me some insight on your company and I can perhaps add some insight into other ways to do stuff online for very little money.

I would love to hear from some of you on some of the stuff that you have done online that cost next to nothing.

Again Jodi made some good points, but there is a ton more that people can do online to get their company notices. Heck, I dont want to give away all of my secrets

As always, let me know what you think.