Digital Pulp Blog

We love Pew Internet and American Life Project for exploring the impact of the internet on families, communities and daily life. Back in January 2010, Pew Research Center reported that a whopping 74% of American adults use the internet. A most recent research report on Mobile Access in 2010 has some interesting findings:

“Nearly half of all adults (47%) go online with a laptop using a Wi-Fi connection or mobile broadband card (up from the 39% who did so as of April 2009) while 40% of adults use the internet, email or instant messaging on a mobile phone (up from the 32% of Americans who did this in 2009). This means that 59% of adults now access the internet wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone.”

For the full story visit Mobile Access 2010: Summary of Findings

Top activities for mobile and wifi laptop users include taking pictures and sending text messages. Could this finally be the year for mobile? We think so!

Our digital publishing clients are continually looking for new and better ways to monetize their content. Suggestions range from adding advertising to offering content up for syndication to 3rd parties for a fee. The most basic options are always discussed… do we add registration or even a paywall?

This is a big decision and should be driven by data. But few publishers who have made the leap from free to pay record or release the impact on their business. Until now. The UK Times not only made the switch but is publishing their experiment and the effects of this decision on traffic and revenue.

It’s still early but here’s an excerpt of where they are from Experian:

So, its still early days, but the conclusion so far seems to be this: since it forced users to register in order to view its content, the Times has lost market share. However, this decline has clearly not been catastrophic and none of the paper’s rivals has particularly benefitted. Yet. The real test will come when people actually have to pay rather than simply register to view the Times’ content. When that happens we will of course provide some more analysis, so keep an eye on the blog and our Twitter feed for updates.

Read more at: Times paywall: initial data and analysis

According to a survey released in June, the Direct Marketing Association has found marketing e-mails using a house list are seeing an average open rate of nearly 20%. Click-through and conversion rates are still extremely low at 6.64% and 1.73% respectively. How does your list measure up?

New market research from comScore indicates that Facebook is ready to monetize its position at the center of the social media universe. In the first quarter of 2010, Facebook served more display ads than Yahoo or Microsoft earning itself a healthy 16% marketshare.

Now comScore didn’t include the extended content networks held by the two giants and the revenue generated by Facebook is not quite there yet but we predict digital marketers will see this news and add Facebook as a pillar of their digital media plan. We can’t wait to see what happen’s next…

Wall Street Journal: Facebook Makes gains in Web Ads
Social Media Today: Facebook is Now the Leading Publisher of Web Display Ads

Recent results from the Nielsen MegaView report shows Google handled nearly 6 billion searches in the month of February. When it comes to your digital marketing plan, Google with two-thirds of the activity remains a central channel for your search campaigns.

Search Engine Marketshare: February 2010

Health information is abundant on the web and we can only imagine this is for the better. Not only can you research the medication your doctor prescribed but you can chat about it with others who share your condition.

Recently Pew Research Center posted a finding that adults in the U.S. living with chronic disease are more likely to participate in online discussion but much less likely to actually have internet access. In fact, 81% do not have the ability to easily go online…

U.S. adults living with chronic disease are significantly less likely than healthy adults to have access to the internet (62% vs. 81%). The internet access gap creates an online health information gap. However, lack of internet access, not lack of interest in the topic, is the primary reason for the difference. Once online, having a chronic disease increases the probability that someone will take advantage of social media to share what they know and learn from their peers.

When other demographic factors are held constant, having a chronic disease significantly increases an internet user’s likelihood to say they work on a blog or contribute to an online discussion, a listserv, or other online group forum that helps people with personal issues or health problems.

Read the full article: Chronic Disease and the Internet

We’re always interested in understanding audiences and their motivations online. When thinking about your clients and customers it’s important to consider not only their desires in engaging with you but the barriers that might stand in their way.

NBC’s Olympic web site jumps to the top of Compete.com’s Fastest Mover Chart with over 10 million unique visitors in February. It looks like the combination of 2 weeks straight of television coverage had a big impact online and we can say from the excitement over here during the events that Digital Pulp team helped make them number 1 in February.

Looking at the rest of the list reminds us to begin to think about our taxes.

To be even more exact, kids ages 8-18 are spending 7 hours and 38 minutes on average consuming media. And they are not focused one device or channel. They’re multitasking so actually taking in 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content according to a recent study published by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

What we found particularly interesting…

• The majority of kids today have mobile phones (66%).
• More and more television viewing is occurring sometime after the show airs thanks to online video streaming and digital video recorders (41%).
• Time spent reading remained steady but reading magazines dropped over these past five years.

Read the CBS News Report: Youths Spend 7+ Hours/Day Consuming Media
Or take a look at the original study: Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds

According to a research study performed by the Pew Internet and American Life Project:

Some 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of internet users said they use a status-update service.

The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. The median age for MySpace is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40. Facebook, however, is graying a bit: the median age for this social network site is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008.

Read more at: Twitter and Status Updating

Mobile Web access is rapidly spreading beyond the early-adopting age bracket of 18 to 34 year olds. A recent survey by Nielsen Online shows a surge in mobile browsing by women, seniors and young adults. Some more findings:

Visits to Web sites from mobile devices grew 34 percent during the twelve months ending in July, according to data from Nielsen Online. The measurement firm recorded 56.9 million mobile Web visits in July ‘09.

Although men continue to make up the majority of the mobile Web audience — accounting for a total of 53 percent of visits — growth among female users far outstripped that of males. Use among 13 to 17 year olds grew 45 percent year-on-year, while the over-65 group experienced growth of 67 percent.

For more information: U.S. Mobile Web Audience Grows by One Third

Is mobile part of your web strategy? Not sure where to start? Ask Digital Pulp.