Finally there is some good news with a report that shows on-line advertising has grown Europewide. New figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers reveal that on-line advertising spend in Europe increased by 20% in 2008, reaching £11billion.
The report shows a 26% increase in on-line search spending last year compared with 2007. Meanwhile, on-line classified spend rose by 17.4%, display advertising grew by 15.1% and email increased 12.2%.
However, while 10 top countries accounted for 93% of the total European on-line advertising market, six of these nations, including the UK, experienced growth of less than 20%.
Tough times indeed – but perhaps it’s time to be a bit more positive.

So many people spend a lot of time and money on a website – only to find that it doesn’t live up to expectations. Perhaps the site traffic is way less then they imagined, or the site does not deliver much to their business. Or, worse still, the new website is never actually finished.

Here are 3 top tips for avoiding a website nightmare:

It’s not the kid’s fault, but…: So your friend knows a friend who has a kid who is a total whizz at computers. And, of course, he’s cheap as chips. While this youngster might indeed be good at web design he will not necessarily know about good website businesses, or indeed about marketing. Then, just when you need something updated you find the little whizz has headed off to college or is out with his mates – so he’s unavailable to attend to your site. In short, don’t go there.

DIY anyone?: Too many people believe that web design is simply a case of finding a template and paying for cheap hosting. Yes, this is a possibility but would you do the household plumbing yourself? Or your accounts? Or fix the electrics? No, of course you wouldn’t. If you want a professional job then employ a professional to do it. You might be able to create your own site but how long will this take and how good will it look in the end?

And the same with the copy: So you did employ a professional designer but then you wrote the copy yourself. This is a mistake that too many people make. You could have a site that looks the best but if the content is not engaging and imaginative then no-one is going to bother to read it. These days there are many expert web writers ready to give you a helping hand – and give your site the kind of sparkle required to get visitors clamouring for more.

So, you know what you need to do to create a great site that will do work for your business. Employ a cracking web design company and a fantastic web writer.

All e-tailers will have their eyes focused on a new top 100 Hot Shops List. For the past three years, e-retail analyst IMRG and on-line monitors Hitwise have produced a Top 50 list – and now they have launched an annual Top 100.

Unsurprisingly, retaining its number one placing at the top of e-tailing list is Amazon. The company has dominated the List since its launch in May 2006. But for the first time Argos has moved into second place in the e-tailer rankings, up from position five in 2008. Play.com holds on to third position.

Further down the list in fourth position is Amazon.com, up two places from 2008 and pushing tesco.com from fourth to fifth place, the lost ranking since the List came about.

The List reveals that clothing is the fastest growing online shopping sector, with eight specialist retailers making the top 100. Leading the fastest climbers in the Top 100 List are Marks and Spencer in sixth place, up from 23rd, and ASOS in 10th position, up from 50th.

Electrical and travel retailers are also fast becoming big players on-line and a new entry in seventh place is Epson UK, while travel company Expedia jumps up one position to eighth.

However, not all e-tailers are doing so well. Those that originally appeared in the Top 50 List but have since dropped out of the top 100 are MyTravel, Packard Bell UK, XL.com, Tesco Electrical, Thompsonfly and Woolworths.

Microsoft is hoping that its new style of “simpler but smarter” searches will be enough to take on the big boys of the search engine world.

Re-branding as Bing.com, Microsoft believes the new search engine will offer strong competition for both Google and Yahoo.

Bing claims to make searching more relevant to the user by understanding the intention of searches, and grouping more related information to the original query.

So, for example, searches for a product will not only offer info about the item but will also link to reviews, accessories and online shops.

Microsoft’s plan is to reduce the amount of clicking a user has to do to find specific and related information.

Bing.com will go live first in the US and launches in beta elsewhere. Currently Google has more than 64% of the search market in the US, followed by Yahoo at 20% and Microsoft at 8.2%.

Woolworths is back – and this time it’s on-line. Shop Direct Home Shopping has launched the Woolworths.co.uk website, six months after the much-loved retail giant went into administration. Within hours 20,000 customers had registered on the site.
Not only will e-shoppers recognise the red Woolworths logo but they will also be familiar with the wide range of products on sale. There are more than half a million items, including toys, CDs, DVDs, sweeties, children’s wear, garden furniture and barbecues.
Shop Direct Home Shopping, part of the Littlewoods Group, reportedly paid between £5million and £10million for the brand name.