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Average Top 100 Blog Performance Survey - Universal Broadband Plan Calls for $44 billion in Spending - Adaptive Multivariate Testing Service - Google Advertising Contest - Optimization Week of December 29, 2008

Optimization Week Issue #104, December 29, 2008

In this issue we've got two new articles for you, a new service, and an advertising contest. First, we compare the average top 100 blog against the average top 1000 website. We update a survey by Pingdom to test the performance characteristics of Technorati's top 100 blogs. Comparing the average top 100 blog against the average top 1000 website's home page, we find some interesting trends. The top blog home pages are larger, 2.4 times larger than the average top 1000 website. There appears to be a trend where more popular sites are larger in size, perhaps due to the use of advertising. We need to investigate this trend further. Next we've launched a new adaptive multivariate testing service that requires 10 to 100 times less traffic than full factorial methods like Google Web Site Optimizer. Finally, there's still time for Universities to join in on Google's annual PPC advertising contest.

Average Top 100 Weblog Performance Survey
We compare the home page performance of the top 100 weblogs with the top 1000 websites. Updating a top 100 weblog survey, we find a correlation between popularity and page size.
Universal Broadband Plan Calls for $44 billion in Spending
The new Obama administration has pledged to deploy next-generation broadband to every community in America, but has offered few specifics. The Free Press has published a specific plan to accomplish broadband for all. China has passed the US in total broadband subscribers.
New Adaptive Multivariate Testing Service
WSO's new adapive multivariate testing service quickly finds the best combination of elements to optimize the conversion rate of your PPC landing pages. Our multivariate testing method uses a patent-pending self-learning algorithm to quickly maximize your ROI. The self-learning method requires 10 to 100 times fewer page impressions than full factorial tools like Google's Web Site Optimizer, opening up multivariate testing to small to mid-sized websites. Early client results show significant improvement to conversion rates with the new method.
Google Online Marketing Challenge
Professors, you have until January 23, 2009 to register for Google's annual online marketing challenge. Universities in 60 countries are participating in the 2009 event. The goal for students is to create an effective online marketing campaign via sound marketing analysis to optimize, manage and update a Google AdWords campaign. Experience with this contest, especially for teams who place, would be a great way to start a prosperous pay-per-click advertising career.