Tutorail Questions Week 4 (23/03/11)

   1) Looking at the site useage, what does the terms visits, page views and pages/visit mean? What does the bounce rate mean and does it vary

much from day to day?

Visits are the number of times your visitors has been to your site (unique sessions initiated by all your visitors). If a user is inactive on your site for 30 minutes or more, any future activity will be attributed to a new session. Users that leave your site and return within 30 minutes will be counted as part of the original session.

Page views indicate the total number of pageviews for your site when applied over the selected dimension. For example, if you select this metric together with Request URI, it will return the number of page views over the returned result set for the Request URI for your report.

Pages/visit is the average amount of pages a visitor requests

   2) Now look at the traffic sources report. What are the three sources of traffic and where has most of the traffic come from?

the sources of traffic come from direct traffic, referring sites and search engines. This websites traffic mainly comes from direct traffic.

   3) What was the most popular web browser used to access the site?

Google.

   4) How many countries did visitors to Foliospaces come from and what were the top four countries?

 There were 62 visiting countries and the top four were USA, Australia, UK and Canada respectively.

   5) Having clicked every possible link on my analytics, make a few comments on (a) What you can track, (b) What you can track over time and (c) What you can’t track. 

This site allows you to track the amount of visitors and visits, which countri th visit was from, the source of the traffic, average time spent on site, the browser used to access the site and the internet provider of the visitor.

Over time the site allows you to track visits, visitors, pageviews, pages/visit, average time on site, bounce rate, country of origin of access.

It does not allow you to track the personal information of the people accessing the site, eg demographics. Now does it let you see what page they diverted to after being on your site. 

   6) What do the following terms mean? These are just a few, you may like to add some more and perhaps include them on the Moodle glossary.

high bounce rate - a large amount of visitors leave the site after seeing one page

key words - the main dialogue used on the site

Average Page Depth - number of people that visted a specific site

click through rate - percentage of impressions that resulted in a click

click - amount of people that clicked on advertisement, whether or not they entered the site as a result.

Cookie - small stream of data that’s passed between a web site and a user’s browser

Impression - when a site's advertisement loads on your computer

Hyperlink - a link that has a hidden URL within it that relocates you to a specific web page when clicked

Navigation - links on a page to send you to another page within the website

Pageview - visits to the webpage

Session - A period of interaction between a visitor's browser and a particular website. When a user visits a page on your site, a session is established. The session expires after 30 minutes of inactivity by the user

Unique Visitors (or Absolute Unique Visitors) - The uniquely identified client generating requests on the web server (log analysis) or viewing pages (page tagging) within a defined time period (i.e. day, week or month). A Unique Visitor counts once within the timescale. A visitor can make multiple visits. Identification is made to the visitor's computer, not the person, usually via cookie and/or IP+User Agent.

URL - universal resource locator

Visitor - person who goes onto your website

Visitor Session - Average amount of time that visitors spend on the site each time they visit

Comparison shopping - people access several sites to decide between products illustrated on the sites.

Tutorail Questions Week 3 (16/03/11)

1. In two paragraphs explain why a customer centric Web site design is so important, yet so difficult to accomplish.

   Customer centric web design is very important this day and age in attracting and retaining customers as business is making a transition to more and more online activity. Therefore, customers require the same amount of care and resourcefulness out of the website as they get from shop attendants.With increased demand online the business needs to be just as accountable online as it is when the shopper enters the shop floor. 

   It is however a hard mission to accomplish as customers tastes do vary and some may resent having to go online to shop at a store, some may resent not being able to shop online at a store. The actual design of the website is also a harrowing task to get the most efficiency and effectiveness out of it for its customers.

2. Define the term 'presence'. Write an additional paragraph that describes why firms that do business on the Web should be more concerned about presence than firms that operate in the physical world.

   Web presence can be defined as a footprint left on the internet, reflecting the impact the business makes on the world wide web and the effect it carries on though the interaction of the site.

   Online operating firms must be vigilantly aware of their presence as it is the core responsibility of their transactions on the net. The website is judged upon first entrance and therefore must make its point clear and easy to understand. There are no friendly staff to assist the customer, and nothing physical to explore. If the website is useless it will not be used! Businesses in the physical world can be less concerned about their presence as there are more to the initial impact - a bad shop front can be redeemed with good product and good service. The website cannot.

3. Write three paragraphs to briefly describe the things that Real Estate Agents can best accomplish through (1) their web sites (2) Mass media advertising (3) Personal contact 

   a. The real estate websites have a quick find tool bar defining the right property the customer is searching for. They do not have to scroll through every property the agents are handling, they can define a search to a suburb, a price range or a style of house (eg. 2 bedroom). This easy way to narrow the product the customer is looking for allows them to quickly decipher if they wish to enquire about a product or not.


   b. The mass media advertising is effective for those customers interested in looking at the section in the paper; it is well known in Ballarat that the Saturday Courier is a good place to start looking for a new house, for example. The TV and radio advertisements are also effective as the slogans are catchy and send a vibe to the customers they're wanting to attract.


   c. Personal contact through clients that have gone through the business is effective as word of mouth is the best advertisement. If the clientele are looked after by the real estate agents then they will tell everyone that they were treated well, got a good deal etc. Therefore personal contact is a very strong way to ensure a good relationship with clients both current and potential.

Tutorail Questions Week 2 (9/03/11)

1) Define a Portal:

   A Portal is an internet site that acts as a gateway to other sites or search engines, supplying their link or URL. It can often have free email and chat rooms as well.

2) Is a search engine the same as a Portal?

   No, they are different. A portal can provide a pathway towards various search engines available on the internet. A search engine is designed to search for inertnet sites and information.

3) Is a Search Engine the same as a Directory?

   No, a web directory is an internet site focussed usually on a particular topic that can contain links to other websites. However it differentiates itself from a Search Engine as the web directory listings are reviewes and added by human editors.

4) List Search Engines/Portals you use and why:

   I use:
www.google.com - because it is the homepage to firefox on my laptop.
http://chisfx14lseu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/ballarat41/az?lang=eng - the database / portal from the University website that gives me access to e-journals.

4) What are the six webs?

   The "Far" web is like watching a television, the "Near" web is desktop computing, the "Here" web is mobile devices with personal information on them, the "Weird" web is voice recognition, the "B2B" web is business computers dealing exclusively with each other and the "D2D" web is intelligent buildings and cities.

5) Could there be more?

   Yes there could be more types of web, especially in the future as our technology and knowledge of the capabilities of e-business and the use of internet expand. The more involved and educated we become the more likely that we will find or create more types of web.

6) What does it mean for business?

   This means that for business, the expanding of more ways to utilise the internet can lead to reaching even further markets and competition. This will be great for the consumer as good competition gives the consumer the power in the buyer/seller relationship and it is great for the producer and it drives more efficient means of production and development.

7) What are the four points Michael Rappa makes about search?

1. pick the right keywords for your web page
2. position these key words correctly on your web page
3. use meta-tags (including html links and graphics)
4. and submit only one key page to search engines

Tutorial Questions Week 1 (2/3/11)

1) Internet risks – give examples of four things that can go wrong with a transactional site?
     
    The main risk of the internet site in my opinion is fraudulent sites or people posing to be a Bank or a site such as PayPal. Another risk is the computer system crashing and therefore ceasing all transactions. The product may not have been what the customer thought it was from lack of research perhaps therefore causing a high rate of returns or refunds. Internet transactions are also limited to who thy can appeal to and market to as some people refuse to do internet transactions, or do not even know how to use a computer and therefore would not consider buying online.

2) Write a definition for each:
     
    a) E-commerce:  The buying and selling of goods and services on the internet involving virtual store fronts, gathering and use of demographic information, electronic data interchange, using email and fax as a media, business-to-business buying and selling and the security of business transactions.
    b) E-business: Business interactions on the internet, going beyond just buying and selling. It includes servicing customers and collaborating with business partners.


3) What is the difference between buy side and sell side e-commerce?


    Buy-side e-commerce is the process of acquiring resources needed by an organisation from its suppliers. Sell-side e-commerce is the process of selling goods and services to an organisation's customers.


4) Describe the different types of eBusiness


    The first type is called B2B commerce where an electronic transaction is conducted between a producer firm and a raw material supplier firm. The second is B2C commerce where one party is the firm and the other is the customer.The third is intra B commerce where the transaction is between two persons or departments of a business unit. The fourth is C to C commerce where bot parties are actually customers (where no established markets are available).


5) Which digital technology has the highest penetration rate? Explain and source your answer.
    
    Australia is the top 5 penetrated country in the PC market according to a recent report by Australian Institute of Technology and Commerce with computer access currently at 78% and access expected to reach 19.2 million people in 2012. A report by Nielson in 2009 showed that 84% of internet users had broadband at home, in 2008 it had reached 97%. I feel this data proves that the internet has the highest penetration rate with its expanding popularity and wide range of uses. 
 LiewShiJia. 2010. Australian Technology Penetration. PC and internet market. Resourced 7th of March, 2011 on http://comm215.wetpaint.com/page/Australia+Technology+Penetration)

6) List four drivers to adoption of sell-side e-commerce by business.

    The drivers of sell-side e-commerce include the chance to expand their market to people all over the world who have internet access, or even just people not so far away that find it more convenient to shop online. It can also help free up their capital and inventory needs as they can manage more closely the items required such as using a Just In Time inventory system. It also has the added security of not having a premises that is locked up and left over the weekend that could be broken into and stock being stolen. The new found data of customer demand being for online shopping is a big driver in sell-side e-commerce as it is a market that is expanding and a good opportunity to enter into.

7) Four barriers to adoption of sell-side e-commerce by business'

    The barriers to e-commerce include the security issues people have with the internet which in turn may be effecting their faith in  internet banking, internet transactions and dealing with customers online. Some businesses might be operating successfuly enough without expanding to sell-side e-commerce and therefore see no need. The cost of setting up an internet site can be a deterrent to establishing e-commerce as well, or the commissions or weekly  fees associated with host sites. Lacking the computer skills to run an online business can also hold people back as they do not have the confidence or skill to execute e-commerce.


8) How might a restaurant in Sturt Street Ballarat benefit from an online presence?

   Having a restaurant with a web page that people can search and read advertises to potential customers and can show off the menu and other features of the business. When you search restaurants in Ballarat not many options come up so it would give the restaurant a competitive edge against all the others in town. \


9) What are some examples of Digital information?


   "Digital information is stored using a series of ones and zeros. Computers are digital machines because they can only read information as on or off -- 1 or 0. This method of computation, also known as the binary system, may seem rather simplistic, but can be used to represent incredible amounts of data. CDs and DVDs can be used to store and play back high-quality sound and video even though they consist entirely of ones and zeros" (TechTerms.com, 2011)

10)  What is the semantic web? Are we there yet?

       A semantic web is one is which the computer can understand the meaning of the information on the world wide web. Was names by Time Burners-Lee who invented the world wide web and a lot of the technology that enables the direct and indirect data processing by machines already exists in this world.