The end of the year usually signals a time when one takes stock of the year that was and what one has achieved. Online, these achievements are based on the amount of visitors to your site. With all the systems available to track website traffic it is important to ensure that one does make use of an accurate system.
Read on for more insight into measurement .....

OPA takes note
Soapbox is a section for articles written by guest contributors. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily shared by Moneyweb. Feel free to have your say on their views - as with all articles published on Moneyweb - below. Rudolph Muller’s article The biggest and best South African websites in many ways paints a positive picture for the health of online media. Despite the continued high-access costs of the internet in South Africa many of the local websites are attracting significant audience figures. These audience figures compare more than favourably with other media channels and are reason for optimism in online media.

Online adult material distribution outlawed
From January, it will be illegal for South African online distributors of adult material to continue trading, as the Film and Publications Board (FPB) gives distributors until the end of this month to stop their services.

Online shops: Why we lag the world
South Africa is still far behind the US and the UK when it comes to online shopping. So why are we struggling? We need to change our mindset with regards to using our credit cards online; and we need to actually believe our Post Office will deliver the goods...

How to Fix Your Traffic Measurement
Because log analysis figures are misleading, ThinkMetrics' CEO advises switching to page-based tracking, and helps you through the process.

Net advertising taking over
The internet will for the first time take a greater share of global advertising revenue than outdoor advertising in 2007, according to Zenith Optimedia. The forecaster, a unit of Publicis Groupe SA (PUB), believes the internet will overtake radio globally by 2009.

Don't Just Sell, Solve!
How can you reach consumers? Freeweb's president writes that the answer is to offer online models that solve consumers' problems and a brand that adheres to their terms.

Have Camera Phone? Yahoo and Reuters Want You to Work for Their News Service
Hoping to turn the millions of people with digital cameras and camera phones into photojournalists, Yahoo and Reuters are introducing a new effort to showcase photographs and video of news events submitted by the public.

Yahoo's Millard Cautious About User-Generated Content
Not everyone is excited about the marketing possibilities of user-generated content -- least of all Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer at Yahoo, who defined the success of YouTube as "a lot of page views. What was their revenue this year?"

Major Marketers' Sites Attract Millions, Influencers
Some of those boring corporate websites are pulling in more eyeballs - and more influencers - than the flashy primetime TV shows, print magazines and general interest sites on which those very marketers advertise, according to AdAge.

Britain leads the way in online advertising
40% annual growth dwarfs the rate in U.S. market, where television reigns. If you want a glimpse of the future of advertising, you can hire a consultant - or you can travel to Britain.

IAB Launches Branding Campaign for Interactive Advertising
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) this week announced the launch of a new integrated interactive branding campaign - featuring the tagline "Media More Engaging" - intended to promote interactive advertising.

Consumer-Generated Ads Less Popular with Young Adults
Though most adults approve of companies that run "create our ad for us" promotions, a new survey from the AMA discovered that their children aren't necessarily buying it.

Four of Ten Online Shoppers to Up Spending
Some 41 percent of consumers plan to increase e-commerce spending in 2007, primarily because online shopping is convenient, according to a new survey.

Ads on Niche Sites More Engaging
Ads that appear in niche websites get more attention from broadband users than ads on sites that have more than a million unique visitors, according to study results to be released next week, reports MediaPost (via MarketingVox).

3 Big Brands reinvent themselves with blogs
It would be easy to look at your latest online display ad report and come to the conclusion that many people simply don’t want a deeper relationship with your company. However, the opposite is usually true. In the age of big box stores and marketing strategies that keep customers at a polite distance, people crave the type of business relationships of yesteryear, where they had special relationships with the companies from which they bought things.