NZS.com Newsletter August 2008

The countdown is on, the Olympic Games begin this weekend - which New Zealand competitors are you supporting? We are set to take out some of the top spots in rowing, cycling and sailing events, will any of our sporting heroes surprise us this year in an untraditionally Kiwi-dominated event? Along with the top ten sporting websites, the August NZS.com newsletter looks at our brand new New Zealand News section, domain name statistics for 2008, link baiting tips and an overview of internet television in New Zealand.

Contents:

• Top Ten Sites
• New Zealand News
• Domain Name Statistics Update for '08
• Link Baiting
• A Streaming Future?
• Newsletter Competition Winner Announced

Our team is prepped and we are just days away from the Olympic Games in Beijing. How many times will we strike gold this year? NZS.com will be updating a daily Olympic Medals tally so make sure you keep a regular eye on the site after each competition day from August 11.

The news media have had a field day with the pollution issue still very much present in Beijing. Will China manage to clean up the city in time for the opening ceremony on Friday? Whilst Australian competitors have been given the option to pull out of their event should they find the pollution too much for them, the New Zealand team has been motivated to keep their eye on the prize and tough it out through the conditions. After all, we're Kiwis and we won't give up without a darn good fight!

To celebrate the opening of the Olympic Games, check out the top ten NZS.com sports sites:

Rank	Site Name	URL
1.	AllBlacks.com	www.allblacks.com
2.	Bike360 Online Bicycle Shop	www.bike360.co.nz
3.	Radio Sport	www.radiosport.co.nz
4.	New Zealand Sports Hall Of Fame	www.nzhalloffame.co.nz
5.	New Zealand Gymnastics	www.nzgymnastics.co.nz
6.	Athletics New Zealand	www.athletics.org.nz
7.	Multisport Calendar	www.multisportcalendar.co.nz
8.	Auckland Hockey	www.akhockey.org.nz
9.	RugbyHeaven	www.rugbyheaven.co.nz
10.	New Zealand Rowing	www.rowingnz.org.nz

It's new, it's hot, have you checked it out yet? NZS.com launched the New Zealand News section in partnership with 3news.co.nz in mid-July, and it is set to become your number one source for news headlines.

In true NZS.com style, we are offering uniquely categorised news headlines, so you can simply click on your area of particular interest and you'll be displayed with the latest related stories from both New Zealand and the rest of the world.

Gone are the days where you have to flick between several different pages to read the top headlines - on NZS.com, they're all on one easy-to-read page which gives you the news you want (and just the news you want), faster.

Do you often find yourself looking for a quick news fix, rather than wanting the full story? The NZS.com team are big fans of news snippets over unnecessary tailing information, so our New Zealand news section simply gives you the top headline for each story in one sentence. By running your eyes over each news page, you'll just pick up the key facts, happenings and people, without ever needing to skim read over an entire news article. Talk about rapid information intake!

Don't let your 'news' become 'olds'. Make NZS.com your one stop shop for New Zealand news headlines.

Are you curious as to how domain name registration is growing in New Zealand and the world? So are we. The NZS.com team is consistently working to get new Kiwi domains into our directory - do you have one that you haven't yet created a free listing for?

Worldwide, domain name registration is booming. According to VeriSign, in the first quarter of 2008 14 million domain names were added to the internet, up 17% on the previous quarter. These are primarily .com domains, and are followed by .de (Germany), .cn (China), .net, .uk (Britain), and .org. It is estimated that between just 8 and 10% of new domains are registered with the intent of generating online advertising revenue.

International research indicates that internet usage in India is a growing online force, with more than 41 million internet users online - ranking the country 8th in the world. India has seen a 46% domain registration growth over the past year - despite the 41 million online users only totalling 4% of India's population.

For the 2008 financial year (to March 31 this year), New Zealand domain names were almost 20% up on the 2007 financial year, with over 50,000 new domains registered, to total 324,722. New Zealand has one of the highest rates of internet penetration per capita in the world, with 80.5% of Kiwis online.

Dr Jeffrey Cole, founder of the World Internet Project who was in Queenstown last week for the Netsafe conference, said he expected internet patronage to rise to 98% in New Zealand within 25 years, as the current over 65s pass away. As today's internet users move into their 60s, 70s and 80s, it is highly unlikely that they will decide to forgo internet usage as they age, so Web usage will only continue to rise, not fall.

The term link baiting is thrown around Web circles and forums often as a 'must-do' search engine optimisation technique. Do you know how to use link baiting to your advantage to increase your website's presence?

Think of link baiting like fishing. You throw out a page on your website into the World Wide Web, like bait on a fishing line. There are will normally be numerous other 'pieces of bait' out there waiting to get nibbled on, so you want to make yours the most appealing to potential fish (internet users).

By using some simple SEO techniques, your will bait look attractive to your target market, and you'll start to get 'bites', or links to your bait. The interest in your page will increase and get more widely spread, simply by being linked to. Ideally, you'll get the big fish (an authoritative source with a high Pagerank) to link to your page, and voila, you've successfully link baited.

What makes good bait? There are several 'hooks' that you can base your page content on, which will effectively optimise your page for link baiting.

Newsworthy Hook: This means you create content that reports breaking news, completely unique within the Web. Doing this before any of your competitors can see link baiting succeed at its fastest.

Controversial Hook: When you create content that is likely to provoke discussion and potentially offend, possibly in contrast to standard public opinion.

Resourceful Hook: An informative, authoritative piece of content, that collects relevant information and/or resources for users on a particular topic or happening and puts them all in one place. Along with information, this can often also be videos or photos.

Tool Hook: Taking the Resourceful Hook one step further is the Tool Hook, whereby you create a tool, widget, add-on or other useful program that is helpful and innovative enough for many people to want to use it.

Link baiting can be hit and miss, and involves some trial and error to figure our how to best bait for your website. Check out the NZS.com Webmaster Resources section for more tips on improving your Web presence.

New Zealanders are accustomed to receiving television shows later than our other western-world counterparts. While the digital age has sped up, it can still take months for US television shows and films to reach New Zealand screens after showing elsewhere in the world. While there are exceptions (guaranteed blockbuster films like Get Smart and Mamma Mia opened the same week last month as in the US, and earlier this year top television shows like Lost screened just weeks after they did Stateside), in general we expect a certain delay.

Across the ditch, Australian television networks are grabbing hold upon a new strategy to see shows screen sooner, a plan which New Zealand may follow. Illegal BitTorrent downloading of TV shows is extremely common in Australia, putting the country close to the top of the list worldwide for illegitimate television downloading. File sharing via peer-to-peer networks has lead Australian networks to screen shows as soon as possible, especially those targeted as younger viewers who are likely to turn to illegal technology in order to see their favourite shows simultaneously with American telecasts.

This issue is less of an concern in New Zealand because of our slow broadband connections. However with plan prices dropping, data allowances increasing and unbundling plans coming into fruition, our networks are likely too see this problem arising this side of the Tasman as well.

TV3 currently offers legal streaming of their TV shows online, offering programs are as a 'catch-up' service, rather than an alternative to watching them on TV. The aim is to drive viewers back to the regular TV timeslot if they've missed a particular episode, not to offer a pure 'archiving' service. All content is now offered free after observing much more demand for ad-supported content rather than paid-per-view. Sky Television also launched Sky Online three months ago, allowing Sky subscribers to download and stream over 500 hours of content online in accordance with its philosophy to offer New Zealand consumers "anything, anywhere, anytime on a variety of different platforms".

As television shows are now delivered to New Zealand networks digitally rather than on tape, closer broadcasts to US screenings are becoming a more viable option, thus it may not be long before all visual media is distributed promptly to every Kiwi household.

Congratulations to Terri De Leon who has one our free sponsored listing spot from the July newsletter competition. Terri's website www.wordskills.co.nz will receive a six month sponsored listing advert within our directory, worth up to $300!

Terri's response was very positive to her win: "How wonderful, my partners will be so pleased! We are really thrilled to have the opportunity to increase our Web traffic, especially as a new company. I'm sure working with NZS.com will generate a lot of interest in us!"

Keep an eye out for our future newsletters for more ways to win with NZS.com, and check out our advertising options if you're keen to find out more about improving your Web presence.

We're interested in your opinion, if you have anything you'd like to hear about in the newsletter, let us know.

Images from Flickr: Free Domain Name, Gone Fishing, Brand New Sony.