Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

The director of global and strategic media and marketing for leading U.S. advertiser Citibank, Mark Ingall, made the ultimate contrarian announcement that "pretty soon" internet advertising is going to peak and plateau, and quite possibly decline.

"Online seems to have leapfrogged right over other media, but given just what happened to the direct mail category over the last 10 years, the prediction for online is that it will spike pretty soon,...Over time...we're going to have to turn our attention to something more traditional," Ingall is quoted as saying during a keynote speech at the Advertising Club of New York's yearly Magazine Day.

He added that this will be a promising development for magazines, but quickly added that magazines will not be able to survive without the internet: "If there's any publisher or editor in here who thinks they're going to survive just with print, I look forward to seeing whether you're here in five years' time."

As we've talking about off and on on thealphamarketer.com, the local online advertising market is really starting to take off. I hope you understand that it means it is no longer hidden away from the general business community like it used to be.

In 2005 it increased to $4.8 billion dollars, up from 2004's $2.7 billion. It is estimated to skyrocket to $5.8 billion this year, an upward surge of 21%. Borrell Associates, MediaPost has reported this in their "What Local Web Sites Earn: 2006 Survey."

They add that "Last year's growth spurt was reminiscent of that seen at the height of the dot-com frenzy in 1999-2000." When you think of it, that's saying a lot. For such a huge tumble, it's pretty encouraging to see this type of confidence and growth in local online advertising.

The first quarter has been a boon for the Internet companies that have strong advertising models. Google (GOOG) Inc. added another boost to the sector as it posted huge profits for the three month period, as they rose 60 percent, raising way past the estimates that analysts made. It also strengthened their position as the number one Web advertising company.

The company reported that it earned $592.3 million, which equates to $1.95 per share, in the first quarter. That is measured against the $369.2 million, or $1.29 per share they earned during the same period last year.

This marks the first time in Google's history that their total revenue has reached over $2 billion in a quarter. The total revenues were $2.25 billion, which was a 79 percent improvement over last year's $1.26 billion.

After the paying of commissions to their partners, Google's total was $1.53 billion.

This is another side of the story that nobody want to talk about in reference to click fraud.

Here is an article that is more accurate and understandable from a business standpoint than any other I have read concerning this subject. Now the reason I say that is that I used to be a financial advisor and sold various products in a number of different vehicles.

The reason I mention that is that as soon as read this key point, it made total sense to me, and I hope it does to you.

Tommy Maric says:

"The key point is that click fraud is already taken into effect when advertisers select the highest amount they will bid."

If you understand anything about the stock market and company valuations, you'll recognize what this means. Simply said, it means that the market price, in the case of stocks, has already taken into consideration events, whether good or bad.

We discussing the level of concern we should have about click fraud and how we need to be careful who we listen to when it is put forth like it's an unstoppable epidemic.

Here are a few things the Mercury News reporter Mike Langberg is panicking about:

"But Google and Yahoo aren't sharing enough information to tamp down rising concerns about click fraud.

"But if it ever becomes rampant -- say, half of all pay-per-click traffic -- the business models of Google and Yahoo could collapse as advertisers walk away or spend drastically less money.

"Click fraud is to Google(GOOG) and Yahoo(YHOO) what bird flu is to world health -- a problem that's manageable today...

"...but more lawsuits against Google and other Internet companies are pending.
 
"Yahoo was accused earlier this month of failing to catch at least a few spyware companies

"Yahoo isn't willing to concede there's any broader problem with its affiliate programs.
 
"...federal prosecutors in San Francisco announced the latest in a string of click-fraud criminal indictments.

"As long as any bad clicks are getting through Google and Yahoo's filters, advertisers clearly need more information -- if only so they can direct their dollars toward companies doing the best job of detecting click fraud."