Guess who hates Net Neutrality? Come on. Surprise me.

As an online marketing specialist, I’m PO’d. I like to be surprised from time to time and wish I could slap my palm to my forehead and yell, “I still don’t agree with this clown, but that’s a new wrinkle in this dirty street fight. It even makes a tiny bit of sense.”

Instead I get snores and zzzzzzzzz. On the subject of net neutrality, which affects Internet fairness and the ability of all but the hugest eCommerce businesses to operate profitably online, the elites who want to kill off the Internet Golden Goose have zero imagination. They don’t come up with surprising or logical or reasonable or even moderately interesting objections to a free, open, fair and NEUTRAL Internet. Zip. Bupkiss. Nada.

It’s S.O.S. – Same Old “Stuff.”

Who are these S.O.S. elites who want to take away the “superhighway” lanes of the “Information Superhighway?” Who are these boring macaws, who simply repeat the same old opposition to Net Neutrality, over and over, without defending their point of view? Bad Polly; No Cracker.

Opponents of a fair and neutral Internet that gives everyone equal access and the same roads, without bribes (premium prices), now include the Bush Administration Department of Justice. Add the DoJ to the original Neutral-Net-Haters who lobby government regulators for favors, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Yawn. I’m too bored by this unsurprising link between U.S. Regulators and the Mega-Bucks Industry Associations Who Lobby Them … against the interests of all the rest of us. In petroleum markets, that’s called a “cartel.” If you want to see a quick overview of the Net Neutrality issue – complete with impacts on marketers, plus links to the Pros (Save The Internet) and the Con Artists cited above – see Jason Prescott’s “The President’s Lounge” perspective at this page link:
When I’m done being bored by foxes guarding the hen house who co-opt the coop owners, I’m going to keep writing my Congressional reps and senators, asking them to support Net Neutrality and to oppose a TeleCom Industry-controlled Internet. Especially now that the issue of Net Neutrality is all mixed up with illegal wiretapping of Americans’ phones and email. (The same old solid citizens of the TeleCom Industry Association who oppose Net Neutrality also helped the Bush Administration illegally wiretap Americans without required FISA warrants … and without a peep about the laws they were breaking. Now they want a get-out-of-jail-free card: Immunity from prosecution for breaking U.S. law. See this activist social media site for details and links on that S.O.S.

It’s over, baby. The surprise and bubbles are gone from our relationship. I get no high from Monopoly TeleCom Champagne, Registered Origin: Greed-ville USA. Let’s tip a few to Net Neutrality.

Keep the e-Commerce Door Open for Online Holiday Shoppers, Now to December 24.

October is the month that online gift shoppers pull out their holiday shopping lists, at least according to Holiday eSpending reports from Nielsen/NetRatings, Harris Interactive and Goldman Sachs.

Online holiday shopping trends from 2005 and 2006 held steady for timing of shopper activities, though the hottest spending categories have shifted slightly.

The eSpending Report starts tracking online holiday gift buyers over a seven-week period, beginning the end of October. Its national holiday shopper survey polls 1,000 adult online consumers a week, and analyzes the spending attitudes and behaviors of a total 7,500+ online shoppers per season.

Past Findings: Over fifty percent of online shoppers have finished their holiday shopping within a week of Christmas … although only slightly over one-third said they were done two weeks before Christmas.

According to retail analysts at Nielsen//NetRatings, online shoppers are starting their shopping later and later in the season for holiday spending tracked in recent years.  Online marketers can capture that 50-to-54 percent who are finished by mid-December by guaranteeing delivery right up through December 24, which falls on a Monday and the end of a three-day shopping weekend this year.

Nielsen//NetRatings’ holiday retail analyst also suggests offering additional discounts and shipping incentives early in the holiday shopping season … to capture online shoppers before they go “last minute” over the three-day weekend in bricks-and-mortar stores.

Topping eSpending Report online shopping lists the past two holiday seasons were Apparel/Clothing, Computer Hardware/Peripherals and Consumer Electronics … in that order. Online Retail Industry Analysts see some softening in overall spending projections for this season, due to larger economic, employment and mortgage market weaknesses.

However, consumer Electronics sales (particularly with release of the iPhone and iPod Nano) are expected to remain strong; Discount and Priced-to-Sell Apparel/Clothing are expected to move. Sales of toys imported from China and the Pacific Rim are a question mark, given CPSC product safety recalls (lead paint, hazardous small parts). Some retail analysts see revenue levels for lower volume but higher-priced toys sourced in North America and Europe as compensating for declines caused by the Chinese import toy recalls.

Start thinking Christmas and Holiday Shopping Cheer before putting the Halloween costumes and candy corn back into cyber-inventory. Smart online marketers might want to capture that persistent 10% of online shoppers who still, as of one week before Christmas, have not yet cracked their holiday lists.