Healthy Blog Reviews

Cup of Joe: There Are No Commercial Breaks On the Internet

cgseo — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:12:02 +0000

Sarah Haskins is part of InfoMania’s line up of commentators that pokes fun at mainstream media. Sarah’s biggest contribution is her recurring segment “Target Women.” “Target Women” is a video commentary that takes a satirical look at television adverts that target women. As we can see above Sarah doesn’t hold back when discussing the rather broad generalizations that these commercials assume. Watching a satirical commentary on television adverts exposes one of the major contrasts with broadcast media and the internet. Broadcast media is riddled with assumptions while the internet by its very nature is void of assumptions. Take for example the ads discussed above, they are completely based on the assumptions of the ad executives that created them, and as a result they fall victim to the risk of being irrelevant, ineffective, and annoying. Now, don’t get me wrong, mainstream ad agencies spend millions of dollars on market research, and demographic studies, all so they can make calculated assumptions. But, in the end they are still assumptions none the less! The internet on the other hand, by its very nature makes very little assumptions. We visit websites that we want to. We digest information that we have requested. 98% of social media is an opt-in medium. And, unless you are visiting a site like Hulu, there are no commercial breaks on the internet. Instead the vast majority of the ads online are topic specific to the sites they are on. I could be reading an article about how to build a bird house and find an ad in the margin for bird house plans. Effective internet marketing is void of irrelevance. Effective internet marketing is void of assumptions. Effective internet marketing should provide the user as much, if not close to as much, value as the content they are promoting. Effective internet marketing isn’t about gambling away marketing dollars on false assumptions but strategically promoting ideas and information that value the consumer as well as the merchant. If your internet marketing efforts are based on assumptions, you are doing it wrong.

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Cup of Joe: There Are No Commercial Breaks On the Internet

Marketing in Europe? Display Works

cgseo — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:11:01 +0000

comScore released a new study today examining the effects of display advertising in the European market —and it’s pretty dang impressive. The study (well, actually, report based on more than 20 studies) indicates that, despite minimal clicks on the ads themselves, “those exposed to online ad campaigns in Europe were 72 percent more likely to visit the advertiser’s website and 94 percent more likely to conduct a trademark search query on the advertiser’s brand, compared to a control group of similar Internet users who were not exposed to the campaigns.” These figures are pretty staggering—especially when compared to US figures, which comScore reports as “an average lift of 49 percent in site visitation and 40 percent in trademark search queries across hundreds of ad effectiveness studies.” The European lift effects were most significant during the first week after exposure, but didn’t drop off dramatically. comScore Director of Marketing Solutions Mike Shaw said in the press release, These results help illustrate how online advertising works. Despite the long-held obsession with using clicks to measure campaign performance – which reflect only the immediate impact of an ad — the comScore studies demonstrate that the Internet is clearly effective as a latent brand-building medium. Europeans appear to be particularly receptive to online advertising, and whether it’s due to better creative, less ad clutter, or greater receptivity to online ads, the implication for brand advertisers is clear: ignore online as a brand-building channel at your own peril. And I guess it also shows that it pays to know before you go . . . ad shopping. What do you think? Why might Europeans be so influenced by display ads? Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

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Marketing in Europe? Display Works

AOL Launches Stand-Alone Lifestream

cgseo — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:54:40 +0000

AOL unveiled its social aggregator and publisher, Lifestream, as part of its instant messenger platform last Fall. Now they’re launching a stand-alone site at lifestream.aol.com . After it appears they’ve failed with Bebo , this social venture may have a chance of success, in the opinion of TechCrunch at least—they’re saying, “ This is what Google Buzz should have been .” Like most social aggregators, Lifestream gathers content from several social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Foursquare, Delicious, Digg, Flickr, YouTube. Lifestream uses existing friend lists on those social networks, so users don’t have to recompile their friend lists. Users can also cancel updates from entire networks, users or users on networks (i.e. ignore your friend’s Twitter stream but keep following his Facebook). It’s also integrated with Facebook Connect, so there’s no separate login, and users can publish back to social networks from the platform. Lifestream also has a network of its own, and plans integration with Google Buzz in the future. TechCrunch doesn’t mention whether the service automatically hides duplicate messages—for example, your friends who have their Twitter statuses automatically publish to Facebook, too. And then there’s the mobile platform: the website is compatible with mobiles, but Lifestream also has AIR, iPhone and Android apps. The mobile apps auto-note location, and you can use them to post pictures. TechCrunch concludes: The Lifestream product is simple, intuitive and really, really useful. Frankly it’s what Google Buzz should have been – both an independent social network on its own, but very deep integration into all of the other social networks you are likely to use daily. It’s nice to see actual innovation coming out of Aol. In a time of more and more fragmentation, I think many people are looking for a product like this. If Lifestream is really as easy and seamless as TechCrunch says, and if it can gain acceptance, it could be the product AOL needs to turn its social fortunes around. What do you think? Will you give it a shot?

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AOL Launches Stand-Alone Lifestream

Google’s Blue Dot Marks the Availability Spot

cgseo — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:34:25 +0000

Google has announced that a service that was previewed last December is now live for mobile devices. I’ll call it the “Blue Dot of Availability” which is stupid but it’s the best I can do. This function is just more evidence that Google is making mobile a top priority and it is giving retailers the ability to come along for the ride. The Google Mobile blog tells us more We’re happy to announce that as of today, if you’re searching for a product that is sold by participating retailers, including Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, or West Elm, you can just look for the blue dots in the search results to see if it’s available in a local store. If you see a blue dot, you can tap on the adjacent “In stock nearby” link, and you’ll be taken to the seller’s page where you’ll see whether the item is “In Stock” or has “Limited Availability” near you. You’ll also see how far away the stores are from you — as long as you’ve enabled My Location or manually specified your location. Here’s a look at it as well. The initial list of retailers for this offering looks good and it is only going to grow as one would expect. At the end of the blog post Google puts out a request for retailers interested to fill out a form to get in the game. My only question is why do you have to click on the More tab in order to get to the Shopping tab, which this function is under. For those in the know this will work but for the general searching population they may not know that this option even exists. I know there isn’t much room on mobile screen but a cool function that is buried may never get the exposure to make it truly successful. But heck, what do I know?! Happy shopping for your blue dot specials.

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Google’s Blue Dot Marks the Availability Spot

Reuters Tells Its Journalists That Twitter Does Not Trump the Wire

cgseo — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:39:45 +0000

Reuters has sat somewhat silently in the background of all the hub bub surrounding whether Google should be able to index stories and make money off that content through advertising. That has been an AP fight for the most part. The strategy has helped Reuters, at least in my eyes, because by staying out of the fray they are implying that they are about journalism first. That’s my take and yours may differ which is fine. What the news organization has not done until yesterday is put out an official social media policy but that’s now complete. Mashable reports Last night, Reuters released their social media policy, which includes instructing journalists to avoid exposing bias online and tells them specifically not to “scoop the wire” by breaking stories on Twitter. The strict instruction makes it clear that even though news continually breaks on Twitter first — especially in disaster scenarios — Reuters journalists are to break their stories first via the wire and not on Twitter. The social media policy in question also addresses a number of other Twitter, Facebook, and online concerns, offering up instructions and recommendations whenever possible. The relationship between breaking news, social media and traditional news outlets is difficult to define. In one way you never want to limit the ability to gather and report news but the integrity of the news has to be kept in place. Hence the rub. While social media may allow for someone to get a “scoop” there is the real danger that it ends up being a scoop of crap versus the truth or a clearer picture of a circumstance. Seeing something happen live is very visceral and exciting but it may only be one small portion of the truth and, in fact, could be completely unrepresentative of the totality of a situation. As a result people are shaping opinions and digesting the news based on a “gut reaction”. That’s important but so is gathering all of the facts and then forming a complete picture of a situation, not just a snapshot opinion. Waiting for a wire version of an event at least allows for some more time to gather data and tell fact from fiction. So having said all of that I think that Reuters and any other hard news outlet is doing something that is essential as we move forward in the new world order of content creation and reality. The integrity of the news has to be preserved and just because social media outlets make it happen quickly in no way makes it more accurate. In fact, it will likely be less so. Since there will be no way to stop the Twitter journalism that is evolving I hope that the main news reporting entities realize that they could be even MORE important in the future if they still take the time to vet information and then tell the whole story behind the pictures and events that are reported “on the scene”. While I know this is a conservative approach I think it will be critical moving forward for consumers to be able to judge what is fantastic against what is really happening and why it happened. Maybe that’s going to be the real purpose of traditional news organizations going forward. To present a truly informed version of events and to help us put together the pieces of situations that are always much more complicated than 140 characters or a photo can convey. I think that is necessary and vital. How does Reuters plan to do this? Through telling journalists to keep their personal stuff personal and to not display any bias that could boomerang on them. Also, having tweets looked at by someone else to ensure everything is above board is discussed. Read the policy if for nothing else to be informed . So what do you think? Is the scoop more important than the whole truth? Is there danger in 140 character versions of events that are often far more complex? How can traditional news organizations maintain the balance that protects integrity but remains timely in the new world order of “report as you go”?

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Reuters Tells Its Journalists That Twitter Does Not Trump the Wire

Express Yourself with Google’s New Blogger Template Designer

cgseo — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:16:38 +0000

Don’t go for second best baby Put your blog to the test You know, you know, you’ve got to Make Blogger express how it feels And maybe then you’ll know your blog is real! I used to be a Blogger fan. However, just like my love of Madonna, I stopped liking Blogger when it started looking tired and old. Well, Google has announced a new Blogger Template Designer , that might help breathe a little life into the service that arguable plays second-fiddle to WordPress. With the new Blogger Template Designer you can–you guessed it–completely customize the look and feel of your blog–something my friend Vinny Lingham has being doing for years over at Yola . Anyway, spam-scrapers bloggers can now enjoy these features: Fifteen new professional templates to start from (and more on their way) Custom blog layouts with one, two and three columns Hundreds of free professional background images from iStockphoto Customizable colors, fonts and more This video explains it further:

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Express Yourself with Google’s New Blogger Template Designer

Email Advertising – Reach Your Audience

BlogPostman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:42:59 +0000

Businesses are only as strong as their customer base, and the same is true for web based businesses and their audience of only visitors and clients. Many people don’t understand that maintaining and online audience is constant work, and if you can’t figure out a creative way to stay in touch with your online customers and prospective customers, you’re going to lose their business.

Many people are searching for the right marketing techniques that will keep the interest of their audience members without annoying them or making them feel like they are constantly being sent promotional materials that just end up in the recycling bin.

One of the most successful marketing tools that online business owners have turned to is email advertising. This is a tactic that will reach your online audience right where they are: surfing the internet. It also eliminates waste and doesn’t take more than a click to delete if they’re not interested.

There are many reasons why choosing email advertising is a smart decision for online business owners that want to make the most of their advertising dollars. First of all, this type of advertising makes determining your ROI very easy, through link tracking and reception rates.

If you think that email advertising might be the method for communication that you’ve been searching for, you have to find a marketing service that will allow you to create the dynamic email advertisements that you need without charging you an arm and a leg to send them.

The best email advertising companies will offer you several levels of participation, so that you can try out the service without committing to a large investment in emails that might not work out. Start with a number of emails that represent just a fraction of your customer base, and after a week or so, compare the number of sales in that group to the sales in the rest of your base. If you notice an increase amongst the email recipients, you might want to try a larger round.

No matter which email advertising company you choose, be sure that they offer targeted distribution, meaning that they will help you to tailor your email announcements and product sales to people who are likely to respond favorably to them.

Snail mail is a thing of the past, so why are you still sending flyers about your business through the mail? Increase your sales and brand awareness with email advertising. Click here to learn more.

FTC Still Examining GoogleMob—Wants Feedback from Rivals

cgseo — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:39:47 +0000

Now here’s a great way to gather totally, completely unbiased information about a potential merger: ask the companies’ competitors. Okay, so the FTC isn’t completely crazy—of course other companies in the market would have a pretty good idea what the industry looks like and what a big merger might do. But still, we can only hope the FTC will remember to take their opinions with a grain of competitive salt. AdMob, the popular mobile advertising company, and Google, the wanna-be-popular mobile advertising company, announced the deal in November . Google gave AdMob $750M in stock in the deal. The next month, consumer groups began lobbying against the deal . Now the FTC wants both advertisers and rivals to make sworn statements about the pending merger. The probe isn’t public, but sources say the commission is “investigating whether Google’s proposed purchase of AdMob would reduce competition in the market for Internet advertising on mobile phones.” (Kind of a duh.) Google says it’s continuing to talk with the FTC and cooperate with requests for information. Bloomberg consulted Thomas Ensign, an antitrust lawyer, on the matter. He said, “It’s difficult to envision a scenario where this development, if true, is positive for Google-AdMob, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the agency is going to challenge the deal.” Just over a year ago, the US Department of Justice was hours from filing anti-trust charges against the search giant over another major advertising deal (with Yahoo) . Is Google pushing their luck with this merger? Will GoogleMob hurt the mobile ad industry? Will the FTC stop the deal?

Google Reader Asks Us to Play

cgseo — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:25:59 +0000

Google Reader Labs is adding a new way to view your feeds— Play . According to the blog announcement , this was conceived as a way to help introduce people to Google Reader—people who “aren’t interested in taking the time to get Reader set up” but are interested in using it. I hope both of you are happy . But really this layout is primarily designed for people who want to view graphics or video—on autoplay, oh joy—and only a couple lines of any accompanying text. The white-on-black layout works well for showing off images, but not so well for that text. Plus, to read a full article, you have to click on a “read more” link, which opens the full post within Google Reader Play—so still in the white-on-black layout that’s always so popular among people who read things online: The layout includes many of the social features of Google Reader—the star, the Like button and the share button (the RSS button on its point). It also has a few settings: hide the thumbnail viewer, use magic layout (I only pushed that button when I had an all-text post up, though, so it didn’t do anything), view settings (All items, New items, Starred items, Liked items or Categories (to view top items in select categories)), or view the images in a post in a slideshow. While it looks slick, I’m not sure this is going to make it any easier for people to overcome their initial aversions to the setup process—and if they want to, I don’t know, read blogs with Google Reader, they may not be a big fan of Play. If you want to experiment with Play, you can log in to your Google Reader. View a folder and select View in Reader Play from the folder settings (above the items) or from the drop down: I’ve tried just going to Google Reader Play, but after letting it load for ten minutes, somehow I doubt I’m going to get anything. What do you think? Would you like to Play?

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Google Reader Asks Us to Play

Would You Like a Free Apple iPad With Your Trackur Account?

cgseo — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:07:54 +0000

As you know, a couple of weeks ago (my company) Trackur launched Trackur Free –a competely free version of the popular social media monitoring tool . To celebrate Trackur Free’s success–and to get as many people protecting their reputation as possible–Trackur is now giving all users a chance to win a free Apple iPad! Yep, you can get your hands on a free online reputation monitoring tool AND enter to win the hottest gadget around! Want to enter? Head over to the Trackur site pronto!

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Would You Like a Free Apple iPad With Your Trackur Account?