Make Money Online

CBS has turned one of the premier multi-day sports events into a destination purchase for Internet advertisers.

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament, which tips off later this week, has brought in millions in online ad sales. Ad Age reports that CBS has sold out its online inventory for $37 million, a number 20 percent higher than last year.

The appeal for advertisers is March Madness On Demand, the web service which allows users to watch the NCAA Tournament games of their choice livestreamed on CBSSports.com. Last year, 7.5 million viewers watched online up 7 percent year over year and CBS expects that number to continue to grow. Key to increasing views is the decision to allow the content to be distributed via multiple channels including Yahoo Sports and Facebook.

All 64 games of the tournament can be watched free online, a gamble which has paid off for CBS. Removing the paywalls and other restrictions to online viewing while maximizing distribution has paid off big. CBS has seen online ad revenues grow from $4 million in 2006 to this year’s $37 million total.

CBS is almost synonymous with the Tourney having held exclusive rights since 1982 and is currently in the middle of a 11-year rights deal with the NCAA for the Tourney, with 3 years remaining. According to WPP-owned Kantar Media, CBS’s online March Madness revenue totaled 5 percent of the overall $600 million plus ad revenue pie last year, up from 3.5 percent the year before and expected to edge even higher this year.

“This is extraordinarily similar to selling TV and that’s a good thing,” Rich Calacci, Senior VP-Advertising Sales CBSSports.com told Ad Age.

In collaboration with AT&T, CBS has another revenue stream coming from mobile this year, charging $9.99 for its March Madness iPhone app which will allow viewing on phones. But, according the Apple’s rankings, that isn’t turning off buyers. March Madness is the No. 2 paid iPhone sports app.

The sponsors CBS is picking up are quality sponsorships too, including Coke, Kraft Foods, AT&T and newcomer Capitol One.

According to Ad Age, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves called March Madness On Demand “a great new source of revenue” for his network.

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Dropping March Madness Paywall Pays Off Big for CBS

Believe it or not there is more to SXSW than the parties. Although from chatter on Twitter it’s often hard to tell. With SXSW kicking off this week I’m sure most of you have planned which parties to attend but maybe haven’t looked at the session schedule quite yet. So before you get lost in the lines to the film screenings, bars, celebrity signings, and hoping food joints like the Magnolia Café or the Iron Works, here are my picks for the Top 10 must see interactive sessions at SXSW 2010:

Smackdown: Consumers Privacy vs. Advertiser Revenue
Time: Friday March 12, 2PM
Hashtag: #smackdownprivacyrevenuet

The panel premise that the FTC could ban all forms of tracking consumer web activity is a nice but alarmist hook. Still, it is true that the FTC is being more aggressive in policing online activity and the assembled panelists should provide advertisers some clear insights into compliance issues.

Panelists include:

• Alan Chapell, President Chapell & Associates
• Alison Pepper, Director of Research of Public Policy at Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
• Jordan Mitchell, Vice President of Data Intelligence Rubicon Project
• Ingrid Sanders, Director AdAdvisor at TARGUSinfo

Crime Scene: Digital Identity Theft
Time: Friday March 12, 3:30PM
Hashtag: #digitalidtheft

The theft of digital identity is often easier and sometimes more damaging than identity theft offline. As social media mixes more with ecommerce this will become a larger problem. Learning methods to make that ID more secure is valuable information. Hopefully Bill has the sense to not make it too pitchy.

Panelists include:

• Bill Morrow, Chairman and CEO of CSIdentity
• Aaron Strout, CMO of Powered.com

Eight Ways to Deal with Bastards
Time: Friday March 12, 5PM
Hashtag: #8waysdealbastards

As the saying goes, no one ever has a good day in customer service. This is especially true when, let’s face it, some of your customers  are inevitably  bastards. This session offers a few copeing mechanisms.

Panelists include:

• Bryan Mason, Founder Small Batch Inc / Typekit
• Jason Shellen. CEO and Founder of Thing Labs
• Lori McLeese, Chief People Officer at  Room to Read
• Karen Walrond, Founder Chookooloonks Media

Big Brother in Your Brain: Neuroscience & Marketing
Time: Saturday March 13, 11AM
Hashtag: #bigbrotherinyourbrain

I’m a science geek, so when you mention the word “neuroscience” in a panel about marketing I’m ready to jack in. The concept of using MRIs to analyze brain activity when exposed to different marketing stimuli is very interesting. So is the brewing battle of math (analytics) vs. creativity; somehow I don’t see the two concepts as being mutually exclusive. All the makings of a great session!

Panelists include:

• Roger Dooley, Vice President Digital Marketing at Hobsons
• Gary Koepke, Co-Founder Modernista!
• Eric Kogelschatz, Co-Founder shark&minnow
• Dr. A.K. Pradeep, President and Chief Executive Officer NeuroFocus
• Dr. Danielle Stolzenberg, PHD University of Virginia

Sleeping Giants: Digital Awakens TV and Media
Time: Saturday March 13, 5PM
Hashtag: #designemergingmedia

Giants always follow the money. Or the beanstalk. Digital has now proved that  there is money to be made online, that it is sustainable, and can draw large clients; therefore, it should be no surprise that the giants of traditional media are paying attention. Sponsored by Razorfish, who should know a thing or two about the whims of giants, the session will take on fundamental impact digital will have for advertisers and marketers.

Panelists include:

• Domenic Venuto, Managing Director Client Solutions Razorfish
• Andrew Pimentel, Director, Account Planning at Razorfish

Selling Subculture Without Selling Out
Time: Sunday March 14, 12:30PM
Hashtag: #sellingsubculture

Having worked with Jones Soda online marketing efforts for nearly four years I know full well how difficult it is to balance the need to post large sales numbers with the imperative to protect the brand/consumer relationship. This session provides some guidelines on how to hit those numbers without selling out.

Panelists include:

• Richard Nash, Founder Cursor
• Raymond Leon Roker, Founder URB Magazine
• Molly Crabapple, Founder Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School
• Jeff Newelt, Publisher SMITH Magazine
• Gala Darling, Founder iCiNG

Online Advertising: Losing the Race to the Bottom
Time: Sunday March 14, 3:30PM
Hashtag: #racetothebottom

We spend a lot of time in this industry thinking about “how” and “where” to advertise. The concepts of building real relationships with publishers, making sure the advertising is doesn’t take away from the content, and respectfully dealing with the audience are all topics that are usually just paid lip service. Glad to see this session challenging us to change the way we think.

Panelists include:

• Jim Coudal, Principal Coudal Partners
• John Gruber, Daring Fireball

Open Science: Create, Collaborate, Communicate
Time: Monday March 15, 9:30AM
Hashtag: #openscience

Ok, I will admit this made the Top 10 because, well, as I stated earlier I’m a science geek. Ever since I interviewed Scott Maxwell for Gnomedex two years ago I’ve been fascinated about social media’s ability to pry open the doors of previously sequestered industries. It will be nice to see what progress NASA and others have made since then.

Panelists include:

• Ariel Waldman, Founder Spacehack.org
• Dr. Kirsten Sanford, Ph.D Neurophysiology, This Week in Science
• Jessy Cowan-Sharp, Collaborative Web Technology Developer NASA Ames Research Center
• Natalie Villalobos, Community Manager Google
• Tantek Çelik, Computer Scientist Microformats.org

Web Series 2.0: Big Campaigns on Digital Dollars
Time: Monday March 15, 11AM
Hashtag: #bigcampaigndigitaldollars

Big campaigns don’t always require big dollars. In the social space it is about smart engagement. Smart advertisers are turning to producers and content creators to help maximize their budgets. This is the perfect panel to find out how.

Panelists include:

• Melissa Fallon, Vice President of Television and Emerging Media Davie Brown Entertainment
• Chris Hanada, Co-Founder Retrofit Films
• Milo Ventimiglia, Co-Founder DiVide Pictures
• Wilson Cleveland, SVP + Director CJP Digital Media
• Andrew Hampp, Reporter Advertising Age

Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0
Time: Monday March 16, 11AM
Hashtag: #kivakillnonprofit

New fundraising models are changing the ways donors can interact with nonprofits. Kiva, of course, is one  a leading example of success from  such a model. While I don’t feel that the Kiva model will hurt the majority of nonprofits, I do feel that they will need to adapt to new methods of outreach to successfully maintain their donor base.

Panelists include:

• Skylar Woodward, Designer/Lender Kiva
• Ruth-Anne Renaud, Vice President of Women’s Philanthropy and Interactive Marketing Opportunity International
• Milo Sybrant, Online Fundraising Manager Amnesty International USA
• Michael Cervino, Vice President Beaconfire Consulting
• Katie Bisbee, Executive Director DonorsChoose.org

Hope you get back to your hotel in one piece and you enjoy the sessions at SXSW 2010.

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Top 10 Must See Interactive Sessions at SXSW 2010

Have you started taking advantage of the cash bonuses the 1-plus.com affiliate program has made available for March at Addition Elle?

If not, you should log in now to Share Results and become an affiliate for the 1-Plus affiliate program - because for this week Addition Elle has some exciting promotions ready for their online clientele only!

From March 3rd to March 9th, 2010 Addition Elle is offering all their online clientele the chance to Buy 2 Bras and get the 3rd one FREE! This is an excellent opportunity for retail affiliates to write some value-added content, highlighting all the features of The Convertible Bra – a versatile, comfortable, flexible bra with seamless design.

For more information on how to promote this brand, send us an email at 1plusaffiliates@shareresults.com

See the rest here:
This week at AdditionElle

Over the past few months the industry has seemed to gone through some slight changes. Rebill offers for the most part are not run like they were before. I know this because of what’s happened to my own traffic, getting approval on my own offer, and then friends that I’ve talked to who have had to go back to “legit” affiliate offers.

So now what? Some food for thought…

Oldies but Goodies

Offers like credit reports, auto insurance, dating, etc. These are the classics but they’re offers that have been running strong this entire time for a reason…they convert. Some of the very first offers I ran back in the day were all 3 of those I listed above, and all 3 were profitable. I also see Google ads as well as Facebook ads for all 3 of those, which tells me that it looks like they’re converting just like the old days.

Mobile/IQ

Mobile used to be the hot “shady” thing to do, when rebilling people for $9.99 was unethical. My oh my if we only knew we would rebill for 10x that amount and go to bed with a smile on our faces (’our’ just referring to the entire industry). Mobile offers are doing well from what I hear. I see some ads on Myspace and other teenage oriented sites, and I also hear incenting these offers on app traffic is working nicely.

Edu

If you take a closer peek at Facebook and a few other places, you’ll see a few people running education offers. These have been kind of a “sleeper” for a while now, I ran them a while ago with some success. The only thing you have to watch out for is quality, they can end up nailing you on it. But other than that it’s a nice leadgen with a good payout for just completing a form with no credit card.

Good Ole Fashioned Business

Maybe it’s time for you to take some of those rebill profits and pour them into a business idea you’ve had in your mind for the past year. Don’t forget that affiliate marketing is just one of the ways to make money online. Build a site that people want to visit every day or a service that they don’t mind paying to use. In the age of Facebook/Digg/Reddit/etc, sharing has never been easier. This makes viral sites all the more easier to go viral.

Just some things to think about in case you’re a deer in headlights now that the FTC truck is speeding at you.

Source:

Based on the book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum

Share everything
One of the great things about the affiliate marketing community is that it really is a community. If you discover a new technique for online marketing that you’re finding successful, don’t be afraid to share it with your friends. In turn, they’ll share their tips to success with you, which makes everyone richer; figuratively AND literally.

Play fair
This can be a tough business, and the temptation exists to employ questionable techniques, like Black Hat SEO, for example. When employing these techniques, rest assured that they are very likely to come back at you with unfavorable results, eventually. Play fair, work hard, and reap the rewards.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours
As above, affiliate marketers who attempt to get their traffic by duping people into coming to their site most often end up bouncing a far greater amount of traffic than they convert. The rewards just aren’t there, especially when one considers the harm that this does to legitimate affiliate marketers. Trust is what motivates a sale, above all other conditions.

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some
Incorporate that balance into the work aspect of your day as well. Endeavour, on a daily basis, to learn something new about affiliate marketing. Find out about new SEO practices. Discover how other affiliates are converting traffic. Read about website analytics; read someone’s affiliate marketing blog. Get to know your affiliate manager. Constantly test your methods of marketing and employ new ones to see what works best. Find the techniques that work best for you by constantly trying different things. It’s all about trying to achieve that balance.

Take a nap every afternoon
Seriously. Life as an affiliate marketer can be trying, so take a rest when you have a chance. When I was working as a full-time affiliate marketer I took a 45-minute nap every single day on my couch and it helped me get re-energized for the rest of my workday, no matter how much longer it was. We last a lot longer when we take the time to recharge our batteries.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together
Many of the people I know who are successful affiliate marketers have made a point of becoming active members in affiliate marketing communities. There are a lot of benefits to getting to know people that are also involved in this business, and I guarantee that you’ll be surprised at the amount of people who are willing to help you out. Of course, there are some who do not play well with others, but there always have been, and there always will be. Just seek out positive people who are headed towards success and you’ll be following in their footsteps in no time.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK
I can never stress enough the importance of testing and then analyzing your campaigns. Use affiliate marketing software that lets you see track impressions, clicks and conversions. Having affiliate marketing software that provides you with in-depth analytics can make the difference between a lukewarm program and a red-hot one. Keep testing and analyzing, and never, ever take your eye off the prize. It’s there for you; all you have to do is reach out and grab it.

If anyone can think of a way to incorporate the “warm cookies and cold milk” part of this into an affiliate marketing strategy, let me know in the comments section below!

All I Need to Know about Affiliate Marketing I Learned in Kindergarten

An all star line up of panelists representing major verticals focused on online lead generation shared their thoughts on the outlook of the industry. Bruce Eatroff, Partner, Halyard Capital moderated this panel at LeadsCon 2010, held at the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The session started off with a reap of last year and it should come as no surprise that 2009 was a tough year for the mortgage and finance industries.

Ty Taylor, Group President of Experian InteractiveSM, began by sharing some of the challenges Experian faced last year, “2009 was definitely challenging, so much of lead gen was focused on mortgage.  Those companies that diversified, leveraged their scale and sell leads down multiple channel and verticals had success.”

Continuing the theme Thomas Evans, President & CEO, Bankrate, Inc., shared insights on the mortgage industry which seemed to be one of the largest verticals represented this year at LeadsCon. Evans also felt 2009 was a tough year, “it was a challenge, CD’s were a good business, credit cards were awful and insurance was good.”

According to Ronald Pruett, Jr., Chief Executive Officer, MercuryMedia, “financial services and health care took a dip, debt settlement and health and beauty went well, however the end of 2009 saw some advertisers pull back (on their marketing spend).”

There was a lot of insightful information in this session and below I will highlight the top three things discussed in this panel. Most sessions at LeadsCon are limited to 30 minutes which makes it challenging to fully dive into a topic.  Thankfully this session was 45 minutes, but it could have gone on much longer.

1. Lead generation marketing emerging into a multi-channel approach
2. Impact of FTC regulations
3. Industry trends to watch for

A lot of time was spent discussing the emerging channels for lead gen in 2010 and beyond.  Leads were historically driven to a call center, however they are now also driving consumers to a website, mobile and social media channels.  Taylor shared that the volume of leads isn’t as high in these additional channels, however the quality is much higher.

Mr. Evans had this to say add,“Lead gen is the hot new thing, it was almost a dirty words a couple years ago and now we are sitting in a room full of smart people. People buying leads only want to deal with a few people through direct, large relationships”.

Matt Coffin, Investor, Coffin Capital discussed some of the impact from the recent FTC regulatory guidelines that passed December 1^st, 2009.  He had this to say about it, “Some of the bigger names are filing Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  It is happening in direct response TV”.  Mr. Evans was able to provide some perspective from the banking industry regarding this matter, “People in Washington are trying to be sure consumers are protected regarding violations of privacy and integrity of data.  As a result, legislators will try to over correct this”.

As for industry trends to watch for everyone agreed that there would be more consolidations of companies, however some felt it would involve a lot of small acquisitions.  Mr. Pruett felt that the application of web and television would be important going forward.  He added this, “You can build great brands through lead gen, it is quickly becoming main stream.  When you can quantify it, you can sell it.”

There was a lot of great information in this session, I hope this recap provided some insight into content this all star lineup provided.  If you attended LeadsCon and would like to add to this, I’d love to read your comments below.

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I was really looking forward to this session at LeadsCon 2010 and wasn’t alone as the session was over two-thirds full. Jesse Pujji, Ampush Media Co-Founder, moderated a panel consisting of Jay Hallberg, Co-Founder & VP Marketing for Spicework and Thomas Koletas, Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales for Madison Logic.

After brief introductions panelists were asked to share one big vertical in the B2B lead generation space. Jay Hallberg said that global information technologies are a market section with a $45 billion marketing budget that has plenty of room to grow.

Tom Koletas agreed with Mr. Hallberg, but he also saw the technology vertical as a large opportunity in the B2B space this year. He felt that technology is such a strong vertical because affiliates have been promoting it for years and years. He also shared that he thought “white papers” were the primary means by which people generate leads.

Mr. Pujji asked each panelist for what they thought were the biggest differences between B2B and B2C in lead generation. Mr. Hallberg’s response was the community of IT professionals and their ability to drive huge volume. In contrast, he felt B2C volume was relatively low, citing 20,000 page views a month as the measure of success in B2C.

Mr. Koletas said he felt B2B was a more collaborative buying process where content producers are outstanding lead generators. He also mentioned construction as a vertical to watch.  He used VOIP as an example of a more commodity-based vertical typical of B2B lead generation. Additionally, he felt that B2C forms are short with only a couple of “points” (i.e. name and email, to fill out the form) while B2C typically requires 18 points. Database, management software, and CRM were a couple examples he used to support the long form typically found in B2B lead generation marketing.

Mr. Koletas felt that, “B2B lead generation has a greater shelf life than B2C.” He also felt that the leads are typically more qualified in B2B. He used an example of working with CDW, if they were into data mining, and said he could get in contact with the guy buying leads for Liberty Mutual – that would be a great lead.

When posed the question, “What kind of advice would you give from B2C to B2B?” Koletas felt B2C lead gen was really good at distribution, but that the industry needed to learn how to scale. He also liked the innovative ways B2C lead gen marketers used social media to get offers in front of consumers.

Learning to save time in innovation and training are some key pointers B2C marketers could take away from the B2B industry according to Mr. Hallberg. He also referenced communication and networking, that IT professionals were ahead of Twitter in terms of finding ways to find each other and share information.

Mr. Koletas stated that he expects to see a more diverse scope of verticals including construction, lead gen, plastics, and manufacturing emerging in 2010. He also emphasized that data is really important—that the way we collect leads is permission based.

The session ended with each panelist sharing where they would invest if they had $1 million to play with right now. Mr. Hallberg stated that he sees an affinity between IT and maintenance operations and he also sees an opportunity in sales training and education. While Mr. Koletas felt finance might also make a big comeback this year.

View original here:
LeadsCon Coverage: B2B Lead Generation in a B2C World

On opening day of this year’s conference, held at February 23-24, LeadsCon attendees packed the Mirage Hotel Las Vegas conference room to hear from Douglas Merrill, author and Chief Operating Officer of New Music and President of Digital at EMI Music. Jay Weintraub, LeadsCon founder, did the introductions and welcomed Douglas on stage.

“Apparently April 1^st is a bad day to announce your resignation from a company,” Douglas Merrill quipped at the start. When Merrill decided to leave his former position as the CIO and VP of Engineering at Google in 2008 on a self-appointed quest “save the music industry”, two press releases were required to notify people of his resignation.

Beyond the PR awkwardness of leaving Google on April Fools, Merrill has overcome much adversity to reach his goals. Born in Canada, Merrill was deaf from age three to six due to an infection in his auditory nerve, according to InformationWeek, and still carries an accent in part derived from his Canadian voice coach. He also happens to be dyslexic which makes both math and reading difficult for him.

His speech was informative, although I found myself wondering how it applied to the lead generation industry.  While not specifically focused on the lead generation industry, it centered on the concept of innovation and how the structure that drives innovation isn’t the same for all organizations.

One interesting observation Merrill shared was a time when he found innovative structure was more than just allowing engineers one day a week to do whatever they wanted.

“To be innovative and successful, you need more than an idea; you need to have a structure that won’t kill your innovation. The type [of structure] you need depends on what kind of innovation you are doing. Most innovations are not transformative; they make small changes.”

Merrill also discussed the need for an open communication system where in a junior person can tell the boss he is wrong. He suggested one of the ways to do this is by hiring a diverse team:

“A diverse workforce is key to finding solutions. More opinions equal better ideas. Great ideas come from junior sales people, accounting, etc. and everyone in an organization has great ideas and an open communication system fosters this type of thinking.”

“What you have to focus on are not the innovative transformations, but the little ones day by day,” he said. “Good ideas come from everywhere in the organization.”

One of the main themes of the keynote was the idea that part of the problem with innovation is the structure. Douglas Merrill illustrated this point using the example of the military as a vertical structure where a small number of workers do a lot of work for a boss, who reports up to another boss, etc. In this structure it is very easy to escalate an issue up the chain; however, it is very difficult to go sideways, because you already know what you are going to do.

He said, “In contrast, if you don’t know what you are doing, going horizontally from side to side is more important. One is not better than the other, they are different.”

While at EMI, Merrill learned a valuable lesson.  He thought the same structured approach at Google would work in the music industry.  Quickly he learned that the same approach doesn’t work for all companies. The right structure for success depended upon the culture of the organization and the problems trying to be solved.

The music industry defined success in terms of record sales. However, in 2007 concert sales went through the roof and iTunes was selling 12 singles for every album sold. Merrill stated the music industry needed to listen to their customers and provide music in the format the consumer wanted. For example, Limewire’s biggest users were also their highest buyers of music. They just wanted to preview the music first.

He closed by sharing that your company has to build and foster a culture that enables open communication. You must create a structure where people feel safe to tell the boss that they are wrong, giving them the room to be innovative.

Original post:

Long story made short with no explanation : I’ve just created a chatroom here at Uberaffiliate, you can click here to connect to it.

Now for the explanation. If you’re anything like me, some days you’re at your house chugging away at campaigns and you just get bored. Maybe most of your friends on IM are working and can’t talk, you don’t want to wait for people to reply to your forum posts, and you just want to take a break. That’s why I set up a small chat room attached to UberAffiliate. I plan on just popping it up in a new window and letting it chill in the corner of one of my monitors. I used to hang around the Cakes chat room, but the past few times I’ve gone in there hasn’t really been anybody on.

This is also a way I think I’ll be able to connect with you guys (the readers) better. A lot of you send me IMs during the day and I’m either not paying attention to Adium, or by the time I get back to the computer to respond you’re already gone.

So if you just want a place to hang out and chat/shoot the breeze with other marketers, just head to the chat room.

Nothing big, maybe I’ll see you there maybe not! Oh if you have your own IRC program that you’re more used to, the channel is #affchat.

View original here:
AffChat at Uberaffiliate

I am getting very excited to attend the LeadsCon conference at the Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas February 23 and 24th, 2010.  I’ve attended several affiliate conferences in the past, however this will be my first lead generation focused conference.

Looking over the agenda, I am very impressed by the sessions and am having a hard time choosing which ones to attend.  But know for sure I won’t miss the Opening Remarks by LeadsCon Founder, Jay Weintraub. Below I’ve highlighted my Top 5 Must See Sessions of LeadsCon 2010:

Keeping Compliant – Legal and Regulatory Developments for Lead Generators

This session is a must for anyone advertising online.  Whether your business is strictly online or you’re a multi-channel advertiser conducting a portion of your business online, this session will help you understand the impact of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on customer acquisition.  Understanding and keeping in compliance is crucial for staying in business, and I know that the new FTC guidelines are a hot button issue for a lot of people doing business online. I am curious to hear the impact of the new compliance rulings from the perspective of online lead generation marketers as well as lawyers of Internet Law.

Moderator: Casey Cook, Chief Revenue Office, DoublePositive Marketing Group

Panelists: John Dozier, Jr., Esq., President, Dozier Internet Law,

P.C. Jonathan Pompan, Attorney at Law, Venable, LLP

What’s in Store for 2010 – Industry Leaders

Don’t miss this chance to hear from experts in the online lead generation space as they share stories of their successes and failures  from 2009.  I am looking forward to hearing this diverse panels perspective on where industry’s future is headed.

Moderator: Bruce Eatroff, Partner Halyard Capital

Panelists: Matt Coffin, Investor, Coffin Capital

Thomas Evans, President & CEO, Bankrate, Inc.

Scott Lynn, Founder & CEO, Adknowledge, Inc.

Ronald Pruett, Jr., Chief Executive Officer, Mercury Media

B2B Lead Generation in a B2C World

Come learn as leaders in the business-to-business online lead generation space share some of the best and comprehensive tools for success.  This should be a very interesting session as business-to-consumer lead generation is far more lucrative from a marketing dollars perspective.  The business-to-business lead generation space can be challenging, so I am looking forward to this session and hoping to come away with some new ideas from this solid panel of speakers.

Moderator: Jesse Pujji, Co-Founder, Ampush Media

Panelists: Jay Hallberg, Co-Founder & VP Marketing,  Spiceworks

Tom Koletas, Senior Vice President, Sales, MadisonLogic

Does Affiliate Marketing in Lead Generation Makes Sense?

If the title to this session doesn’t intrigue you, then the panel certainly should.  This session features a panel representing a diverse point of view on the topic of affiliate marketing in the lead generation space.   Learn about the important role of affiliate marketing in driving online traffic and if  it is right for your online business.   As I mentioned, this is a great panel and I am looking forward to a lively discussion from this group of insiders.

Moderator: David Rodnitzky, Founder, PPC Associates

Panelists: Leah Muhlenfeld, Director of Marketing, SnagAJob.com

Russell Pechman, Vice President, Lead Generation, Linkshare Corporation

Jeremy Shoemaker, Founder, Shoemoney Media Group

The Metric of Success

You won’t want to miss this session on performance-based pricing.  There are many different ways to define this pricing model: cost per click, cost per lead, and/or cost per action.  Find out which verticals match up best with each of these pricing models.  What I am most interested in hearing are which metrics the panelists would prefer, or deem appropriate, for different verticals.

Moderator: Jere Doyle, Founder, President & CEO, Prospectiv

Panelists: Jon Kelly, Vice President, Insurance Quinstreet

Sean Fox, Chief Operating Officer, Reply.com

Here’s a tip: LeadsCon wraps up with a VIP Party Wednesday night at PURE.  Everyone attending LeadsCon is invited, however you must have an invitation to get in.  You can grab your invitation at the All Web Leads (Booth #402) and LendingTree (Booth #405) during the exhibitor hours.  Come find me and share what you learned in the sessions and during the conference.

Those are my picks, what sessions are you most looking forward to?

See original here:
Top 5 Must See Sessions at LeadsCon 2010

The Winter Olympics kicked off just days ago in Vancouver, Canada. As always, the primary media coverage is traditional television, but there’s a new and essential spin this year – social media.

As Alexandra Samuel points out in her blog for Harvard Business Review,  the Winter Olympics is “a living social media experiment.” While social media was used during the Summer Games in Beijing, “this is the first time it will be deployed in a free and democratic regime,” says Samuel.

Social media is having an impact that goes beyond the Olympics Games themselves. For example, the city of Vancouver became a hotbed of social media activity well before the games even started. Vancouver’s local media coverage of the Olympics has also changed dramatically, according to Samuel. Citizen journalists, she says, “have provided an alternate – and often critical – take on the Games.” Linda Solomon, publisher of the Vancouver Observer, an online news magazine that recruited over 150 contributors, tells Samuel, “It’s not about crafting a story anymore, which is an art that takes many years to master. It’s about telling what you see and think, something anybody can do. This levels the playing field.”

Another area that is depending heavily on social media is the “Cultural Olympiad” – an entire series of multi-disciplinary festivals running before, during, and after the Games. The Cultural Olympiad showcases Canadian and international music, dance, theatre, visual arts, and film.

In addition to making early use of Twitter and Facebook, the Cultural Olympiad launched Canada CODE, a giant digital project that, for a year before the Olympics, provided Canadians with an online platform for “connecting, creating and collaborating” with the people of the world to present “an ever-evolving portrait” of Canadians. The culmination of CODE is an invitation to enter the “Virtual Stadium” and upload a personal photo for a chance to be a virtual part of the Olympics Closing Ceremony.

The International Olympics Committee has had to deal with the impact of social media by establishing regulations for its use. The IOC allows athletes to use Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools as well as blogs, but requires that they limit any posts to personal experiences. “You can’t act as a journalist if you aren’t,” said Bob Condron, director of media services for the United States Olympic Committee. “You need to do things in a first person way.” Athletes are also forbidden to reference any sponsor or advertiser that is not an official Olympic partner. Condron told Wired, “These are going to be the Twitter Olympics.”

Whatever happens during the Olympics, it seems clear that social media has changed the ground rules. Says Samuel, “On the one hand, the Olympic narrative of global community seems like a natural fit for social media… On the other hand the complexity and business model behind the Games make the prospect of grassroots storytelling a huge challenge.”

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Winter Olympics a Test Case for Power of Social Media

T-minus 1 day until the official start of the 21st Winter Olympics!

The 2010 Winter Olympics will be the third Olympics hosted by Canada, and the first by the province of British Columbia. Previously, we have been home to the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec (youpiee!) and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. I put together some fun facts about the Vancouver Winter Olympics you may not know below. Feel free to use them to impress your friends.

1. No Canadian athlete has ever won an Olympic gold medal on home soil!
   
2. The townhouses where athletes are staying are 98 per cent sold and owners are being allowed to hang framed photos of themselves and their families. In exchange, athletes will be encouraged to leave their own photos or a note giving some owners the prospect bumping up the property value, especially if their athletes’ win medals!
3. Athletes will have to do their own laundry. But the soap and the machines will be free of charge.
4. The opening and closing ceremonies will be held at BC Place stadium. Since the stadium with a solid roof, it is the first time that the Olympic torch will be lit indoors.
   
5. The torch relay at the 2010 Winter Olympics is set to be the longest relay in Olympic history.
6. Ghana, Bahamas, Gabon and The Cayman Islands will make their Winter Olympic Debut in 2010.
7. The 2010 Games boast “the greenest medals yet”. The medals include recycled metal reclaimed from electronic waste.
8. Ski cross will make its debut at the 2010 Winter Olympics, it’s the only new event at these Winter Games.
9. Bears, yes Bears! are one of the security threats at Whistler athletes’ village, which is why conservation officers are part of the Integrated Security Unit.
10. Sidney Crosby, Alternate captain for Canada’s Hockey team use to hang out with my little sister in Nova Scotia (where he is from). But strangely enough she doesn’t call him by his name, she calls him “that hockey guy”.
    

Sources: Vancouver Sun, This.org

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Vancouver 2010 Olympics Facts

Hey guys and girls. I just want to write a little message, and I want other affiliates to comment on this issue as well. This is kind of aimed towards affiliate networks.

This post is coming because of something that has happened to me many times. If it’s once or twice at one or two networks, okay maybe those are legit. But when it’s happened at almost every network I’ve been at, some have to be true. This actual post is because I’m planning on running smorgasbord of offers with 1 network. They gave me the heads up that 1 of the offers I requested was no good to run. So my response was basically what the rest of this post says, and a ‘thank you’ to that network.

How many times have you asked “So what are your top converting offers to run for Vertical X?” and got a list back, ran those offers, only to find out that it’s converting worse than what you’re running now?

This has happened to me quite a few times. I’ll get a list of the top offers, and then I’ll ask my AM what the offer is converting at for most affiliates. They usually say very nice things, like “It’s converting at 13% for affiliates with a $5-6 EPC”. Now I’ll be getting like a $3.50-4 EPC now so this sounds amazing, almost double my revenue. So I run the offer and guess what, it’s a $2 EPC and I’m now almost losing money. It’s just happened too many times for them all to be my fault (I know my traffic is good because I’ve run it fine on other offers that look exactly the same).

For an affiliate like me, who doesn’t even want to talk to networks anymore unless they’re going to be honest, I propose this :

Instead of telling me what offers “your affiliates are running great right now”, give me some REAL numbers I can look at. If you have 1 affiliate running at a $6 EPC and 10 affiliates running it at a $2 EPC…tell me the offer has a $2.50 EPC. If that doesn’t beat what I’m running now, that’s just the way it works and I won’t run the offer. But if you’re honest about it and you get an offer in a month that has a $3.50 EPC overall, when you come to me I’ll actually run the offer. It’s annoying to run the offer, not see the $6 EPC, and lose money half the time just to find out that it’s a bad offer.

There was 1 vertical where I literally ran at least 20 different offers where every time I was told were the best offers at the time with great EPCs, only to find out that they all sucked. Lost at least $10,000 just to learn that anything an AM tells me about this offer is going to be a lie, and I should just call it quits.

Anyone with me?

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Maybe you were one of the 100 million who watched the underdog New Orleans Saints win the Super Bowl, but here’s something you didn’t see: an ad from Pepsi, noticeably absent among Super Bowl advertisers for the first time in 23 years. Ironically, unlike Google, the soft drink giant decided to bow out of the big game and put $20 million into digital media instead, relying on its own website and Facebook to tout its brand. Go to Pepsi.com and you’ll see just how digitally sophisticated Pepsi has become.

Don’t underestimate the importance of Pepsi’s promotional strategy. It is representative of what other advertisers are considering this year. Previously, I reported that Procter & Gamble is ramping up its Facebook presence.

It has taken the big guys a while to catch on to social media, but it looks like the floodgates have finally opened. PepsiCo North America’s Marketing VP, Ralph Santana, sounded like a social media convert when he told Financial Times, “We’re living in a new age with consumers. They are looking for more of a two-way dialogue, story-telling and word of mouth. Mediums like the digital space are much more conducive towards that.”

Facebook clearly recognizes that it is on the leading edge of the digital advertising revolution. The company is working with media researcher Nielsen, renowned for television’s Nielsen Ratings, to measure Facebook’s advertising effectiveness.

According to Financial Times, ad agencies are excited about Facebook’s promotional potential, too. Rich Gagnon, chief media officer at Draft FCB, sees Facebook as an important media outlet with the ability to reach more than 350 million people in one place. Even better, Gagnon says, Facebook can provide targeting capabilities based on demographics and interests.

The most exciting potential for advertisers using Facebook, however, may actually be Facebook Connect, which was introduced in late 2008. At last report, Facebook Connect was available on more than 15,000 websites. This set of APIs lets users “bring their identity and connections everywhere,” says Facebook.

Facebook Connect can do things like enable its users to share an advertiser’s website content with their friends, who then click back to the advertiser’s site. Tools like Facebook Connect represent a way social media can be seamlessly integrated with everything from websites to mobile devices.

Jesse Pickard, a social media specialist at digital agency Razorfish, blogged about Facebook Connect a year ago. What he had to say then has a lot of relevance to advertisers today:

“With a one-click login to Facebook Connect, websites have access to an unprecedented amount of user data. Using this data, sites now have the ability to redefine the way they display user generated content.”

“Although Facebook Connect isn’t an advertising buy, it can accomplish the same goals as one (and in an unintrusive manner).  Brands can get their content into Facebook’s viral channels by letting visitors post news feed stories, status messages, photos, events, and more without leaving the website.”

Of course, advertisers have a variety of social media options available to them in addition to Facebook. Similar tools to Facebook Connect also exist, such as Google’s Friend Connect and MySpaceID.

All of this bodes well for online marketing. Big advertisers are legitimizing social media by finally including Facebook in their strategic marketing plans. They are realizing that the opportunities to make use of sophisticated social media have never been better.

Maybe for his haircut to have been truly prohetic Tracy Porter should have added Facebook.

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Who Dat? Not Pepsi

We all know that Google makes a lot of money from ads, but it’s not very often that Google spends a lot of money on ads. The Web powerhouse has been chugging along for years on market dominance and word-of-mouth, but that changed on Sunday night.

During the third quarter of the Super Bowl, Google dove into the world’s biggest ad showcase. While the ad has had its critics (BNet rips it here), some sites ranked it as one of the best ads of the night (like Entertainment Weekly).

But whether or not you liked the aesthetics, approach or politics of Google’s ad, the bottom line was that the search giant got in front of the largest audience in television history to show what it thought was important.

Microsoft upped the ante when Bing launched, putting on an $80 million ad campaign in their attempt to pull casual users from Google . By comparison, Google spent only $5 million, according to the Guardian, on Sunday’s Super Bowl ad.

The ad mattered because of what it told the public about what mattered to Google and because of what it featured. One of those things was YouTube.  Google  featured the ad as part of a series of promotional  online videos for three months prior to game time, essentially crowdsourcing  the ad. Crowdsourcing was exactly the kind of stunt Google would pull that Microsoft would never do, preferring to rely on ad agency think.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Super Bowl placement also signaled a significant change in tactics, as Danny Sullivan, Editor of SearchEngineLand, said, “This pretty much confirms that Google is absolutely feeling the pressure from Bing. The company has never, ever seriously advertised its core search offerings before in this manner.”

Or summed up succinctly by Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt’s tweet, “Hell has indeed frozen over.”

Instead of generic series of Google searches, this ad was a glimpse at features that casual users of the site might not know about.

• The ad stressed maps and business listings: This is a place where Google is making a big move, crafting what looks to be the world’s biggest business directory, with exterior maps (and rumored interior maps of stores), aggregated along with reviews.
• The ad stressed translation: One-click translation of foreign sites is another tool Google is attempting to leverage against a global audience it’s still looking to penetrate. Google is still looking at footholds in the emerging markets, so English-to-another language is as powerful, if not more so than another language-to-English.
• Finally, the ad stressed shortcuts. Google is emphasizing speed to search answers and tools that will be displayed on the top of search pages, so airline flight status and dictionary definitions are great examples of that.

Google is such a big part of everyone’s Web experience that it’s impressive to see them go from passive to active in their marketing. Doing it on such a large stage will have an impact and resonate with their users.

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