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.

View post:
Dropping March Madness Paywall Pays Off Big for CBS

Television advertising is often seen as a measure of mainstream acceptance online technology. It is clear that location based mobile applications have arrived after Foursquare’s  20 second commercial run on the Bravo network. Foursquare, an app where users share their location with friends through a “check-in”, is one of a sudden glut of location apps and the first to advertise on a large television network. Others have made use of this technology for a number of reasons, including allowing business such as Starbucks to target consumers with coupons. All the attention has made users are all too eager to provide their whereabouts when asked, leading to privacy concerns.

Typically, users turn to these applications to:

• Conquer boredom: Apps like Foursquare allow people to communicate with others in the same location. Rain delay at a sports event? Connected users can complain about the high cost of snacks and uncomfortable seating. Stranded at an airport? It’s easy to hook up with others in the same predicament.
• Gain recognition: Many of these apps recognize frequent contributors or participants by recognizing their “achievements”. For example, Foursquare users can earn badges for different check-ins.
• Explore: Let’s not forget, location aware apps help users find local businesses, hotels, restaurants, and other places of interest. In addition to the entertainment value, these applications really help people find what they need.

Privacy

As popular and helpful as location aware apps can be, there is a huge risk when they are used. Broadcasting your whereabouts opens the door to a host of privacy related issues that many people don’t even think about when they fire up these applications:

Big Brother

Tracking, of course, is an inherent part of such technology. Use of which could be leveraged for surveillance purposes. As Carnegie Mellon University Professor Lorrie F. Cranor, who conducted several studies about privacy issues and location-sharing technologies, stated in her testimony to Congress:

“Due to the way cellular technology works, for example, the widespread use of cell phones enables round-the-clock surveillance of citizens. It is important that the storage of individual location data be minimized and protections be put in place to limit when it can be disclosed to the government.”

Cyber Stalking

Cyber stalking was made popular when social networking was making its climb. With location aware services, cyber stalking can be taken to a whole new level. Broadcasts can be used not only to follow victims, but gather information about their likes, interests, hobbies, and anything else that can be useful in their pursuits.

Exposed Irresponsibility

Just as GPS devices have been used to track an employee’s movements while on the clock, location aware services can show an employee, or spouse, to be somewhere other than where they should be. An employee who calls in sick can be exposed when a location aware broadcast shows them to be at the ballpark.

Please Rob Me

When a user broadcasts their home address for the world to see, a few of these people will catch on that when the user checks-in somewhere else, they are not at home. Criminals who understand how this works can easily pick targets where they can be assured that the resident is not at home. Making this even easier are sites like pleaserobme.com that lists Foursquare users that have checked-in somewhere other than their home address.

A matter of trust

When it comes to trust, technology works in reverse. While most businesses spend years trying to establish a brand and consumer trust, people genuinely throw all of their trust into a new technology. It isn’t until the dangers are exposed that they begin to question the faith they have put into it. This can be seen in how people have reacted to Internet technologies over the years.

At first, the Internet was considered a reliable resource. “I read it on the Internet,” was a mantra that was soon mocked as people began to realize that not everything that was published online was factual, or safe. When social media came along, people had no qualms about posting the most intimate details of their lives for others to see. That is, until employers started browsing these sites to get a better glimpse into personal lives of their prospective employees. Now, young adults are growing less trustworthy of posting everything to social media sites.

As time goes by, people will grow to become hesitant before allowing their exact location to be broadcast for everyone to see. As that trust factor diminishes, location aware apps will begin to adapt to the culture of their users. It is the hopes of many application developers that the industry self-regulates since there is growing talk of the need to create standards and regulations to govern these applications. However, until that time comes, users need to take responsibility.

Some things to consider when using location aware applications are:

• Know how the apps you use collect and use your information.
• Look for clear opt-in/opt-out procedures. If they don’t exist, don’t use the app.
• Know the app store’s certification policy. Does the store check the integrity of the app and how it handles data or do they just allow any app created in their store?
• Know where data collected by the app migrates to. It is one thing to collect your information, but what the company does with it after they have it is another story.

See the original post:
User Awarness Key to Privacy with Location Apps

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.

Read more:
Top 10 Must See Interactive Sessions at SXSW 2010

In a previous post I discussed how I thought Twitter was a good tool for businesses.

It turns out that I was underestimating the enterprising drive of Twitter and now Foursquare users. In June of 2009, there was much talk about how a Twitter user suspected his tweets lead to a robbery of his house. Such robberies are possible since the user’s home address is still publicly available via the domain registration of one of his web sites.

I often wondered when (not if) someone one would create a service to highlight the risky behavior of announcing that you weren’t at home. Fast forward to February 2010, and someone finally did it. PleaseRobMe.com is live. The site blatantly looks like a satire, and the creators explain that they made the site to point out the folly of people’s actions. Unfortunately, the information on the site appears legit (you can search Foursquare and Twitter to see the source of the updates), showing people broadcasting that they are away from home. Finding home addresses are not so difficult to find: simply try this search to get a list of people’s addresses, and then you simply need to watch people’s status.

While the Twitter user mentioned in the start of this post has a business, the information people are revealing create the wrong kinds of opportunities. Making it easy for criminals to find and rob you is not the fault of the service, but it does reveal that common sense doesn’t keep up with the new social media technology.

So I end this post with a thought. What are the business model opportunities here?

a) Businesses marketing on Twitter and Foursquare announcing special hours and and ‘on-the-road’ promotions?
b) Businesses offering to catch and correct users who self-reveal risky information?
c) Criminals who are looking for an easier time casing homes?
d) Writers who point out risky behaviors?
e) Other

Please comment, especially if you are one of those who likes to reveal that they are not home.

Read the original:
Satirical Please Rob Me May Point to Business Model for Twitter and Foursquare Users

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.

View original post here:
Who Dat? Not Pepsi

Google is thinking small as it continues to grow. The search giant is focusing on mobile in 2010, according to CEO Eric Schmidt, who spoke during a conference call (full audio transcript) on the announcement of Google’s Q4 earnings.

Before he got into the nitty-gritty of this year’s outlook, Google announced that revenue was up 17 percent in Q4 2009 ($6.7 billion) and up $23.65 billion for all of 2009 (for a net income of $6.5 billion).

Where does Google go from here? Right in our pockets, it appears. The release of the Nexus Phone made a splash, but Google is concentrating on the red meat of advertising and search to really make its mark in 2010, especially on mobile devices.

In 2009, Google saw mobile search increase 5 fold. The advertising that goes along with mobile search is even more specialized for customers. According to Senior Vice President of Project Management for Google, Jonathan Rosenberg:

“The new formats, the targeting tools and the reporting we are giving to advertisers (are) making a difference. Click to call, letting advertisers target specific high-end devices or carriers (we are) seeing improved monetization across mobile.”

This goes along with the trend Google has shown in strengthening its geo-specific local search results and the goal of getting answers to search result question to the user quicker. The feature is especially appealing to marketers as more consumers are using their phones to research the pricing on a possible item before buying.

Beyond mobile, Google is banking on a boom in its revenue from display advertising, which goes beyond the AdWords/AdSense model to more enriched advertising content.

Said Schmidt: “We have said is that our next huge business is display. If I were to talk about absolute numbers that would be No. 1. But smaller ones (revenue growth opportunities are) growing faster. No. 1 there is mobile. We have a lot of evidence that people are moving towards data-friendly mobile devices quite quickly. 2010 will be a year of significant mobile revenue growth.”

Display advertising is growing market for Google as the integration of DoubleClick, which was acquired in 2007, has finally been completed. Coupled with DoubleClick’s vast inventory the type of  reporting Google Analytics is able to provide is very appealing to marketers. Especially when combined with interactive, call-to-action display ads (ie, click here to do this, go to our web site or become a part of our social network), there is a lot of area for expansion for Google. Google has already rolled out more ad templates to make it easier for small businesses to get into the game and is eager to have video powered display ads as well through YouTube which is the de facto leader in the space.

So it looks like the new ecosystem Google is building for 2010 and beyond will focus on display ads powering the revenue picture in a what that AdWords has done since Google’s beginning, along with a more local-oriented, geo-savvy search on mobile, with faster and better answers and targeted advertising that gets as specific as the device being used as the search.

It’s a plan that can fit in the palm of your hand, but one that Google is banking on for this year and the years ahead.

Here is the original:
Google Q4 Earnings Point To Changes in its Marketing Focus

Having lost the 1/2 billion dollar bid to acquire Yelp, it was obvious Google was moving aggressively to win the local war. It’s no surprise then that the search giant announced location will now be a critical factor for the search results that come up, especially if you are using Google’s mobile search support for which was launched in September.

For example, if you search for a “Chinese restaurant” and you are standing in Tulsa, the first result you get is going to be the restaurant closest to you. It won’t matter how maxed out with metadata the Chinese restaurant in Oklahoma, Des Moines or New York City is, it won’t overcome the geographic data of the local diner next door. In Google’s thinking, when people Google for a restaurant, a plumber or a veterinarian, they are looking for someone near them to call for services.

Google has also beefed up its Local Business Center, which allows businesses to provide specific information to appear on the Google Maps feature. Google looks to have all intentions of turning its map into the world’s most comprehensive business directory, answering not only where a business is and what it does, but also taking care of the tip-of-the-tongue issue.

“What’s that place across from Grandma’s house that sells lawn furniture?” There’s an map for that now.

Question is will there be enough mainstream adoption of local search? This is what points to Google’s bet on local to be spot on. As smartphones reach critical mass, more people outside of the die-hard technology crowd will make this their default search tool for things near them if they see it as viable alternate for directory assistance. To back its bet Google will use Android to push not only its offline strategy but its online strategy; this should become top of mind to marketers as Google seeks to win the war over local.

What the Google Local push speaks to is the growing granular nature of information on the Web and how it’s now just as valuable (if not more so) to know who are your businesses neighbors as it is to hit No. 1 in SERPs.

View original post here:
Google Knows Where You Are and has the Goods to Show for it.

It being my first time at the Affiliate Summit and it being my first time at the conference, it might sound naive to say it was the best conference yet… but it was. I enjoyed the enthusiasm and the energy of the conference participants, the contacts made through various networking events, the shared knowledge and experience from all types of industry and the atmosphere provided by Las Vegas itself. I barely slept, but I barely noticed! (Until I got home.)

Only some of our highlights were caught on camera – apparently I like talking more than I like taking photographs? Here, for your enjoyment is a brief recap of our time in Vegas…

In online marketing, one of the best benefits of attending conferences is putting a face to the names you are in contact with on a daily basis.

Julia is modeling some of the must-have tools when standing at a booth at the conference- well done Julia!

I purchased these Blundstone boots just before the Summit and am ever pleased as punch that I did. After tottering around in heels at parties in the evening time, my feet needed the welcome relief of some stylish comfort boots. Or is it shoe-boots? Or sh-oots?

Getting to see some of the sites of Vegas on our way to sponsored events was a real treat – nothing can prepare you for this… and it gves some great decorative ideas for your home renovation plans. Next up for reno plans: the Giant Manta Ray Aquarium.

We attended several parties and we enjoyed all of them =) It’s pretty amazing to see something like this when I’m someone who is just shy of six feet tall and feels proud on those days that I can almost touch my toes.

I think this was supposed to be an imitation of that Charlie’s Angels silhouette.

So. I admit. I always chose pubs and dives over clubs. This is what happens when you’re an ill-advised 20-something.

Thanks again to OPMPros.com for organizing such great parties.

I’m leaving this re-cap with this photo, because I enjoy it.  It is only when you enter a glass elevator do you discover who likes and who dislikes heights.

If you have your own photos to share of ASW10 – post your link in the comments! We’d love to see them.

Original post:
ASW10: Photo Recap!

Recently The Virginia Senate has proposed Bill no. 660. Effectively, the same Advertising Tax that was passed and done significant damage to the small entrepreneurial internet marketing businesses in those states and cost small business jobs in the process.

States have started looking at these bills as a way to make money for their states in times of economic and budgetary turmoil. In California, arguably the State with the most financial troubles, Governor Schwarzenegger understood the effect that this bill would have on the entrepreneurs and jobs in his state and vetoed the bill.

Last night Governor Bob McDonnell delivered the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address. The full video of his response is below, but I wanted to call attention to some of his words in that response that clearly shows that he must follow Governor Schwarzenegger’s example and veto Bill 660, if it make it to his desk. He said the following:

“Here in Virginia we face our highest unemployment rate in 25 years, and bringing new jobs and more opportunities to our citizens is the top priority of my administration. Good Government policies should spur economic growth and strengthen the private sectors ability to create new jobs.”

And then Governor McDonnell followed that with the following at 1:49 in the video below and aired throughout most of the morning news broadcasts this morning:

“We must enact policies that promote entrepreneurship and innovation so America can better compete with the world. What government should not do is pile on more taxation, regulation, and litigation that kills jobs and hurt the middle class.”

Virginia Senate Bill 660 is a policy that will discourage entrepreneurship in Virginia. If enacted, the innovative entrepreneurs in the state will be dropped by the same merchants that the state hopes to obtain taxes from and the potential tax gains will be more than offset by the loss of revenue from these entrepreneural businesses and the employees they are forced to fire.

There are many Internet marketing and advertising companies in Virgina that earn their living through Internet advertising. They do not sell merchant products, nor do they even know who their customers are. These businesses earn revenue through advertising for out-of-state merchants. Upwards of 90% or more of their revenue comes from out-of-state merchants. Large advertisers like Overstock and Amazon have already put Virginia affiliates on notice, that if this bill progresses they will stop working with these entrepreneurial companies in Virginia, like they have in EVERY state that this Internet Advertising tax has been proposed. Those large advertisers are just the tip of the iceberg, many merchants will stop working with these entrepreneurial companies in Virginia, because we have seen it happen in New York and every other state where this Advertising Tax has been passed.

Please Governor McDonnell, we hope that you will help us insure that this bill never reaches your desk, but if it does, please Veto it. Don’t allow Virginia to enact a policy that squashes entrepreneurship and innovation in your state by piling on more taxation that will kill jobs and hurt the middle class of Virginia.

Respectfully yours,

Adam Viener
Chariman & Founder
Imwave, Inc.
Reston, VA

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Governor McDonnell’s GOP Response to Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address Jan 27th, 2010:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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In the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) world, when Procter & Gamble (P&G) makes a move, every one of its competitors take notice. That’s because P&G is the world’s branding powerhouse, owner of 300 brands with such legendary names as Crest, Gillette, Ivory and Tide.

P&G has long been known as a marketing innovator. The company was, of course, among the first sponsors of “soap operas,” but more recently, P&G has used every media imaginable to relentlessly push its brands. That’s why it’s more than curious that P&G has been somewhat late to the social media party.

In fact, in November 2008, Ted McConnell, P&G’s general manager of interactive and innovation, told a conference in Cincinnati, P&G’s hometown, that he was anything but enthusiastic about Facebook. “What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend? …I don’t think everything every consumer says to someone else and writes down is somehow monetizable by the media industry,” McConnell said.

My, Ted, how things have changed. Little more than a year later, P&G just announced that it has opened a Silicon Valley office specifically to “help develop social-networking systems and digital-marketing capabilities,” according to Advertising Age. Venture capitalist David Hornik, who met with P&G executives, reported that “P&G’s explicit goal for 2010 is to assure that each of its brands has a meaningful presence on Facebook, and they are willing to pay dearly for that. …[P&G leaders] view Facebook as a must-have for digital advertising and brand building.”

When P&G does anything, it does it in a very big way, so this latest move is clearly signaling that social media is to be taken seriously by P&G – and therefore by the whole marketing industry, which follows its every move.

Interestingly, on the very same day that the P&G story broke, Advertising Age also  reported that Clorox (a P&G arch-rival) was seeking a full-time in-house legal counsel to focus on social media. This is yet another sign of how important social media has become to big marketers. A Clorox spokesman told Advertising Age:

“Social-media channels are a growing focus for consumer communication and stakeholder engagement for our brands and company. As a newer communication channel, the application of existing laws to this medium is evolving. For those reasons and the rapid pace of communication in the Web 2.0 world, we’re seeking an attorney to focus on social media as well as talent rights.”

Maybe it doesn’t seem like such big news to hear that Procter & Gamble and Clorox are finally focusing on social media, but it matters. These guys are now drinking the social media Kool-aid. When you see companies of this size and stature going full-speed ahead with the likes of Facebook, you know mass adoption of Facebook as a business marketing medium for all CPG companies, and all marketers for that matter, is just around the corner.

Read the original post:
P&G Finally Embraces Facebook

Last month Affiliate Convention came to my neighborhood. I took advantage of the opportunity to walk the exhibit hall with one of our team members who had never been to a conference.

As we wrapped up I told him that while it was a good education, he might not want to be quite as direct as I am.

You see, I don’t like dealing with bad sales people. I’ve done sales. Of course, I think that just about everything includes sales. Are you applying for a job? Then your selling yourself as the product. Do you think your company should release a new product or service? Then you are selling that internally. So we all need to be good at sales.

What makes a good salesperson

First, know your business and the product you are selling. If you don’t know it better than the person you are selling to, your sale will be based on luck, not skill. I hate when I know more about the product than someone who cold called me to get me to buy something I already know I don’t need.

Second, know your prospect’s business. If you can, know it better than they do. If you have too broad of a target market, focus where you can and then ask questions for those whose businesses you don’t know. Don’t try to sound like you are an expert at something you are not. I hate when I know more about the product than someone who cold called me to get me to buy something I already know I don’t need. [Yes, I know I repeated that.]

Next, don’t be scared to tell your prospect about your business and be honest. “Sign up at our website” is not a salespitch. That’s a trick to get e-mail addresses to impress an executive who doesn’t understand the difference between hot and cold prospects.

Finally, don’t use buzzwords and, if you are required to, be able to explain what you company does without them. Jargon often means nothing. Sometimes it means different things to different people. If you can’t use simple words to describe what your company does, I’ll figure you have no clue.

Walking the floor

Affiliate conferences have a few types of exhibitors (forgive me if I miss any and just add a comment below):

• Affiliate networks

• Service providers
• Stores / Merchants
• Publishers / Affiliates
• Outsourced Program Management firms

  The inspiration for this article was affiliate networks. I’m not talking about the majors. I’m talking about all of the CPA networks.

  We typically add one network per year. I used to ask about URL structure (buy.at failed that one recently so miserably we probably will never work with that network), automated feeds on at least a daily basis and product feeds. Now I found I have a new set of questions.

  Sign up at our website

  Name 3 stores or services in your network we need to have on our site.

  That sounds like a simple, basic question that anyone should be able to answer.

  Some networks either can’t or won’t answer it. #SRSLY?!?

  Either they don’t know the stores or services I should want or they just want me to sign up for their network. If they think having another inactive affiliate will do them good, they should just make up fake accounts. What’s the difference?

  Simply put, if you can’t rattle off 3 stores that we need to have on our site, we assume you don’t have at least 3. If you tell us stores that are on numerous networks (including CJ, GAN and/or Linkshare), we don’t need you.

  We work with thousands of stores and you want me to add yours? OK, tell me what they are. You can’t? OK, no soup for you! NEXT!

  What types of stores do you have?

  This seems to be another tough question. This is where the buzzwords really start to jump out. This is where I start asking the questions that I don’t recommend to Casey. In most cases, I found that the offers were the type where a user signs up for an incentivized offer and gets charged $9.95 to their cellphone every month and has trouble unsubscribing. Uh, we won’t put those on our site. We like having long-term value to our members.

  If you have to hide what you do, there is a problem.

  Why the networks won’t talk to me at Affiliate Summit

  There you have it. I think CPA networks will throw their swag at me to keep me away. I gave away the secrets on how to make them say what they really do. Try asking. It’s a lot of fun when you get into it. My greatest hope on this topic is that CPA networks can and will answer these questions for you and that you find lasting, profitable relationships. Short of that, I hope you have fun!

  
  

  

  Continued here:
  How to Walk the Floor at an Affiliate Conference

Part of our goal at Share Results is to continually develop our software and services to offer merchants and affiliates the most advanced, most robust marketing solutions.  On this note, we are very excited to let you know that we have been working diligently to enhance our affiliate marketing software, and we are now ready to launch.

Here’s a breakdown of our new and improved affiliate marketing software.

What’s New for Merchants

• A completely redesigned GUI (Graphical User Interface)
• Improved navigation
• More powerful CRM section
• Easier access to Fraud Tools

What’s New for Affiliates

• A completely redesigned GUI (Graphical User Interface)
• Improved navigation

We’ll be speaking all about our new and improved software solution at Affiliate Summit West 2010.  Will you be there?  We’d love to have you swing by booth #413 for a software demo, and also to ask our team members about how our enhanced software can help you better meet your business goals.

See original here:
Share Results Launches New and Improved Affiliate Marketing Software Solution

I’ve always believed the real winners in marketing play a game of basics PLUS. Those who survive are the ones who master basic strategies and skills, but those who excel are the ones who go beyond the basics – that’s basics PLUS.

In 2010, the marketers who embrace “plus” opportunities will weather the economic storm and enjoy lasting success. Here are some of the primary “plus” areas to consider this year.

Is social media part of your plan?
What’s the best way to make use of it for your business? You need to evaluate which social media tools to use, what strategy to employ, and how best to measure the effectiveness of your efforts.  Ask yourself a lot of tough questions about social media.  Do “fans” translate into sales? Is the time you spend with social media paying off? Are your tweets helping to boost awareness and response?

Are you positioned to take advantage of the new, more sophisticated world of real-time search?
Both Bing and Google now have relationships with Facebook and Twitter, and Google recently struck a deal with MySpace. It’s all designed to provide immediacy and relevancy to search. Search results pages will be increasingly dynamic and information will stream into the pages as it becomes available in real-time. How does that affect your business? Getting more of your information out there via blogs and social media will be more important than ever – and using relevant keywords will be crucial.

Where are you on the video spectrum?
The online video market has exploded and will continue to grow this year. Amateur videos populate news websites. Celebrity videos can destroy or launch careers – Susan Boyle became an Internet sensation and sold close to 3 million albums as a result. Using video to publicize, promote, and advertise an online business will become a standard practice, and you can’t afford to be left behind in this key area.

Have you discovered mobile advertising?
According to eMarketer, mobile ad spending will grow from $416 million in 2009 to $593 million in 2010, reaching over $1 billion by 2012. Mobile and social media are quickly converging. The youth market lives, breathes and eats holding onto their cell phones. The rapid development of apps for smartphones creates a prime business opportunity, even for small businesses.

Are you stuck in an old ad model?
Combine the influence of social media with real-time search, then add in video and mobile advertising, and you see a very different advertising model emerging. Chances are paid content and advertainment will become more effective than standard banner and text ads. You’ll need to be ready to provide high-value, relevant information in a smartly packaged format if you want to one-up your competitors.

Yes, this will indeed be an exciting year. Are you ready for it?

View post:
What You Should Be Doing This Year

Back in October of 2008, We Watch Your Website’s security blog reported that malicious hackers were actually using successful SEO campaigns to spread a huge money making bit of malware to unsuspecting victims. The attack was maniacally brilliant. By finding vulnerable sites in the SERPs for the term “Halloween costume”, they infect the legitimate site with malicious code that will silently redirect (redirecting to a different page without changing the Url) a visitor to a site that claims that their computer is infected with a virus that can be quickly and easily removed by purchasing their advertised anti-virus solution. Don’t think this will work? Evidence from Panda Labs shows that the attacks were earning malicious hackers roughly $14 million a month.

SEO Strategies
The foundation of the attack lies in a company’s hard work to earn a decent enough ranking on the SERP for a targeted term. But abusing SEO doesn’t end there. Once the site has been identified and exploited, the attacker actually use keywords that have been optimized for higher search engine rankings in the redirect to help push their infected sites up in the rankings. So by increasing the rankings of their target websites, the attackers are able to create a greater need among their potential customers.
Holiday time attacks
According to Panda Labs, there is also a fluctuation in these types of attacks as the economy makes headlines. With an estimated $168 million a year to be made of this scam, you can bet that there is nothing to suggest this attack to slow down anytime soon. Being the holiday season, attacks are expected to increase as Christmas time is one of the busiest times of the year for malicious hackers. With IT staff taking time to be with family and shoppers more likely to let down their guard as they look for online deals, the holidays are ripe for attacks.

Prevention
As a user, the best way to protect yourself from this type of attack is to ignore warnings that don’t come from your installed security software. If your anti-malware solution isn’t warning you of infection, odds are a website or a pop-up that you have never seen before is there to help you out – no questions asked.
Owners of websites can do their part to protect their customers, and their SEO ranking. A few simple ways to tell if your site has been exploited with this attack are:

• Visitors complain about getting viruses from your site.
• Visitors complain about being redirected from your site.
• Google or Yahoo! have listed your site as a possible harmful site.
• Your traffic dramatically increases or decreases.
• Check the last login logs on your website’s server. If the IP address is unfamiliar, your site may have been exploited.

Of course, visit your site on a regular basis. If you notice a warning about a possible infection when you are viewing your site, you may be the victim of an attack.

Excerpted from:
Website Exploit + SEO = Payday

In the last post I provided some background on offers and the confusion they may cause. I also pointed out the potential for scams. In this article, I’ll put a little more focus into the complexity of the offer systems and show another example of how confusing offers could lead to complaints.  For the sake of this argument, the values used in my examples are chosen for effect and are not accurate for any specific offer system.

Previously I described an offer for a free Walmart gift card.  The offer awards 21 points for participation in and promises to earn you a $1,000 Walmart gift card as well.  But what are the economics behind the offer?  How is it fiscally viable for a free survey or trial to result in you getting 21 points that would actually cost you $5 to purchase? In this case, it seems too good to be true, and it is. There are two views of the systems. First, the positive view: cost of acquisition.

In this model, when a company knows it typically takes $3 in direct and indirect advertising to acquire a customer they might decide to spend an amount less than $3 to acquire a new customer. For example, an offer may yield a $9 a month subscription to Netflix, at say a $2 cost of acquisition, and a subscriber who may or may not use the service. Typically, the offer would yield a trial customer, costing Netflix $2 in marketing, plus the gross operating costs to support that subscription, but no continuing subscription. For illustrative purposes, let’s say the trial included four discs, sent and returned, at a cash flow cost of $0.80 per disc (due to an estimated cost of $0.40 shipping each way for each disc) for a total of $3.20. The non-converting trial user cost is then $5.20 (or $2 + $3.20). Again, these numbers are estimates that may be off, but have some anchor to the real costs of the offer.

Then, there’s the negative view of the system in which advertisers get fleeced and users get scammed.

This model is comprised of two components: in point A, users take offers with no intention of spending any money with the advertisers, and (B) unknowing users sign-up for subscriptions without intending to. To illustrate point A, I encourage users to briefly visit the sites mafiawarstrategy.com or their sister site mobsterstrategy.com, both which cater to players of mafia/mobster games by Zynga, mentioned in the first part of this series, and Playdom, another large social gaming company. On these sites, and sites like them, you can find instructions on how to pick and choose offers, which offers are free, which offers to avoid due to spam, and how to manage your offers to insure you don’t get charged a penny.

My favorite part of the posts at these sites is that they carefully explain how to spot and avoid confusing offers that may never result in points. Worried about getting scammed? Well, these sites tell you what proof you need to get your points, the minimum actions needed to get your points, and what happens if you don’t do enough or don’t have proof. Be warned that you can’t access the content of these articles unless you do an offer. Of course, I make no guarantees on the quality of the offer that you’ll be shown.  And you should know that the ad network for the sites claims that publishers are paid $1 per action/offer completed.

So if you’re ready, go here. An image of the page you’ll see is below:

Note the phrasing on the page from the ad network: “These DO NOT require credit cards or trial signup offers”. Remember this screen for later in this article. If you click through or at least believe what I’m saying, you’ve already noticed that the article is all about getting points for free and not sending any money to the advertisers.

Now, on to point B and the risk users run for getting scammed. Let’s start by looking at the ‘free survey’ selections.

When you choose the IQ quiz you’re given a series of questions. The two images below  display the survey start and the first question. The IQ quiz seems harmless enough, and even better, I’m promised 21 points for answering a few simple questions.

Now, as you advance to the last quiz question, you get used to quickly clicking answers and never scrolling down. The questions are simple and nicely framed and there is no need to look below the frame of the quiz.  Once you reach the last screen, below, by rushing through the ten easy questions you’re faced with an innocuous phone number entry box and the prompt: “Enter your phone to get your results”.

The blackboard frame in the picture provides a psychological cue to stay focused on the quiz and NOT scroll down to the bottom of the page. So if you don’t scroll down and just enter your phone number, you would have just subscribed to a $4.99/month mobile phone service (see the small print). If you don’t enter your phone number, you would still have completed the survey, right? The only reason to enter your phone number was to get the results. Now, if you try to exit the survey, another page pops up trying to entice you to do another survey:

And if you close that, you end up on the article where you started, but the blocking overlay has changed:

You completed the offer by taking the “no credit card/no trial” quiz, but you did not take the final step to get your results and subscribe to the $4.99 monthly service. By the letter of the offer, you should have earned a reward; access to the article, or your 21 game points.

But the reality of the situation is that the ad network has to pay the publisher, so unless the user subscribes there’s no money to sponsor the offer. Users need to pay somehow, and these offers depend on people not reading the fine print and not scrolling down the page.

So what just happened? A user wasted his time, did not get his points, and the advertiser got nothing since the user failed to subscribe. And even if the user did subscribe they would likely unsubscribe immediately, as instructed by the article behind the offer wall.

Confused? Most people are. These offers have lead to various tech magazines citing revenues over $300 million for these types of offers, while related reward offers have been cited at $1.4 billion in a recent senate report.

So with 100 million teens and tweens looking for a leg up as well as ‘points’ to help them in games, do you really believe that they all read the fine print? Or that they will be able to find the fine print in an easy and non-confusing manner? It doesn’t take a high IQ to figure out the answer to those questions. And that’s somthing the scammers will try to take to the bank.

Excerpt from:
Virtual Goods, Offers, and Scams: Part 2