F YouTube, Viddler Is The Sh*t!
February 29, 2008 | 4 Comments
Seriously, the thing I think is the coolest ever is what Viddler has done with their videos — users can add comments throughout a video. It’s interesting to watch a video and see all the user comments pop-up as commentary throughout the video.
Here is one by the lovely iJustine. And then the video page itself has a list of all the comments with RSS of course. Just way totally cool. You can also put tags throughout and advertisers can place an ad where there are tags.
Price Ceiling of Music is “Free”
February 28, 2008 | 2 Comments
Caution: This is a bit of a freeform flow of information from my head…
Ultimately, all music will be free someday — ok, 99% of it. OK, maybe I’m wrong. I was thinking of TV — that’s all free to consumers. I was thinking of Newspapers and online writing (blogs) — that’s all free. Those are all subsidized by advertising revenues (including paid classified listings in newspapers, which is advertising essentially).
But then I started thinking about Books — that’s writing, but they charge money for them. Or Movies — that’s a more packaged/produced piece of video (typically) — and those cost money.
Music has radio — radio is free. Although you have to listen to whatever radio broadcasts out to you — just like TV — just like online newspapers & blogs. So the CD is the DVD is the Book is the Video Game.
Video Games don’t really have a “free” equivalent. (I can’t think of a free equivalent to Halo 3 — I guess the free online games offered at like Yahoo! Games and Pogo?)
And the concert is the movie theater — both are experiences; you pay for the experience of the big screen, or the roar of the crowd that’s familiar with a music band/artist. T-Shirts and stickers — along with all sorts of other branded crap by a band/artist or movie — is the ancillary stuff that sells and makes those industries more extra money. For newspapers, the equivalent are the paid classified ads I’d say.
Time is money and the only resource we all lack — and which we all value the most. If a consumer spends time listening to your music, and telling their friends all about it, which results in selling out your shows — that’s the “virtual currency” (or labor cost) they are putting up, rather than spending their valuable free time watching TV, or watching YouTube, or watching a movie, or playing outside, or playing video games, or brushing their teeth, or listening to another band. If a consumer spends the time to listen to your music (out of the millions of artists and albums that exist out there — and likely billions of songs), then consider yourself talented — and the money will follow.
Yahoo/AOL - I called it last week
February 11, 2008 | 4 Comments
I called it last week — a Yahoo/AOL merger potential. I disagree with Arrington that Yahoo needs to compete with Google; I think they are going in a different direction. If they team with AOL, then they have so many weapons in the battle for behavioral display advertising — and access to probably 65% (?) of the eyeballs on the web [via pageviews; just like Google commands that via search queries].
Match them up with the ISPs to anonymously track each user and you’re doing some real damage with behavioral display advertising (super high CPMs).
Guest Post on CenterNetworks: Google Introduces Physical World Hyperlinks to USA
February 7, 2008 | 3 Comments
Guest post I wrote for CenterNetworks — reprinted below:
Google has announced that 2D barcodes (called a “QR code“) can be included in their Google Print Ads program. Here’s how it works — you’re reading a magazine and there’s an advertisement for something you’re actually interested in. Most times you’d just turn the page and forget about it, because you’re not near your computer and don’t feel like stopping what you’re doing to go find out more information on the product/service in the ad by logging onto the Internet. But now, the print advertiser can put a 2D barcode in the ad, and you can simply whip out your cell phone, take a picture of the 2D barcode (using specific software installed on your cell phone that recognizes/decodes the 2D barcode) and then your phone’s web browser opens and automatically takes you to a corresponding website with more information on the product/service that you’re interested in.
It’s quite an interesting proposition for advertisers, because it allows them to use unique barcodes for all of their advertisements and thus track which ads are providing the highest ROI (or at least the highest engagement). An advertiser could have a different tracking code for one magazine (Fortune) vs another magazine (Forbes) and determine which publication to purchase ads in again; one newspaper vs another in the same city; etc.
As we all are aware, the USA lags in the mobile sector — we’re years behind Europe and Asia. QR Codes have been used for awhile in Japan, enabling these “physical world hyperlinks“. In fact, if an advertisement catches the interest of someone in Japan while they are out and about, 41.7% say they engage with the ad by scanning the QR code to find out more information.
In previous years, I had done a lot of research on this topic — how do you connect consumers from an “offline environment” (no computer access nearby, such as in a car, living room, etc) to an online environment to learn more about a product/service they see in an advertisement (whether it’s in a newspaper, magazine, billboard, TV commercial, or on the radio)? Basically, how do you eliminate needing your ad to be seen a frequency of 7 times before they can even think of making a purchase.
I even started a business (Aboutcodes - defunct now) that used VXML to allow a consumer to dial a toll-free number and input a code listed in an advertisement. This code/ad was then added to their Aboutcodes online account and the next time they logged into their account, the consumer would see links to further information on any products/services they had interest in (that they saw in ads).
A company that has been doing similar by using text messages is Houston-based QTags. The user sends an ad code via SMS, which then saves that ad to their online QTags account for viewing when they log online next. QTags charges advertisers for this service, which has been an uphill battle for them.
Seeing that the QR code has gained large adoption in Japan, it’s only sensible to assume this “technology” will gain adoption in the USA in the years to come. However, the standard in the USA right now is SMS text messages and thus I am curious whether a free SMS-based service could take off — whereby advertisers can register tracking codes for their ads (free via a website), use the codes in their ads, then consumers see an ad, send an SMS with a code, then an SMS is shot back with a hyperlink in it, which the user can then bring up in their mobile web browser — but also the code/hyperlink is saved to the user’s online account for this free service. This service I speak of would need the support of major advertisers to embrace the technology and utilize it in their ads. In the meantime, we’ll see if Google’s support of QR Codes can help them gain traction in the USA.
Get Neglected: Go Get Acquired by Google
February 6, 2008 | 4 Comments
I was just thinking about Jotspot — remember that enterprise wiki site that got tons of buzz, because the founders were some of the Excite guys? They were acquired by Google back in October 2006 and I haven’t heard of them since. Turns out I’m not the only one, I checked out their listing on Wikipedia, and someone posted as of February 4, 2008, “The JotSpot homepage and many user accounts have gone missing, and it looks like no word from Google as to what happened.”
The list goes on with acquired start-ups that get neglected by Google — remember the mobile service Dodgeball (and the infamous photo of the founder giving the middle finger to Google after he resigned).
Or Jaiku, which was supposedly a Twitter competitor, yet even fellow Googlers won’t give the company any love — instead their colleagues talk about Twitter in their product demos.
Another one I could swear I’ve read didn’t go well for the founders was dMarc Broadcasting — a radio advertising software and platform.
Anyhow, I may just be full of crap, because if you check out the list of acquisitions Google has made, these are a mere blip out of the whole, and Google may have been acquiring teams, rather than a focus on technology, with some of these acquisitions.
Yahoo! Acquires AOL; slaps Microsoft in the Face
February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment
OK - Not really. But honestly, I’d love to see Yahoo! blow off Microsoft and swing back with the purchase of AOL. I don’t think a merger of Yahoo! and Microsoft could really do anything. Microsoft wants a piece of search, which is the reason they are going after this. But in reality, I’m not sure the merging of these two behemoths would change people’s minds to use either of them for search if they aren’t already.
Now let’s talk about AOL. I honestly think AOL and Yahoo! together could be a good fit. AOL has been secretly amassing quite the conglomerate of advertising companies — they have their hands in basically every link of the chain for monetizing the Internet (via advertising). AOL also still has a strong consumer brand, which is what Yahoo! is.
AOL has shifted their strategy with all of these Advertising company purchases and a move away from being an ISP. Google owns 5% of AOL (at the time it valued AOL at $20B). I’d love to see Yahoo! purchase AOL, sell-off all the dial-up/broadband ISP-related activities to United Online (Juno, NetZero) and/or a Comcast (broadband), and take over more pieces of the web (AOL.com) — and make use of all their advertising companies to become the Display advertising behemoth of the web. Let Google keep going strong on search, but start focusing on highly-targeted display advertising using behavioral tracking mechanisms — and link up with other Sites on the web, allowing them to contribute user data anonymously, which then increases the CPM’s of their own ad inventory.
Yahoo! also just purchased Maven networks, so they are getting into video advertising too (apparently the reason they bought them was for their video ad serving technology).
So to recap — Time/Warner: Sell AOL to Yahoo! for cash or straight stock.
Yahoo! AOL would own tons of eyeballs on the web. (Someone should do a further analysis on this whole idea; I’d be curious about the effects: internationally; how all the ad companies would complement each other; etc)
I’m not the first to talk about this possibility, back in late 2006 Fortune spoke about it.
Dear WTF Chuck - Shoemoney’s Logo Should Link to his Homepage
February 1, 2008 | 1 Comment
Dear WTF Chuck,
Why doesn’t Shoemoney’s logo link to his homepage?? All logos on every website should link back to the homepage.
-PET PEEVED
This is a new type of post on my Site called ‘Dear WTF Chuck‘. This is a spoof on ‘Dear Abby’ and is for you to rant to the world (or at least readers of my blog) on topics relating to web tech, affiliate marketing, etc. Feel free to submit your own rant using my contact form (select ‘Dear WTF Chuck Post Submission’ as the subject of your email) and use the above post as an example of the proper format (title, question/rant, possible solution, signature that includes or does not include a link to your website).
Dear WTF Chuck - Twitter has $5M, why can’t they hire a Sys Admin?
February 1, 2008 | 2 Comments
Dear WTF Chuck,
Why is Twitter always down, despite them being flush with cash ($5mm), and all of their users whining for the past year about how much downtime they experience? Yet, we the users, go with the flow and don’t punish them (by leaving their service), because some of us are addicted to their service!
Go buy some servers and scale your operation! Hopefully moving hosts yesterday will better things.
-FRUSTRATED TWITTER ADDICT IN BUFFALO, NY
This is a new type of post on my Site called ‘Dear WTF Chuck‘. This is a spoof on ‘Dear Abby’ and is for you to rant to the world (or at least readers of my blog) on topics relating to web tech, affiliate marketing, etc. Feel free to submit your own rant using my contact form (select ‘Dear WTF Chuck Post Submission’ as the subject of your email) and use the above post as an example of the proper format (title, question/rant, possible solution, signature that includes or does not include a link to your website).
Dating Niche [free True.com marketing ideas]
February 1, 2008 | 1 Comment
Rocket Profit has a contest going on via John Chow to win a free ticket to the Elite Retreat (April 3-4 in San Francisco, CA; $4,995 value). Basically you select an affiliate offer on Rocket Profit and explain how you would market it.
Well, I’m going to choose the True.com dating offer (pays $3.50 per completed profile, which is the highest payout on this offer I’ve seen). I’m choosing this offer, because CX Digital (Incentaclick) mentioned this was their winner for hottest affiliate offer of 2007 — and also I did some snooping to find some others are still working this offer actively, so why not hop on the band wagon now.
So here are some ideas on how I’d promote this True.com offer from Rocket Profit:
- I would use PPC/search (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask) to drive traffic to their landing page they have setup that is quite nice and has a video of a girl on her computer, which looks like it is live. Others are using this same landing page for this offer — I’m sure this is the money landing page that is converting for True.com, so why mess with it. Well, there’s one reason I’d mess with not using it — and that’s if the Google quality score is crap, which would mean my PPC bid minimums are too high on Google; then I may create an intermediary landing page with some good content to then get the end-user to click onto this landing page. [I do go into some scenarios in other bullet points below for landing pages that could be built]
- I would research the keyword longtails that True.com itself, and other dating sites, use by tapping SpyFu and KeyCompete — which allow me to input a domain or keyword phrase, and see the keywords that are used to market those websites. I’d also use Wordtracker and/or Wordze for further keyword research.
- I would have several different types of keyword combinations. The various types that would be mended together to create deep longtail keyword lists are: age (i.e. 30) , gender (i.e. male, female), race (i.e. asian, african american), religion (i.e. christian, jewish), and locales (i.e. las vegas, houston).
- Another run at this offer would still be PPC/search to drive traffic, but I’d have various landing pages that I’d test with A/B testing. These landing pages would be focused on reviewing True.com and on some of the landing pages, comparing the True.com site to other dating sites (which would be incentivized offers too).
- Get real people reviews of the dating sites — setup a simple wufoo survey/form with 3 quick questions and then setup some PPC ads that target actual users (or former users) of the dating sites you’re promoting. Ask them what they loved about the service; what they hated; what another service offers that is better; and then a photo/avatar of them, their first name and last initial, and their city/state/country. Offer to pay them $2-$5 depending on how well they articulate themselves (short and sweet is the goal). You might get 20 reviews at $5 each — if those are 20 authentic well-articulated reviews of True.com — that’s good, REAL stuff that other consumers will mesh with.
Have a landing page with reviews of the dating offers — why does True.com rock? why does True.com suck?
Have a landing page that has a few different offers on it, not just the True.com offer, but also some other dating offers on Rocket Profit like Singlesnet and FindRomance.com (targets 30+ age)
- Get real people reviews of the dating sites — setup a simple wufoo survey/form with 3 quick questions and then setup some PPC ads that target actual users (or former users) of the dating sites you’re promoting. Ask them what they loved about the service; what they hated; what another service offers that is better; and then a photo/avatar of them, their first name and last initial, and their city/state/country. Offer to pay them $2-$5 depending on how well they articulate themselves (short and sweet is the goal). You might get 20 reviews at $5 each — if those are 20 authentic well-articulated reviews of True.com — that’s good, REAL stuff that other consumers will mesh with.
- PPC ad copy — create ad copy geo-targeted by locale (”Date a Southern Boy in NC”).
- PPC ad copy — find out how many singles there are in a particular locale on the system (do a search yourself if needed, or use some made up numbers that are over 200), then you could say something like “450+ Single Men in Buffalo” or fine-tune it if you’re using demographic targeting, or if you’re focusing your keyword targets and specify “450+ Single Men in Buffalo, Ages 18-28″. Create ads like this for 200+ cities in the USA (thus 200+ adgroups).
- PPC — women typically date older; or they at least like older men — so you can get away with “Ages 25-45″ as a pretty broad range that most women will jump on — if their own age is younger than ~28.
- PPC — men typically like a younger woman.
- PPC and/or landing pages — focus in on race and/or religion — “400+ Single Christian Men in Buffalo” or “400+ Single Asian Men in Buffalo”.
- There are tons of people that haven’t dated before, none the less even kissed someone, so you could create a website that focuses on this niche (both male and female) — might be called ‘dating 101′ — and would include articles (or paragraph summaries that link-out to full articles) and how to videos on ‘how to take a woman’s bra off with 1 hand’, ‘how to kiss a girl’, ‘what to do on a first date’, etc. [Yes, these videos exist over at ... and ...]. There would of course be banners and links to True.com.
- People that are looking to date fall into various buckets — those that are looking for a relationship, casual dating, sex, or new friends to do things with. A lot of times online daters are shy individuals. Websites / landing pages could be built to target each of these micro-niches of online dating. By building the websites with some good content, the Sites’ Google quality score can go up and PPC prices go down. [Plus might be able to siphon off some free organic leads]
- Another way to drive traffic would be writing ads on Craigslist that shows a photo of a hot girl, writing the ad as if you’re a single girl, and then linking to a real profile on True.com (with your referral code attached in URL) — or specifying the True.com username to use and link directly to your landing page offer.
- I’d possibly do some displlay advertising with a focus on websites where people are just clicking around out of boredom, like CollegeHumor, Break.com, MySpace, etc — but likely similar, but smaller, sites like those I have mentioned, where ad inventory may not be sold out and can be had for a cheap cost (sites that may have an individual owner).
- In any landing pages that I may create, I’d use some videos — True.com has some videos on YouTube, so maybe some of these would work as good sales tools for getting an end-user to click through to the real landing page. Video sells.
Since the deadline isn’t until February 8 for this “free elite retreat ticket” contest, I may add to this post — but will clearly state “Update” with any additional ideas.
