When I say the word "marketing," what do you think of? Probably some kind of advertising - maybe a TV commercial for Coke. That's brand marketing, and it's gotten the lion's share of attention from marketers for decades. Far fewer people are direct marketers - the folks behind the catalogs and mail solicitations that fill our mailboxes. If you know any direct marketers, you may … [Read more...]
Passing the Test
In the May/June Affiliate's Corner column, I wrote about the ways super-affiliates prefer to be approached by affiliate program managers and merchants for the purpose of program recruitment.Wooing a super-affiliate over drinks and dinner with offers of exclusive landing pages, significantly higher-than-advertised commission rates, or showering them with free product samples … [Read more...]
Making Over My Own Site
Being "Dr. Makeover" comes with plenty of pressure. There's an expectation that everything I touch will be inherently beautiful and optimized for peak performance. I have a dirty little secret, though: I rarely spend much time working on the design aspect of my own sites. What's that old saying about the cobbler's children? So I've decided to put some shoes on my own kids' feet … [Read more...]
Search Wars
Even though Google would prefer not to be a verb, the search giant is just that and more. To Google is to search for products, maps, healthcare plans, cars for sale, images of Britney Spears, coupon sites, new mobile phones, the population of Moscow, blogs on gardening - the world really. And more so now.As of last May, Google changed the way it serves results pages. It isn't … [Read more...]
Getting Into the Mashup Mix
It's become a new art form to combine various existing elements to create something totally new. However, it can also be dangerous creative and legal territory to navigate when particular items are protected by copyright laws. Some online marketers, eager to leverage new technologies for promotional purposes, are uploading and sharing video creations with copyrighted materials … [Read more...]
Shaping Up Your Business
Facebook, of course, is the social networking site college students used to call their own. Since the site opened up to the general public, its profile has definitely been on the rise. Bay Partners' Facebook program - called AppFactory - will be aimed at giving entrepreneurs microbursts of funds as they need it, from $25,000 to $250,000 in as little as a few days' turnaround. … [Read more...]
Marketing Reality: Q & A with Joel Comm
Joel Comm has been building websites for over 12 years. He sold his first business to Yahoo in 1997 and it became Yahoo Games. Comm is the author of several best-selling e-books, as well as The AdSense Code, a New York Times best seller. His next venture is as the creator and producer of the online reality show "The Next Internet Millionaire." The show, which is an … [Read more...]
Power Plays
By their brief descriptions - "online auction website" and "Internet searching and online advertising company" - it does not sound like eBay and Google are rivals for the same business. But behind the boilerplate company descriptions, many experts claim that as these giants seek to grow even larger, they are going after the same types of acquisitions, which is exacerbating … [Read more...]
Home Office Advantage
Many online marketers started out working from home as a way to escape the Dilbert-like cubicle farms of corporate life in favor of a flexible schedule. And while these home-based workers may have managed to avoid rush-hour traffic, endless meetings and the watchful eye of superiors, their work life is hardly about hanging out in pajamas. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, … [Read more...]
Video Goes Viral
Thanks to social networking sites such as YouTube, online video has quickly become an everyday part of the online experience. While marketers have been slow to capitalize on video so far, the low cost of producing content and potential for increasing reach will make it essential to performance marketing.The audience that watches Web video skews younger, but nearly everyone … [Read more...]