Facebook is in the process of pulling the biggest bait-and-switch in history. They have spent years persuading umpteen brands, businesses and boy-bands that the best way to invest Internet marketing dollars was to build up huge numbers of Facebook "Likes". A big Facebook fan-following, we were told, was the key to social marketing success. Well, now they've got you hooked, and … [Read more...]
11 Keys To Content Marketing Success
Getting your content marketing strategy right is more important than ever. Understanding your audience, your objectives and the landscape in which you are working is critical. Here are 11 simple things to focus on: "Know your reason: Why are you creating content? Your answer certainly doesn’t have to be altruistic, but you have to be able to answer that question." … [Read more...]
Retargeting Gets Hotter
Retargeting is hot and getting hotter. Witness relatively new startup AdRoll claiming revenue increases of over 400% together with over 2,000 new advertising clients. In support, trends-tracking company BuiltWith lists AdRoll's technology as the "fastest growing advertising technology" with ad network ExoClick close behind. In fact, according to W3Techs: AdRoll is the … [Read more...]
39 April Fool's Day Hoaxes By Google
Last year Google ran no less than 17 different April Fool's Day hoaxes. I have always loved that a company that has so much on its plate takes the time to differentiate itself and build some positive brand equity by investing humor. The Google April Fool's Day tradition started small in 2000 with the announcement of Google "MentalPlex", a search engine technology that … [Read more...]
Google Kills Twitter
Google killed Twitter today. With the launch of Google Buzz they ruthlessly attacked Twitter’s weaknesses and quietly set the scene for subsequent creeping infiltration into Microsoft’s stronghold in the enterprise market. Buzz is a big deal. Google’s Buzz is presented as a simple rival to Twitter. It shows up discreetly as a tab in Gmail, will play nicely … [Read more...]
Avoid the Blog Drivel
I degraded myself as a content publisher twice last week. In both cases, after reviewing my Google Alerts and picking the day's hot news item, I wrote a blog entry that included a quote, a few inane comments about the topic and a link back to the original post.It's a technique commonly used by bloggers to drive traffic to their sites through backlinks. Indeed, some bloggers use … [Read more...]
Rexanne Mancini: The Free Thinker
Mancini says she thought the Internet was the wave of the future and wanted a way to connect and be part of it. She waited to get on the Internet until after her younger daughter's third birthday because she had the feeling that once she got on it she would never get off. And she was right. Although she knew she wanted to sell something online, she had no idea what. She says … [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...]
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...]
The Affiliate Lifestyle
For many aspiring affiliates, the phrase Affiliate Lifestyle conjures up visions of big beautiful homes and shiny new sports cars. Graphic images on affiliate training sites encourage visitors to imagine themselves at their desk, dressed in pajamas and smiling the big happy smile as hundred-dollar bills miraculously fly from their computer monitor. Those images often include a … [Read more...]
Stop the Presses
Prepare the obituary: The era of the daily newspaper as the news source is over. The Daily Tribune, Inquirer and Journals of the world have been recycled, replaced by multi-platform (online and off-line) entities that engage readers and operate around the clock. This rebirth is good news for advertisers big and small who will be able to more effectively target a growing … [Read more...]
Judi Moore: The Leaper
Judi Moore is not a super-affiliate. She's not even sure what that is. She doesn't see this as a detriment. Being an affiliate is also not her first career. In fact, at 52 years old, she's had a lifetime of work in the corporate world - in about three industries, she says - only to land back in her home state of Illinois, with six grown kids, husband No. 2, a Schnauzer and a … [Read more...]
Guiding Lightly: Q & A with Anne Holland
Anne Holland is the president of MarketingSherpa, which aims to help marketers advance by sharing real-world marketing data and hard-won lessons. The Rhode Island-based company publishes a wide range of metrics guides, buyer's guides and how-to reports, as well as a 500+ case study library. Prior to founding MarketingSherpa in 2000, Holland spent 20 years in publishing. She … [Read more...]
Colin McDougall: The Timekeeper
This past summer, super-affiliate Colin McDougall traveled around British Columbia with his family in his newly purchased travel trailer. From mid-July through Labor Day weekend McDougall worked a grand total of about 10 hours from the road. The rest of the time he spent paddling his kids around in an inflatable kayak, feeding the ducks, building sandcastles on the beach and … [Read more...]
Online Is Sweet
Food has recently been called everything from the new theater to the new porn. Regardless of how you think about food, you certainly can't avoid it. Food has become America's No. 1 obsession and food companies - from providers of high-end gourmet goodies to those feeding the fast-food nation - are battling to get on the dinner plates of today's consumers. And because everybody … [Read more...]