Sep 20, 2009
Posted by admin on Sep 20, 2009 in Entrepreneur | 0 comments
Rapid advances in technology have changed everything from health care to communication. Now, as the latest technology becomes more accessible to a broader market, the advertising field is changing, too. Years ago, you could plan your advertising campaign around a few television commercials and print advertisements. And most companies would never have considered spending a sizeable portion of their advertising budget on the Internet. But in 2006, online ad expenditures are expected to reach over $16 billion.
Advertisers who want to reach their target audience and remain competitive in this high-tech world have to change with the times. You need to keep up with emerging technologies, what media types are most popular, and how consumers use what’s available to them.
If you want to stay current and advertise your products and services in ways that reach your target audience on their turf, consider the following forms of emerging media.
1. Blogs
Blog is short for “web log,” online journals that people without any HTML knowledge can create easily from any computer. They are frequently updated and usually include the owner’s thoughts or musings on topics ranging from what’s happening in the news to what they wear to work.
Companies or individuals can keep blogs. Company blogs usually promote products in what is known as an “adverblog.” However, those blogs started by individuals without a commercial affiliation usually have more credibility.
About fifty million people keep blogs. And many different categories exist, including travel, health, and business. Blogs are popular because they provide a concise summary of news and information and give users power by providing information all in one place and on a timely basis. A blog dedicated to heart health, for example, will likely pull information from sources all over the Internet, so someone surfing for heart health information doesn’t have to search several sites for the most up-to-date research about the topic; they can find everything they need on a heart health blog.
As far as advertising on blogs, ads are generally related to the blog topic. That heart health blog could be an excellent place to advertise a health food or exercise product. If you’re interested in advertising on blogs, first look for help from marketing companies that measure hot blog topics and provide market research based on blog content.
2. Podcasts
Podcasts deliver digital audio and video files to a user via the Internet. The name comes from the iPod, but they aren’t just for iPod users. A pod cast is an audio file in MP3 format that a consumer can download to their iPod, MP3 player, or computer. Then the person can listen to it over and over again, share it with friends, and save it on a computer’s hard drive.
Six million people have downloaded podcasts, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. And of the twenty-two-million iPod owners, twenty-nine percent have downloaded podcasts.
Podcasts are an emerging media form that will continue to grow, and as this media outlet increases in popularity, the advertising possibilities will grow as well. Viacom, Disney, and Clear Channel all have radio-type podcasts, and even print media outlets use podcasts to broadcast interviews and other audio supplements to their print stories. For example, you can read an issue of a magazine and listen to an interview in its entirety on the magazine’s website.
3. Gaming
Sixty-eight out of 108 million households currently play video and computer games, according to the “Digital Gaming in America” Ziff Davis report of August 2005. Advertisers can reach this market, which is mostly comprised of young males, in two ways.
First, advertisers can use gaming technology to insert their ads in popular games. For example, say you are playing a football video game on your XBOX 360. You’ll see ads placed on the sidelines and on the scoreboard just like you would if you were in a real football stadium or watching a real game on television. Video games are also played online, allowing gamers to compete with opponents in other parts of the world. These games offer many opportunities to place logos and products that a huge audience will see.
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Sep 17, 2009
Posted by admin on Sep 17, 2009 in Entrepreneur | 0 comments
In the immortal words of Emmerson, “all I need is one idea” Overnight wealth has a certain stigma that “sensible” people seem to be resistant to. The idea of the get rich quick variety is an object of ridicule and derision in alot of peoples eyes. However, with a little focused action and the right knowledge, rapid wealth is not only possible for you, but inevitable for the determined.
The first thing I want to do is qualify the above by saying “quick” means several years not overnight. Sure, you could write a hit song or contemporary book but these have alot to do with chance. People with determination generally don’t like chance because control is a solid aspect of wealth generation.
Anyone can have an idea. By that I mean virtually any idea can become workable unless its just totally “out there” What matters is that you act. But more then that, before you act, you must know how to make it work. Thats really what most people with a good idea lack.
So knowledge again is where the central workability comes from. So let me give you some knowledge right now. The knowledge of the wealthy. There are many ways to get rich very rapidly but I offer you an example below and some insights about what the wealthy know and have known for centuries.
Arbitrage is a concept that you should learn more about. Its a word that circulates in financial circles and is therefore obscured to the average person as just some odd french word that the stock market people use.
The truth is that arbitrage is the single biggest idea about wealth that you should understand. Doing an arbitrage deal is literally this……..If I offered you 70 cents for your crisp clean dollar note would you take the deal? What if you had $100,000 and I had $75,000 and I said look, let me deposit this money into your account in exchange for your money? Straight swap. How would you feel about that?
Well I imagine you’d say no. I wouldn’t blame you, its hardly a fair deal. Arbitraguers do this all day long. But this is the difference.
We deal in value and perceptions not numerical currency like cash. Or we deal wholesale and sell retail. There are hundreds of ways that I can swap my 70 cents for somebody elses dollar.
The wealthy have practiced arbitrage for as long as currency existed because arbitrage is the secret road to wealth. A secret that will never be openly talked about because it is so tightly held. My little contribution here will do nothing to change that balance, but consider yourself fortunate to learn about this and maybe it will spurr you on to a new life.
Here is a real world example of arbitrage that I practiced many years ago, when I was starting out broke, dejected, but hopeful.
It wasnt long ago but seems like centuries ago. Its pre-history now. One form of arbitrage is the concept of economies of scale. This arbitrage strategy relies on a single fact. An irrefutable reality about fiscal life on the planet earth. Here it is. When you buy something (of anything) in bulk, you are entitled to and more often then not get a very large discount on your purchase. When this bulk amount is “split up” and re-sold in traditional more popular chunks, your investment will return a decent profit.
So here is a get rich quick idea. One you can use right now to establish an income stream to replace your daily job. It can be reproduced and systemized to manufacture a very healthy income indeed.
When you look at newspaper and local journal price lists, you will notice they are very yielding to this concept of economies of scale. Simply a small ad may cost $140 for example. But buy a full page and you only pay say $900. Why? because its less work for the publication. Well my idea was to start a weekly page called “Martins Market” I approached 200 business owners face to face and told them they can get a small ad in my one page spread “Martins Market” for just $90 a full $50 cheaper then if they bought their ad from the paper directly. Do you think this offer interested a good percentage of the business owners I approached? You bet! Not only that, but they got a further discount if they paid up 6 months in advance.
I could fit 40 ads of that size onto my page. Being filled up, I made $3600 every week for an outlay of $900 for the page. I added value with nice graphics and the page got quite well recieved as my clients reported good returns from their ads. This was reproduced 20 times around the country, with 2 sales staff for every “Martins Market” I was netting close to $20,000 per week for a fairly lengthy period.
You will need a few dollars to try this, but its inevitable that if you do your research properly you can make this work and get exactly the same results.
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Sep 15, 2009
Posted by admin on Sep 15, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing | 0 comments
Are you a webmaster in need of additional income? Or are you planning to set up an online business but you still don’t have any product to sell? If so, affiliate marketing may be the best solution for your problems. With affiliate marketing, you won’t need to worry about the products you have to sell. All you need to have is a website with sufficient contents that are related to the products of a certain online company offering affiliate programs. By becoming a member of the program, or by becoming an affiliate, you can start earning a certain amount of money right away!
Affiliate marketing is some sort of business relationship established between a merchant and his affiliates. In affiliate marketing, an affiliate agrees to direct some traffic to a merchant’s website. If that traffic is converted into some kind of action, like a visitor purchasing a product on the merchant’s website or a visitor becoming a lead for the company, the affiliate who directed the traffic will be compensated. Compensation may take the form of either a percentage sales commission for the sales generated or a fixed fee predetermined upon the application of the affiliate on the merchant’s affiliate program.
Promising a lot of benefits both for the merchants and the affiliates, affiliate marketing has become one of the most popular online marketing methods today. In fact, almost every merchant or retailer site today offers an affiliate program that any one can join into. Most retailers would entice people to become affiliates or members of their program by promising great benefits like large commissions, lifetime commissions, click through incomes and a lot of other benefits. But would all these affiliate programs bring off the same benefits?
Most affiliate programs would pay you, as an affiliate, a one-time commission for every sale or lead you brought to the merchant’s website. Commissions for this kind of affiliate programs are usually large, ranging from 15% to a high of about 60%. Other affiliate programs would pay you a fixed fee for every click through or traffic you send to the merchant’s site. Programs like this often pay a smaller fee for every click through, usually not getting any larger than half a dollar. The good thing about this kind of program, however, is that the visitor won’t have to purchase anything in order for the affiliate to get compensated.
Another type of affiliate program is the residual income affiliate program. Residual affiliate programs usually pay only a small percentage of sales commission for every sale directed by the affiliate to the merchant’s site. This commission often comes only in the range of 10% to 20% sales commission. Because of this, many people ignore residual affiliate program and would rather opt for the high paying one-time commission affiliate program. Are these people making a mistake, or are they making the right decision?
We can’t tell, for sure, if people are making a mistake by choosing a high paying one-time commission affiliate program. But we can definitely say that they are making a large mistake if they ignore residual affiliate programs. Residual affiliate programs would indeed pay at a lower rate, but merchants offering such kind of programs would generally pay you regular and ongoing commissions for a single affiliate initiated sale! That means, for the same effort you made in promoting a particular affiliate program, you get paid only once in a one-time commission program, and a regular and ongoing commission for a residual program!
So, are the benefits of promoting residual affiliate programs clearer to you now? Or are they still vague? If they are still vague, then let’s make them a bit clearer with this example.
Suppose there are two online merchants both offering web hosting services on their sites. The first merchant offers a one-time commission type of affiliate program that pays $80 for every single affiliate initiated sale. The second merchant also offers an affiliate program, but this time a residual affiliate program that pays only $10 for every single affiliate initiated sale. As an affiliate, we may get attracted at once at what the first merchant is offering, as $80 is definitely a lot larger than $10. But by thinking things over before actually getting into them, one may be able to see that the second merchant is offering us more opportunity to earn a larger amount of money.
Supposed you have directed traffic to the merchant and it converted into a sale, you’ll get paid once by the first merchant for the sale you have initiated. But with the second merchant, you’ll get paid monthly for as long as the customer you have referred to the merchant continues to avail of the web hosting service. That means that for the same effort of getting one customer to avail of the merchant’s service, you get paid monthly in residual affiliate programs while you only get paid once in a one-time commission type of affiliate programs.
So, are residual affiliate programs worth promoting? Definitely yes, because you virtually get more money from these types of affiliate programs in the long run! And would residual affiliate programs work best for you? Probably not, probably yes. It is not really for me to tell. But with the benefits that residual affiliate marketing can provide, it would really be unwise to ignore such programs.
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Sep 12, 2009
Posted by admin on Sep 12, 2009 in E-commerce | 0 comments
When we talk about a nook, we are simply identified a very focused area of business. There are a zillion sites selling movies, but very few selling French movies from the 1960s. If there is sufficient interest in such movies, you could build a business around selling such classic movies. This concept applies to any business area regardless of whether you are selling products or offering services.
You need to do some daydreaming. Most people make the mistake of focusing on a subject that they think will make a ton of money. Problems can occur with this approach because if you have no inherent interest in the area besides money, you will eventually grow disillusioned with it. If you are going to start a business, you want it be enjoyable. If it is just another job, you have made a bad mistake. This brings us back to daydreaming.
You need to give serious thought to your interests, and not just your interests today. What have you always been interested in? Don’t worry about how you will make money, just focus on the subject matter. Remember the cliché – find something you love and the money will follow. This is exactly what you want to do. Once you have an idea, it is time to figure out how to make money off of it.
For a web business, you want to focus on something known as keyword research. Keyword research is crucial because you can type in a phrase and see the exact phrases people have used to search on Google, Yahoo and MSN that incorporate the world. Even better, you can see how many people use the phrase each day. Doing keyword research lets you determine if there is enough interest in your area and the exact phrases your prospects are using to find things in the area. It doesn’t get much better than that!
There are a variety of tools you can use. Overture offers a free tool that will give you a general idea, but is not the most accurate. Wordtracker is much better, but will set you back a few bucks. Keyword Discovery is similar, but runs a few more dollars yet. Regardless of your choice, make sure to use one of these for keyword research.
Once you identify the phrases used by your prospects, you can determine if there is enough interest in your nook. You can also identify the exact phrases they are using and tailor your site and marketing to those phrases.
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Sep 8, 2009
Posted by admin on Sep 8, 2009 in Public Relation | 0 comments
media analysis, news, articles, media monitoring, press clippings, media measurement,media intelligence, media relations,pr, public relations, brand, MediaMiser
Article Body:
The world of PR is benefiting from dramatic changes in the way media coverage is being delivered electronically to your computer desktop or PDA of choice. Perhaps the nuisance of ink on your fingers is being replaced by a bad case of “BlackBerry thumb” — but nevertheless getting your media coverage electronically has never been easier or more mobile.
These changes now drive the development of new tools from content providers, and new software programs to help better manage and analyze media coverage. The automation occurring at the database level and through the real-time delivery of organizational news, to internal and external stakeholders, is now almost taken for granted. And the holy grail of PR — to automate media analysis and measurement — is already under way; but where should software stop to make way for human analysis?.
Media analysis programs can save countless hours quantifying and sorting media coverage in an unlimited number of ways, including by circulation, region, ad equivalency, company programs and services, and competitive brands. However, do you really want a computer program qualifying how each story affects your organization? It’s a gamble with little upside.
Just Say No
The automation of tone and sentiment has already been incorporated into some software programs, but how accurate can it be? Every story, across every medium, will have a dramatically different meaning or impact for various organizations and their stakeholders. Behind the news emerge both winner and losers.
For instance, if a negative story breaks about a strike at one bottling plant it will be a boon for its competitors. The ability to determine which companies are negatively affected by the news is very limited. Furthermore, understanding the actual tone or possible ongoing bias of the reporter on an issue is impossible to automate. News is as much about delivering the facts, as it is provoking a reaction or emotion from the reader. Media analysis solutions can certainly help decipher the facts, but the rest should be left to a team of communications professionals.
Too Subjective?
The argument against toning media coverage has often been it is too subjective — if the news can be interpreted differently by each individual, won’t this skew the results in the end? True enough — but this can easily be solved with the introduction of a tone standardized ’scorecard’ that is consistently applied to each story.
These scorecards can really vary, depending on the type of analysis you want to deliver in the end. Many organizations will chose to tone stories by ranking them as positive, neutral or negative.
The use of these 3 words alone is where subjectivity problems can creep in. Along with team brainstorming and training sessions on how tone can be applied, one quick fix is to use the C.B.S. Scorecard instead:
- Use Critical (in place of Negative.)
- Use Balanced (in place of Neutral)
- Use Supportive (in place Positive)
After reading an article, it is much easier to answer the question “Was that story critical, balanced, or supportive of our organization?” Instead of: “Was that story negative, neutral or positive?”
When it comes to tone it won’t always be black or white, but I’d rather leave the grey zones to a trained communications professional rather than to the guesswork of a software application.
When it comes to tone it won’t always be black or white, but I’d rather leave the grey zones to a trained communications professional rather than to the guesswork of a software application.
Beyond the ranking of articles by tone using the C.B.S. Scorecard, other metrics and meanings can be used in tandem to create and even stronger analysis. The following scorecard uses a scorecard range, from – 5 to + 5, to provide a more in depth analysis.
Rating Criteria
+5 Supportive Mention + four of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+4 Supportive Mention + three of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+3 Supportive Mention + two of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+2 Supportive Mention + one of the following: Key Message; Interview; Photo; Call To Action
+1 Supportive
0 Balanced
-1 Critical
-2 Critical Mention + one of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue
-3 Critical Mention + two of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue
-4 Critical Mention + three of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue
-5 Critical Mention + four of the following: Negative Executive Mention, Positive Competitor Mention; Consumer Direct Complaint; Ongoing Issue
Once each story is toned, the rest of analysis can be automated by your software solution. The tone can be used independently to determine the success of the campaign by percentage of C.B.S. stories, but the tone can also be used alongside the rest of the analysis to identify possible media bias or problem areas by region or publication. The media is always analyzing your organization…why not return the favour?
New media monitoring and analysis technologies are certainly changing the face of media relations activities and provide immense return on investment, but determining the impact of a news story on your organization should be kept in human hands for the time being.
