February 2008 ~ Advertising For Success

Where Do the User Generated Videos Go to Die?

4:09 PM

Contests that feature user-generated video are popular. However, for every competition that captures the imagination and stimulates the creativity of Internet users, there are many that are soon forgotten. This ClickZ article takes a look at some of the elements that make for an effective consumer-generated video contest.

User-Generated Contests - ClickZ

From the article:

A UGV experience doesn't mean catering a program to video enthusiasts alone. Bear in mind a large number of people will never want to upload a video. But that doesn't mean they don't want to participate. Allowing easy ways for entry, such as rating, forums, and live chats around shows, will grow an audience tenfold over time. While the video participants may be the ones with the most face time in the storytelling experience, providing viewers the ability to shape a show through commenting, rating, and other methods allows for an overall richer experience and an audience that cares.

Good points in this article. I know that many paid to blog programs have offers to produce and enter user generated video contests. The videos are usually of low quality because they are time-constrained, low-paying and unimaginative opportunities. There is never any follow through on the part of the advertisers.

Blog Your Blessing : Life Along the River

8:21 PM

Last Sunday, we were sitting on a large rock outcropping watching the kayaking races on the San Marcos River.

All of a sudden, people in dress clothes surrounded us. As I looked around, a man in a t-shirt and shorts jumped into the river. Next, two people in robes jumped into the river.

Splash! Sploosh! Dunk! Then, they jumped out and there were gone. It was a baptism in the river. If you blinked, you would have missed it. I do not think the kayakers even noticed!

It was a blessed event on a beautiful day on the banks of the San Marcos river. This is the river where I worship. If you ever need to see God's plan, come visit me. I will show you the wonders of a spring-fed river.

The B lue Panther Experience is host for Blog Your Blessings Sunday. Visit the website and grab the blogroll code and leave a comment. Then, on the next Sunday, post your blessing. We are of all faiths, creeds and races, so everyone is welcome. Join us on Sunday as we blog our blessings.

Search Engine Love Fest

2:05 PM

According to Advertising Age, Yahoo! is now being courted by News Corp. with . . .

deal that would make News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media assets part of Yahoo in exchange for a 20% stake . . .

News Corp bid $50 billion, a few billion higher than MSN ($44.6 B). Starting to get the picture? It is a search engine love fest! If News Corp does not acquire Yahoo!, then MSN will come back to the table with a higher bid. Then, maybe News Corp bumps their bid.

No matter what, Yahoo! stock is going to go up.

Thinking of the merge between Yahoo! and News Corp:

YaNewsCo!
NewsHoo!
NewsCorpYa!
YaNews!
NewsYahoo

Okay, I will stop now, but I do like this search engine courting game.

Hold On To Your Social Dashboard

6:28 PM

It seems like all the blogging communities are enhancing services with interactive features that will make them more like social networks. MyBlogLog announced last week that they were making major changes (read about MyBlogLog on CoolAdzine for Marketers).

This week, BlogCatalog announced the launch of a beta release of Social Dashboard, which will display your activities across the Internet to your network on BlogCatalog. All your blog posts, Diggs, Flickr photographs, music at Last.fm, Twitter talk and YouTube videos will pop up automatically on the Social Dashboards of all your BlogCatalog friends.

This could be a great tool or a real pain. New features are great when they are useful and protect your privacy. Cluttering my dashboard with who left a comment where, or who joined what neighborhood is not useful information to me.

The next step will be sharing more information. This is one reason I have a limited presence on FaceBook. There is such a thing as too much information, many things I really do not need to know.

Okay, Bumpzee, we are waiting on your announcement. Stay tuned.

Spot the Spottt?

10:35 PM

I am trying a new blog advertising method called Spottt. It is similar to the Entrecard, but is not as fully featured.

It is simple. You join Spottt, upload your 125x125 card and add a piece of code to your site, above the fold. Once your blog is approved, you will be displaying cards from other blogs. They in turn, will be showing your card. You earn one credit when showing a Spottt and it takes two credits to display your Spottt. Spottt has put a throttle on the system to keep large sites from gobbling all the credits.

The site is less than a week old, so it remains to be seen how well the system works. You may find more information at the site or the Spottt Bloggg.

If you want information on Entrecard, please visit CoolAdzine for Marketers blog, where I am documenting my experiences with that program.

Did You Know that Smorty Owns Your Blog

8:24 PM

If you do any work for Smorty, the get paid to blog (PTB) site, you need to read my post entitled Money Grab by Smorty on my other blog, CoolAdzine for Marketers.

Pease read it today and share with any PTB bloggers. Smorty is taking money out of bloggers' hands. Its a money grab.

~Beware of Smorty~

Blog Your Blessing : Ancient Water Blessing

8:46 PM

Cape's Dam
Photograph by Eileen Trainor all rights reserved

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yahweh Almighty, before the hosts of angels we stand in awe, and whose heavenly service we acknowledge; may it please you to regard favorably and to bless and hallow this creation, water.

May you be a purified water, empowered to drive afar all power of the enemy, in fact, to root out and banish the enemy himself, along with his fallen angels.

May everything that this waters sprinkles upon in the homes and gatherings of the faithful be delivered from all that is unclean and hurtful; let no breath of contagion hover there, no taint of corruption; let all the wiles of the lurking enemy come to nothing.

By the sprinkling of this water may everything opposed to the safety and peace of the occupants of these homes and churches be banished, so that in calling on your set-apart name they may know the well-being they desire, and be protected from every peril; through Yahshua the Anointed Messiah our Sovereign Master. Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The B lue Panther Experience is host for Blog Your Blessings Sunday. Visit the website and grab the blogroll code, add it to your blog, and leave a comment on Blue Panther Experience. Next Sunday, post your blessing. We are of all faiths, creeds and races, so everyone is welcome. Join us on Sunday as we blog our blessings.

Tags: Blog Your Blessings, Sunday post

NeoWORX Widgets Rock!

11:27 AM

These NeoWORX widgets are a must have for your blog!

If you totally missed it, today is Valentine's Day! With this digital product, you can still pull a rabbit out of your hat!

NeoPod has all the NeoWORX widgets in one place.

NeoPlanet is a very cool widget, with 3D Earth.

Want a chat room on your blog? NeoBoard is easy!

"Oh, honey, look on your blog and see what I bought for you."

There are more NeoWORX widgets. Just visit the website to check them out.

Yahoo! to MSN: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

5:09 PM

Ad Age says the deal is dead. I am not so sure . . .

Yahoo Rejects Microsoft's Offer - Advertising Age - Digital

A statement from Yahoo's board of directors today said the bid

. . . substantially undervalues Yahoo including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments.

Does that sound like "no" to you? To me, it sounds like, "bring back an offer worth our brand, audience, advertising platforms, cash flow and earnings potential, etc."

In other words, R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I believe we will be seeing more of this merger. For more information, please see related post. I am looking forward to more names being generated for the new search engine, AdAge added Microhoo. What would be yours?

Protect Your Identity From Theft

11:17 AM

Did you know that someone can steal your identity, ruin your credit and change your life forever and there is nothing you can do to stop it? I had a good friend who had her identity stolen. She was turned down for a home loan and fired from her job under a morals clause because of what her credit purchased.

Until that happened, I never thought about identity theft. However, there is a service called lifelock that can protect your identity. Evidently, they watch your credit, scanning purchases and pre-purchase authorizations for fraudulent transactions.

If you have a bank account, credit cards, driver's license or Social Security number, your identity may be stolen. Even children are open to identity theft. When my son was born, I secured a social security number for him. It was years before he used that number, but someone else could have used it. Now he is living on his own and attending college and I worry about his identity being stolen because he keeps losing his IDs while he is busy applying for credit cards.

I am going to look into this service. It is frightening to realize that I or my loved ones could be arrested, pay higher insurance premiums, be turned down for employment or fired or lose our social security or other benefits because someone stole our identity.

YaMSN? MSNhoo? Oohaymsn?

8:42 PM

Microsoft is betting $44.6 billion dollars that the death grip that G@@GLE has clasped over the neck of the search engine marketing can be loosened.

Search Insider » Blog Archive » MS-Yahoo Will Be Good For Users, Marketers, And Online Ad Ecosystem

Yahoo and Microsoft, through their various acquisitions of firms such as Right Media, aQuantive (DrivePM) and Blue Lithium, boast the ability to provide a powerful and extensible ad network. Each is already serving ads to external high-traffic sites (Microsoft to Facebook, Yahoo to eBay); integrating these properties will allow a combined entity to finally build an ad network capable of directly confronting Google Adsense.

I want an equal search engine marketing universe, where the excesses of one search engine are countered by market forces. Where link love or passing page rank is not some big bugaboo that we use to scare children. Please, Jesus.

Blog Your Blessing : Prosperity

7:36 PM

Prosperity

God is the infinite Source of all Good.
God is Love, Service and Prosperity in Action.

I am One with God as my Source, the eternally loving,
endlessly giving God. As God is, so I am.

Prosperity is what I am,
Prosperity is what I eternally reveal.

I reveal Prosperity in this moment, and I am easily,
magnificently blessed with Freedom and Abundance
in all areas of my life.

With a joyous and grateful heart, giving the glory to God,
I release these words into the perfect action of the Law,
knowing Prosperity is mine now.

I simply let go and let God,

And so it is.

Wishing freedom, abundance and prosperity to all visitors to Blog Your Blessing Sunday. We are of all faiths, creeds and races, so everyone is welcome. Join us each Sunday as we blog our blessings. For more information, please visitThe B lue Panther Experience.

Tags: Blog Your Blessings, Sunday post

Some Times Negative Works Well

5:18 PM

Saw a guest post on High Rankings Advisor by Andy Komack of KoMarketing. Andy talks of how to refine your PPC campaigns by using negative keywords. If you pay per click, you will want to read this article.

200+ Negative Keywords to Consider for B2B PPC - KoMarketing Associates

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