Alive Directory

Submitting to a directory may be a good marketing strategy, but you must make sure to submit your sites to quality directories. I have spent hours submitting to directories and putting up reciprocal links, only to go back and find the directory has not approved all my sites or has gone out of business.

Alive Directory is a human-edited directory for websites and blogs. You may visit the website at http://www.alivedirectory.com. Things you should look for are ease of use, as well as page rank and longevity of directory. If the directory does not have a search engine, it is worthless. Page rank is self-explanatory; if you want quality links, a directory with high page rank is a safe bet. Longevity does not guarantee that the directory will continue, but it gives you a good idea of the stability of the directory. Alive Directory has a page ranking of 6 out of 10. The directory has been around since 2005. Another plus for Alive Directory, sponsor of this post, is the fact that you can contact support via the website.

There are no free listings, either with or without reciprocal links. There are two sets of pricing, yearly and permanent. Here is the breakdown of costs:

1. Yearly Featured $74.95/Year or Yearly Featured with five additional links $99.95/Year
2. Yearly Regular $49.95/Year or Yearly Regular with three additional links $69.95/Year
3. Yearly Regular with Reciprocal $34.95/Year
4. Permanent Regular $149.95 or Permanent Regular with three additional links $209.95
5. Permanent Featured $224.95 or Permanent Featured with five additional links $299.95

Alive Directory screens content before adding sites, so the directory is family-friendly. No chance of your site showing up on the page with questionable products. If you wish to submit you sites, may I suggest purchasing the yearly option with reciprocal link on a trial basis? You will see from your stats if you are receiving traffic from the directory, and make your decision on more submissions from facts.

Tags: Alive Directory, featured listings, permanent links, submit

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Talking Heads on Make Believe Bodies

TacoBell is looking for talking heads for their advertisement. Three digital celebrities will appear on a late night commercial during the MTV Video Music Awards.

Adrants » Ready for a New Buzz Word? All Together Now: 'AVATARSMENT'- read article

From the article:

Audition for the spot by uploading your digital photo onto tacobell.com between July 9 and 22. Gizmoz will then bake your head onto a personalized body. After that, you've got 15 seconds to lip-sync your audition into a mic.

Entries will be judged on personality, appeal and self-expression.

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More on avatars from Advertising Age:

All dolled up: Avril Lavigne and Hilary Duff both partnered with Stardoll.com,
which lets users dress up likenesses of celebrities. The play helped Ms. Lavigne's album soar.

Advertising Age - Digital - Second Life Losing Lock on Virtual-Site Marketing- read article

From the article:

There's even enough interest to generate the first avatar-only concert, as Zwinky hosted its own "Stage-Z" at last weekend's Live Earth featuring Columbia Records artists Kelly Rowland and Teddy Geiger performing in prerecorded avatar form as well as appearing live at the New York event.

Talking heads will be appearing everywhere. Rapper 50 Cents became an avatar for Zwinky. He is hoping to top his success of 1.14 million copies sold of his last album, The Massacre (2005). His new album Curtis will be released in September of 2007. He is using the virtual world to make it in the material. Pretty savvy thinking.

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I can see what is next: Madonna singing I am a Virtual Girl in a Virtual World. The Police singing We are Spirits in the Virtual. The Rolling Stones singing Street Fighting Avatar. Little heads on make believe bodies dancing, strumming guitars and strutting their stuff. Virtual teenyboppers and groupies. Lord, take me now... LOL

Do you have an avatar that you use? What makes a good avatar? Will you be entering the TacoBell contest? Tell me all, y'all.

Tags: avatars, avatarsment, advertising age, adrants, tacobell, 50 cents, Avril Lavigne, Hilary Duff

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Memorable TV Advertisements from IAG

Found listing of Most-Recalled New TV Ads on Advertising Age. Pamela Anderson 15-second and 30-second spot on the list twice, as is Big Brain Academy. Kmart is #1.

IAG TOP 10 MOST-RECALLED NEW TV ADS May 28 - June 24, 2007
Rank	Brand	Description	Index
1	Kmart	Summer Collections--Blue cartoon light bulb makes comment about fashion show; Bermuda shorts; life guard on duty.	208
2	Nintendo	Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree--Two men in smart car pull up to houses; give your family a degree in fun (:30).	189
3	KFC	Drumsticks & Thighs Bucket--Boy complains to family about little brother getting second drumstick; mom tells him about meal.	189
4	DirecTV	Pamela Anderson as Baywatch lifeguard applies suntan oil; man drowning in ocean; picture quality beats cable 4 to 1 (:15).	186
5	Nintendo	Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree--Two men in smart car pull up to houses; give your family a degree in fun (:15).	181
6	Hallmark	Say it With Music Cards--Sons give father a Father's Day card; You Can't Touch This song; father imagines himself as MC Hammer.	179
7	DirecTV	Pamela Anderson as Baywatch lifeguard applies suntan oil; man drowning in ocean; picture quality beats cable 4 to 1 (:30).	177
8	Best Buy	Man at father's day party changes card on Best Buy gift to be from him; Wow Jimmy!; man who really bought the gift chases him.	175
9	Quiznos	This is Jerry, he was born without taste buds so he eats at Wrong Way; baja chicken.	171
10	Red Lobster	Firing up the grill with two new seafood creations; fire grilled split Maine lobster tails; grilled citrus rum sea scallops.	171
Source: IAG Research (iagr.net) Only new ad executions considered, airing weeks of May 28 to June 24. The Recall Score is the percentage of TV viewers who can recall within 24 hours the brand of an ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing TV. These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all new ads during the period (Recall Index). 100 equals average.

Now compare to this listing of Most-Liked New TV Ads (Advertising Age). Puff Daddy is #1. Big Brain Academy (not sure if 15 or 30-second spot) remains on list. Pamela Anderson drops off. Maybe the using sex to sell satellite is poor idea? Kmart can't get a break, unless people remember the commercial and go shop.

IAG TOP 10 MOST-LIKED NEW TV ADS May 28 - June 24, 2007
TOP MOST-LIKED SPOT Sean Combs, a.k.a. P.Diddy, a.k.a. Diddy, a.k.a. Puff Daddy, a.k.a. Puffy, is hungry but his favorite Burger King isn't open late at night. So he drives to the home of the Burger King CEO to complain that he wants it his way -- and gets it.
Rank	Brand	Description	Index
1	Burger King	P. Diddy drives to house of Burger King's CEO; he's hungry and Burger King is closed; I don't like to eat alone.	147
2	Verizon	BlackBerry--Woman at airport going to Paris; I cannot say goodbye; she's hugging the Verizon guy.	138
3	American Express	The Members Project--Celebrities shoot a commercial directed by Martin Scorsese; random man walks into commercial.	135
4	Yoplait	Whips--Who can resist something fluffy?; pink bedspread, fuzzy slippers on swing.	128
5	Pizza Hut	P'Zone--Guy walks into room with friends eating; he wants what they're eating; friend throws him the phone to order.	126
6	Apple	iPhone--There has never been an iPod that could do this; hand navigates through phone features; clip from Zoolander.	124
7	Lowe's	Energy Star Appliances--if you look for the Energy Star logo you could save yourself a lot of money; money shoots out of appliances.	120
8	Nintendo	Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree--Two men in smart car pull up to houses; give your family a degree in fun.	120
9	Wendy's	Triple Stack Cheeseburger--Man wearing red wig in forest says I deserve a hot juicy burger; people chant hot juicy burger.	118
10	Lunesta	Butterfly hovers over women as they sleep; hour after hour Lunesta can give you the full night sleep you've been looking for.	117
Source: IAG Research (iagr.net) Only new ad executions considered, airing weeks of May 28 to June 24. The Likeability Score is the percentage of TV viewers who report to like "a lot" an ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing TV (among those recalling the brand of the ad). These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all new ads during the period (Likeability Index). 100 equals average.

I really like that American Express is going to fund a user submitted project. However, I think The Members Project commercial is silly. Maybe that is why people like it.

Do you have any opinions of or preferences for any of the advertisements listed above? Any ads you think should be on the list, but are not? Come on, I know you watch TV.

Tags: most-liked TV ads, most-recalled TV ads, Advertising Age

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