Contextual Advertising And Online Video Trends

PodZinger has announced the results of its proprietary research into consumer behavior and online video advertising viewing preferences. The research reveals that not only will viewers tolerate advertisements that appear during their search for online audio and video content, they willingly accept that short ads come with the territory.

These results, in combination with aggregated consumer behavior statistics for online content, further emphasize the importance of streamlined, targeted, non-intrusive video advertisements.

The following is a detailed summary of the study's findings gathered from the company's blog as well as the report of findings:

PodZinger also examined behavior patterns of consumers on its site to set the baseline for consumer behavior, discovering that:

•   Consumers typically play only 15 percent of an entire online video or audio, which are 7.5 minutes and 22 minutes in length, respectively.
•   Consumer attention span for online video is much shorter than audio - one minute vs. three minutes on average.
•   Consumers are more likely to play content online than they are to download it by a factor of almost 6 to 1 (5.7 to1).
•   Of all the categories tracked by PodZinger, five of these, including entertainment, technology, news and politics, music and sports, represent approximately 85 percent of all online activity. Additionally, online activity does not track to the volume of content available, e.g. entertainment represents 36 percent of all online video play, but only 6 percent of available video.

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Highlights of the market research:
•   Not only do consumers tolerate advertisements that appear during their search for online audio and video content, they also willingly accept that short 10-15 seconds ads are "part of doing business" on the Web.
•   Consumers prefer 10-15 second ads in comparison to the typical 30-second television commercials. However, many expressed concern about frequency of video ads and were considered "annoying" if repeated often.
•   A high percentage of respondents viewed targeted advertisements that were relevant to their online search as positive and more personal.

Other notable patterns indicate that:
•   Consumers will listen to audio for almost 3 times longer as they will watch a video - an average of 3 min. versus 1 min.
•   Consumers are more likely to play content online than they are to download it by a factor of almost 6 to 1.

"With Internet video consumption surging, advertisers are clamoring for a best-in-class solution for delivering branded and relevant online messages." said Alex Laats, CEO of PodZinger.

"To accomplish that, it is essential to develop a deeper understanding of what consumers are watching and listening. Our technology uniquely allows PodZinger to connect advertisers to consumers based on consumer intent, and the response in the marketplace has been overwhelming."

If you think the significance of these statistics is overrated, consider for a moment that Google shelled out $1.65 billion reasons to consider the importance of online video advertising when it purchased YouTube, the popular online video storage site.

Most Internet users understand that "free" video actually comes with a price tag, and it manifests itself in the form of an advertising model. People gladly accept that commercials offset the cost of television product, and by the same respect online video watchers are willing to endure short advertisements if it means they get to watch the clip for free.

One of the key differences between television and online video, however, is that advertisers have the opportunity to gear their marketing campaigns in a completely contextual direction, applying direct, relevant advertising and product placement to video clips in which users have already exhibited an interest by clicking.

So with contextual relevance in mind, it will be important for marketers to keep an ever-watchful eye on these types of video trends in the days to come.

The Secret to A Residual Income Through Marketing An Affiliate Program

by Roger Osborne

Residual income is what everyone wants for the work they do.Everyone would love to be paid over and over for something they do once.It is possible through affiliate programs, but the key is understanding how to market effectively.Anyone can learn the secret to a residual income through marketing an affiliate program.Marketing is getting an idea out to others, getting them interested in it and selling it to them.Marketing is the foundation for any good business.It is more than placing ads or pitching ideas.Good marketing is provoking. It catches the eye and makes a person want to know more.It makes them interested so they seek out information and are willing to look for it.Affiliate programs usually are centered around a website.The idea is that the website serves as the information base for the program.People come to the website and learn about the products and program.If they are interested they buy or sign up.That is what is so hard.Most of the time people will scan an ad and see a hundred others just like it, so they ignore it and move on.They need something to catch their eye.They want it to be different.Once they get to the website the information better be clear and explain it all or else they will simply walk away.Good marketing will not only lead them to the website, but peak their interest enough that they willingly read through the website and learn more on their own.This is what residual income is all about.A good marketing campaign starts with well written ads.The ads should make a person want more information.They should compel a person to spend time learning about the program or products.A good ad will not explain, but leave things open-ended.It should give enough information to make a person curious, but still make them have to visit the website to learn more.Once they get to the website it should have everything there they need to know.It should also make them want either to sign up as an affiliate or to buy the products.Their next step should be to buy or sign up.That leaves very little left to do and makes it the ultimate residual income opportunity.A person who can market successfully will only have to place ads.Then the rest is handled by their website.If they can make people want to learn more then their job is done.It really can be that simple.That is the ultimate in residual income.A little work developing advertising and then ongoing income.If marketed successfully an affiliate program can help a person build a stable and solid residual income.

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How to Win the Hearts of Your Prospects

by Charmaine Joy Caro

Carelessness is one big mistake why some trade show exhibits do not succeed. When you're careless, most likely, your efforts in marketing your business would be put into waste. If you don't want this to happen, then why not make the most of your trade show exhibit. Trade show exhibits can be very expensive but you can lessen the expense of promoting your business when you make your exhibit eye-catching. What's more you can save a bundle if you just know the secrets to a successful trade show.

Winning trade show exhibit is easily reached when you're equipped with the proper tools to make the show a bit more impressive. You can check out some feasible tips available online discussing the steps on how to spend less yet get more prospects in your trade show exhibitions.

The first tip is to exercise good public relations. Building relations with your potential customers is the most efficient way to draw more customers to your business. You can enhance your relations with your customers by sending out some interesting press releases that tackles about the new products and services you are offering. You can also have some interactive staff to be in charge of your booth. The staff should be friendly enough to encourage clients to do business with you.

The second tip is to make your booth as user-friendly as possible. The trade show booth serves as the place where you welcome prospects to get to know you better. In improving your trade show booth, you have to make sure that there are displays that will convey the strong marketing message highlighting what you have to offer for your prospective customers.

The third tip is to use direct mails. Direct mails are considered to be very effective in improving the way you market your products and services to the trade show attendees. The direct mailings are usually derived from the list of show management.

The fourth one is to provide giveaways. Giveaways are great forms of inducing the customers to go and check out your booth. When they come to your booth, you're given the chance to present your products and services and make contact with them.

Last but not the least, do some follow-ups. After the trade show exhibit, you have to make some immediate follow-ups. Follow-ups should be planned prior to the trade show event. When you generate leads, you have to plan for follow-ups because the leads would be useless when not transformed into avid customers.

Tips to Make Easy Money from Affiliate Programs

by John Baffone

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years, you're probably not surprised to hear about someone making a ton of cash on the Internet, usually without doing much more than clicking a mouse for a few minutes a day. Bank accounts of successful entrepreneurs are going from zero to thousands in less time than it takes to change a flat tire on your car.

You see, Back in 1996, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos came up with a groundbreaking Internet marketing idea- to build a network of websites (called affiliates), in addition to your own merchant site, that all have banners and links "advertising" your merchant site. When someone clicks on one of these ads, they're automatically directed to your merchant site. When such a customer buys your product or service on your website through one of the affiliates, the affiliate makes a commission. The affiliate also might be paid for each potential customer they are responsible for getting to your site- also referred to as "pay per click".

Now you need to get the clicks and commissions into your pockets. It's all about the strategy and the technique. Here are a few tips to get you on your way to making easy money from affiliate programs-

Tip #1- Choose your affiliates wisely. Distributing your affiliate links everywhere on the net is a bad idea. You need to think quality, not quantity. By placing your links onto websites of interest to potential customers will yield better results than just sporadic placement. For example, if you're website sells beauty products, you don't want to place links on a football blog or NASCAR website. I'm not saying that women don't enjoy these types of sites, but statistics prove that women are more likely to visit the I-Village's of the net instead.

Tip #2- Send your website to affiliate directories. You will obviously want more people to join your affiliate program, so it only makes sense that notify affiliate directories of your intentions so they may allow others to interact with you and start their own affiliate program. If you're unsure about how to go about this process, please see #3.

Tip #3-Find a pro. If you're not 100% positive you know what you're doing, seek the advice of someone who has made money via affiliate programs on the World Wide Web. It can be quite difficult to sift through those making their fortune by selling the affiliate program books and e-books and those that really made money by doing what they claim to have done. At any rate, a money-back guarantee is a good way to feel better about your purchase.

http://www.googlewealthwizard.com
 

Affiliate Marketing: Experience The Vision

By Donny Gamble

What is affiliate marketing? It is the promotion of products by third parties (The Affiliates) in exchange for a commission / cut of the sale. It is a method that thousands of small and large companies are increasingly using to generate traffic and promotion of their product, and the statistics certainly show that it is a very effective method of marketing. In fact affiliate marketing is truly the ultimate business model that everyone is turning to in today's society. So how does affiliate marketing really work?

It all starts out with a company that has a product to sell and has a thirsty market for the product. It then designs an affiliate program for advertisers or affiliates to promote the product and sets up a compromising commission for the affiliates. The affiliates then sign up for the affiliate program and begin advertising the companies product to receive these desirable commissions that the companies have set. This is a quick overall of how affiliate marketing works.

Researchers have found that by linking to other web sites, and paying these other web sites a commission for every sale that they refer, their sales levels will soar. So if you are interested in becoming a successful affiliate marketer, then there are a couple of simple steps that you can take to get you started.

First of all, you should concentrate on finding the product you want to affiliate to. This is not as easy as it sounds at first, as there are literally thousands of affiliate programs out there on the web. You should therefore think about what you personally would enjoy selling. It is very important for you to find a profitable niche when searching for products to promote. Searching on Google, Yahoo, and Msn are great ways to start your search, looking up things such as "affiliate marketing " for instance should bring you back good results. Most people agree that if you are going to have success in affiliate marketing, then you should set up a content rich web site on a topic that already interests you.

This will inspire you to put more content and relevant material on the web site and as a result, your customers will find that your site interests them more - and they will return. Also your site will get picked up fast by the search engines because of your relevant content. You can also consider setting up affiliate marketing sites on web topics that you have special knowledge in such as your profession, or a special skill that you have and therefore on which you have more than just a basic knowledge. You should combine these interests with good affiliate merchant opportunities. Once you decide on your niche, research for some quality affiliate programs that fit this niche.

There are so many of these programs out there, that it won't be hard at all to find products for your niche. If you find that the products that the affiliate companies are marketing are slightly different than what you have chosen, you can always adjust your marketing strategy to suit the affiliate site more closely. Read their affiliate marketing contract, make sure that it suits you and sounds like something you can profit from. Be sure to check the affiliate forums and to do some searches to check that it has no complaints that have been filed against the program. Then sign up.

A good affiliate company will provide an affiliate link, marketing materials, and a step-by-step guide to getting you started with promoting their product. The product you choose to affiliate with will be your primary product. You should now develop a web site that will promote this product while at the same time attract targeted traffic. Remember that you do not have to sell the product completely, but just get the customers to click on the link to the merchants sales page. This is called "pre-selling" and is one of the most effective affiliate marketing techniques. If the merchants sales page is any good, then you should bring in a lot of sales to their site. Good luck with your affiliate marketing experience and remember, success in affiliate marketing takes work as well as time.
 

Increase AdSense Earnings with Competitive Ad Filter

by Darren Rowse

Luke Meshios from Webmaster SEO wrote the following reader 'quick tip':

Do you ever wonder why it is you get low clicks sometimes? 1 cents - 10 cents?

This is because the Adsense Publishers are offering low amounts. Some times they offer a low amount because they have Adsense on their website too. And they might get 10 cents a click for every 1 cent they pay. These sites are known as "Made For Adsense" Yep, it does suck!. But there is a way around this to increase your earnings.

Go to Adsblacklist, Sign Up, put in your URL and keyword, click generate. You will then get an extensive list of 200 sites to block in your AdSense competitive ad filter.

Now go to your Adsense account, Click on Adsense Setup, Then click on competitive ad filter, copy and paste the websites you were giving from Adsblacklist . Now wait till Adsense blocks those sites.

Sit back and let the earnings roll in.

from:ProBlogger Blog Tips

Winning Marketing Strategies - For Spa Professionals

by John Uhrig

Winning Marketing Strategies - The Most Important Skill You Need To Possess As A Spa Professional

Spa Marketing & Advertising - Strategies:

I want to spend a little time to tell you about one of the nearly all important skills that any spa professional should and can develop. The ability to write good spa promotional marketing copy!

There are two main reasons you don't want to take this subject casually!

First, it's very pricey to have your spa marketing materials written by a good proficient copywriter or consultant. To write the copy for a direct mail spa promotional letter for a client I charge big bucks.

Second, no matter how much you pay to get the very best outside help no one can ever have the same feel for your spa business and your clientele that you do. I'm often surprised how spa business people hire high priced marketing people to write their sales and spa marketing materials when the individual knows nothing about their spa business and doesn't even attempt to get to know it.

On the other hand, most spa professionals 'live and breath' day spa treatments and spa products. They're often the front line person who speak and hear from the #1 most important positive feature of the spa business… its clients.

In fact, a couple of years ago, I was hired to produce and write a promotional piece for a spa client of mine in order to try to beat the current response rates they were getting. What did I do? I simply went to the top two estheticians in the day spa, asked them to write down for me word-for-word what they say to their prospective clients to get them to buy treatments and products, and I crafted a promotion from it.

How did it go? It outperformed the high priced so called marketing professional's promo piece by 300%. Yes it tripled response all because I let the front line people be the control for the input of the copy.

Still need some help with this? Visit SpaMarketingTools, I'll give you some specific ideas, tools and guidelines that will help you write effective marketing copy for your spa business. http://www.spamarketingtools.com

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING

By: Pat Quinn
The story I am about to tell you is thought to be apocryphal, which is why I shall refrain from naming names. Nonetheless, it is a classic example of what advertising is - or, rather, should be - all about. It demonstrates that good promotional concepts, the ideas that sell product, are based wholly and solely upon (a) the product story, (b) the benefits of owning said product and (c) the image of the product in the eyes of its potential customers.

Step back with me, then, about 40 years, when advertising agencies were less dependent than they are now upon market research, consumer panels, think tanks, marketing strategies, consumer profiles, computer-based market analyses and all the pseudo-scientific claptrap with which agencies are these days lumbered. We are returning to a time, the late 60s, when creative people (writers and designers) ruled the ad agency roost. Indeed, many of the better UK agencies were then run by creative people and not by accountants as so many of them today are. And because of this there was a kind of freedom in the air. Writers and designers were given their head; they were allowed to do whatever their guts told them was right; and the resultant advertising was, without a doubt, the best that has ever been produced before or since.

So it was in my story that a large London agency, headed up by a brilliant writer, was invited to pitch for the British Rail account. As I've said, the MD of the agency was brilliant with words. He was also flamboyant in dress and in manner; and his reputed attitude towards clients was one of take it or leave it. As the rumours go, he would back his creative team to the hilt, and he would actually fire clients who did not express a generous enough attitude towards his agency's work.

Anyway, accepting the offer to pitch, the agency invited the Advertising Manager of British Rail, along with his entourage, to its offices in salubrious Mayfair. On the appointed day, as the visitors filed in, a catalogue of events unfolded.

They were greeted, first, by an indifferent receptionist who had a cigarette poised between her lips. She barely acknowledged them, but pulled herself away from a magazine long enough to direct them towards an ante-room, telling them that the agency MD would be along in a moment.

Inside this ante-room, the dйcor was somewhat grubby and there were not enough chairs to go round, so several of the visitors had to stand. Also in the waiting-room was a coffee table littered with used coffee cups, torn magazines and ashtrays piled high with cigarette butts. There was also litter on the floor.

And the visitors waited…and waited…and waited. After fifteen minutes or so, they had understandably had enough of the awful waiting room and decided to leave. Just as they were exiting, the agency MD arrived. "Good afternoon, gentlemen," he greeted. Pointing back to the room from whence they had come, he said: "This is the image that most people have of British Rail. This, by and large, is how passengers are treated when they use your services." Then he smiled. "But I intend to change all that."

Apocryphal or not, this story clearly shows that advertising is not just about presenting a product with nicely framed words and pictures, it is really all about knowing the essence of the product. It's about understanding how to make the most of its attributes. But, above all, it's about realising where its faults lie and how those faults may be corrected.

I can't count the number of times, when working in a creative team, that we have spotted the downside to a product or service - something about which the manufacturer was blissfully unaware. It is, of course, very difficult to convince a client that there is something not quite right about his product, but a good writer or designer will do so as a matter of course…and to hell with the consequences.

Like our agency MD above, I reckon it's all part of the job.