Posted by Marshall on May 31, 2006 |
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IMediaConnection has a great article on what works on MySpace.com - took excerpts from the ImediaConnection article (below).
"Creativity has been the key to MySpace’s success since the site’s beginning. Along with crafting their written profiles, users manipulate the look of their space with easy html codes to change fonts, layout and color scheme (as well as picture backgrounds or wallpapers) of their personal pages".
Here are five lessons from MySpace for marketers:
Keep it new
Profiles that are constantly updated with new blogs, photos and comments get continuous views. Young people expect marketers to keep them engaged with new content.
Keep it creative
From amateur photo shoots to custom designed backgrounds, MySpacers take time and craft with their profiles. They are savvy and expect as much from marketers.
Keep it personal
One-on-one relationships (or at least perceived personal connections) are as important for actual brands as they are in the "personal brand image" that MySpacers create.
You’re known for the company you keep
The people, groups and brands MySpacers (and real brands) befriend say as much about them as their profile does.
Small is big
Within MySpace’s vast network, users create their own customized niches– exposing other users to their individual tastes. Nimble marketers must adapt to increasing fragmentation among young consumers.
I haven’t given MySpace.com a close look before but will now.
Posted by Marshall on May 31, 2006 |
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ClickTracks has just announced it will give 1000.00 of credit towards special ClickTracks software that can detect click fraud with Google AdWords (I wonder if any other Click Fraud is covered). Here’s the official annoucement.
Santa Cruz, California – May 31, 2006 – Web analytics leader ClickTracks (www.clicktracks.com) announced a $1000 credit towards software that helps Google AdWords users identify past click fraud events and claim part of the $90 million Google settlement fund.
On May 21, all advertisers who purchased online advertising from Google after January 1, 2002 were sent a court-ordered notice indicating the right to claim a settlement distribution for prior click fraud. All recipients of the email are eligible for the ClickTracks credit. According to the notice, those wishing to make a claim for past fraudulent clicks must identify each “affected ad” and submit a claim between June 19, 2006 and August 4, 2006.
John Marshall, ClickTracks founder and CEO, predicts some confusion. “Nearly every advertiser who received the notice needs to know what fraud occurred in the past in order to decide whether or not to make a claim.” said Marshall. “We believe ClickTracks has the only product that makes it possible to go back in time and substantiate a claim for prior fraudulent clicks.”
Special Credit
Advertisers who are part of the class action suit are eligible for a $1000 credit towards the purchase ClickTracks Pro, JDC, or Agency edition, which include the Click Fraud report. The one-time credit reduces the price of ClickTracks Pro to $2495 and, for qualified consultants, a 20 dataset license of the Agency edition will be reduced to $1495. The credit applies to new customers who purchase a qualifying ClickTracks product in the month of June 2006. Details on the offer may be found at http://www.clicktracks.com/fraud_recovery_offer.php.
Click Fraud Reporting Technology
ClickTracks Pro, which includes the Click Fraud report, installs in less than an hour. The Click Fraud report can look back in time and report potential click fraud behavior that occurred in months or years past.
ClickTracks bases its detection on a statistical mean for a number of measurements taken for each campaign, and then compares that data across all other campaigns, pointing out ads which are worse than average in one or more ways. Some examples include ads that have:
· a lower than average conversion rate
· a higher than average number of single-page visits
· a lower than average number of unique clients
· a higher number of clicks from China
· a higher than average number of sessions with no referrer
The report then allows marketers to substantiate suspicious campaign behavior by generating a detailed fraud forensics report suitable for submission to the PPC provider.
Free Class on Click Fraud Analysis
On June 21, 2006, ClickTracks will teach a free, live online class titled “How to know if you are a victim of Click Fraud.” Attendees of this class will learn how to identify poorly performing campaigns and campaigns that have been victims of click fraud. The class will cover a recommended approach to applying for a refund, and give real-life examples of how others have identified, reported and resolved click fraud issues. Class registration information is posted at http://www.clicktracks.com/seminars.
Posted by Marshall on May 31, 2006 |
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Just got a invite to look at Yahoo’s new home page redesign - I’m told they want to spread it virally, so here’s the url .
The new site redesign looks like it’s very carfully done.
Posted by Marshall on May 31, 2006 |
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Liz Taylor is not dead, according to Gawker!
Wierd, according to Microsoft’s tool, Elizabeth Taylor’s main audience is woman over 50 years of age, like herself.
Also, another Microsoft tool compares Elizabeth Taylor to other individuals that it considers to be in the same class, like Annie McDowell. But the Microsoft tool gets thrown off by Jean Claude Van Damme who it thinks is a woman!
Posted by Marshall on May 31, 2006 |
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I met Timothy Leary several years ago (in the early late 1980’s, early 1990’s) at a conference in Philadelphia or Washington DC, I believe (don’t recall much about the conference). Timothy Leary was very influencial in my generation and though I never experimented with LSD or other mind altering drugs - Timothy Leary did, doing hundreds of LSD trips.
When I met him, it must have been a couple of years before he passed on. Here’s something written about Timothy Leary on Boing Boing today.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
"The real war is between those who are turned on, and those who are uptight." -Timothy Leary (October 22, 1920 - May 31, 1996)
I guess, based on today, those who are "uptight" are of greater number than those that are "turned on".
Posted by Marshall on May 31, 2006 |
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Because I’m painting again I really liked what Seth Godin had to say about selling your work directly and cutting out all the people in the middle - and let the audience, for change, decide on what’s important and good, without some entities in the middle, controlling the process. Here’s the entire Seth Godin Post on "raveling" which is the same as "unraveling".
Emily graduates from art school. She builds a myspace page, builds a blog (Inside A Black Apple) and starts selling her art on etsy.com.
I was trying to figure out Etsy, sorting the paintings by "times viewed" and was completely stunned by the fact that some paintings have 500 times as many views as others. And not because of the price, or, apparently, any obvious difference in quality.
Instead, you’ll notice that certain artists (like Emily) have hundreds of views. By my calcuation, she’s sold more than twenty thousand dollars worth of paintings so far. (she’s sold over 400 works of art, at 10 or 50 or more dollars a pop).
This isn’t a post about blogging or myspace or even etsy. Instead, it should be proof to you that the whole thing is raveling (which means the same as unraveling, in case you were curious). That all the systems that kept all the processes in place and leveraged mature industries and experienced players are slowly (or quickly) filtering to the masses. Faster than you thought it would happen.
Many of the artists at BAG (BrooklynArtistsGym.com), if they knew how to do this, would really benefit. The wierd thing is that when I looked at Emily’s page, it said she was relocating to Brooklyn NY today. Wierd.
Posted by Marshall on May 31, 2006 |
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This annoucement by QuanTech is interesting - not much actual detail on how behavioral advertising for blogs would work and if any one has more information about it, please share it with me.
"Quantech’s new technology supports a comprehensive search and precise identification of potential individual and business blogs that offer commercial potential for its clients, based on customer segment data. The new technology tracks responses to marketing initiatives and monitors the results of blog-based marketing campaigns. The new technology is Quantech’s latest addition to its Tech Package, providing a complete solution to clients’ online business needs. "
Behavioral web advertising and marketing models
Behavioral Targeting (or BT) is now recognized as the model that delivers
relevant content in a way that aligns the interests of consumers and advertisers,
with an ability to deliver better return-on-investment and significantly
increase CPMs. Spending on behavioral campaigns online is expected to
sky-rocket to $2.1 billion in 2008.
Quantech develops high-precision tools combine the technology and expertise
needed to identify customer behavior and differentiate customer segments using behavioral metrics. Quantech provides a true understanding of consumer’s wants and needs through interaction with content, and applies this understanding to engage
end-consumers in a relevant dialogue. In this way, Quantech’s helps its customers
design and implement the best behavioral rules, conditions and measurements
tools for a cost-effective allocation of its marketing resources.
Posted by Marshall on May 30, 2006 |
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Bizarre. Reading Tailrank.com and come across a new version of BatWoman as a Lesbian. I guess, why not? I mean, BatWoman, CatWoman, Wonder Woman, they’re all in good shape….sooo…maybe they like to work out..together. Too bad we can’t find THAT video on YouTube.
Here’s the story from the BBC - looks like the new BatWoman Lesbian comic book will only be published in the UK.
Comic book heroine Batwoman is to make a comeback as a "lipstick lesbian" who moonlights as a crime fighter, a DC Comics spokesman has confirmed.
Batwoman - real name Kathy Kane - will appear in 52, a year-long DC Comics publication that began this month.
In her latest incarnation, she is a rich socialite who has a romantic history with another 52 character, ex-police detective Renee Montoya.
52 will be published in the UK as a graphic novel by Titan Books in 2007.
The series is set in a world in which established superheroes like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman no longer play a part.
Reinvention
The new-look Batwoman is just one of a wave of ethnically and sexually diverse characters entering the DC Comics universe.
Others include Mexican teenager Blue Beetle - who replaces the character’s previous white incarnation - and the Great Ten, a government-sponsored team of Chinese superheroes.
Regular characters Firestorm and The Atom, meanwhile, have been reinvented as black and Asian heroes respectively.
The characters are part of a wider effort to broaden the make-up of comic-book creations in line with society as a whole.
Batwoman, who first appeared in July 1956, has not been seen since September 1979 when she was killed by the League of Assassins and the Bronze Tiger.
I know sometimes you can find all kinds of comic books at Forbidden Planet or some bigger comic book store like that.
Posted by Marshall on May 30, 2006 |
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John Alexander has produced a short video on Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) that might be worth a viewing.
I am a Chat Moderator at the WRC (I’m not sure what that stands for anymore since they just changed it - it used to be The World Resource Center - but it means something else now).
According to John Alexander:
Following our last newsletter article by Michael Marshall on the topic
of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) we are pleased to provide this short
introduction to the topic in a short video excerpt by John Alexander.
Turn up your sound and listen in and watch this short video:
Introduction to Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)
http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/video/lsi1.html
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