Ad copy that mystifies me.
Sigh... I was looking for a recommendation for a funny novel I wanted to read and found this... Well, I clicked on it and Google clearly thinks its an effective ad. :)
Posts
It's not a tip when its not your money!
A few weeks ago while on the honeymoon, I noticed a person next to me in the hotel's internet business center do something strange as he fnished his Internet session. (Umm...yes I'm strange that way and sometime don't realise that its that rude to notice other people's surfing habits. :) ) As he got up to leave, he clicked on an ad on the page he was reading. Just as the ad started to load, he quickly switched back to the original page, clicked on another ad and then quickly logged out of his Internet session. He left the room without returning his chair under the desk, and with me shaking my head. Why you ask? And what was he doing? It reminded me of this head-shaker of a blog post(Ads are the new online tip jar) (that I read on Seth Godin's blog many months ago. Text below: " If you like what you're reading, click an ad to say thanks. Pretty simple, but not an accepted online protocol, at least not yet. If every time you read a blog post or bit of onlin...
WSJ: I cracked...and why thats a good thing.:)
The only truly successful subscription-based online news service I know of is the Wall Street Journal I grew addicted to the Journal over a summer at b-school, and got the student subscription for my final year. I didn't renew the subscription, and then kinda waited to see if after the controversial acquisition they'd drop subscription on the site as Murdoch had hinted. They didn't; and so a few weeks ago after getting only the first paragraph of an article I really wanted to finish, I cracked and subscribed. I decided not to get the paper delivered though (just the online subscription.) The idea of more paper to get rid of around the house is scary I'm mildly annoyed that I had to spend some money to do it, but I'm really, really glad that clearly the WSJ has decided to stick with the subscription/paid-for model. I've said this before, but I do think that the whole " Content wants to be free " mantra and the idea of building distribution believing ad...
Identity, Brands and Social Networking (Notes from the Google Faculty Unconference)
If I don't get distracted or busy, this should be the first in a short series of posts about stuff I learnt and/or enjoyed at the Google Faculty UnConference . The conference was a small gathering and had tons of breakout sessions and one keynote by Prof. Mohan Sawhney , which for me was one of the most enjoyable parts of the conference. Prof. Sawhney had some excellent ideas and structures, and was extremely entertaining to boot. I'll try to go through, and comment on some of the points he made. I'll start with the comedy: On choosing to speak without PowerPoint: "PowerPoint is a good crutch, but once you learn to walk you need to throw it away." Early efforts with brand marketing trying to use social networking: "It was a lot like teenage sex. Everyone had heard about it, nobody was really doing it, thought that everyone else was doing it, and when a few of them tried it, it was really,really bad." His contention was that branding (or rather marketers...
TBS! Way to lose some money, annoy me and use a windowing strategy completely incorrectly!
So here's what happened. Maybe because its set in Chicago, or maybe just because the writing is so good, I really like My Boys. So its on my DVR list. I get home excepting to watch the show a few Thrusdays ago, except that something funky happened and the recording got messed up. My options: wait a few days and record the re-run, or catch it online right away. I decided I wanted to watch it right then, and went to TBS' website. Here's what the th ought-stream went like after that Click. Woohoo, they have full episodes on the sites Click . Huh? Ok. the show isn't online yet; maybe in a few hours? Click . The new episode will be online on the 19th; exactly 8 days from now! Argh! WTF? Click . Fine, I still want to watch the show now, so twenty minutes later I did watch it on my laptop, but TBS didn't get a chance to serve me ads in the middle of the show and severely reduced the probability of my visiting TBS.com ever again. Using windowing strategies (i.e. making thi...
Tencent....making money a few cents at a time!
OK; bad pun on the blog title.:) But great article here on monetization at Tencent , a leading Chinese portal. Here's the take-away: Internet services (digital goods, games, micro-transactions): $344 million (66%) Mobile services: $110 million (21%) Online ads: $67 million (13%) Total Revenues : $523 million Its incredibly encouraging; also a frightening wake-up call. Most web monetization initiatives I've seen in the US are around monetizing the attention of users by figuring out the best way to creatively/effectively serve advertising around a product. Its always encouraging to see examples of product features that you can charge for, that result (for others) in 5X the revenue of the online ads. The question that you naturally have to ask though, is what revenue opportunities are other web companies losing out on by focusing their attention on advertising, and not business models/features that you can charge for?
Web Advertising your way to Commander-in-Chief..
I spent a little time day before, and some today on this site , and enjoyed it quite a bit. I want to start developing a more nuanced understanding of web advertising (Jeez, I work at Google! ) and finding time to read stuff like this is a small start. Obama's campaign spent the most on display advertising in January, mostly using it to call citizens already for him to donate, while McCain's campaign focused on video ads which seemed to suggest he was trying to convince people to come to his side....and then donate. Yahoo is the leading source of those ad impressions.