Everyone knows that word of mouth advertising is among the most effective type available.  When your friend tells you to try something new, you’re far more likely to give it a shot than if you simply see a commercial with some random actors trying to explain why they love the product.  The problem for marketers is that it is almost impossible to scale up the effectiveness to the large campaigns most companies want.  That is, until today.  A partnership announced late last week matches the popular video generating platform VideoGenie with the media platform Moontoast.

Together these two companies are giving people the platform to create high quality video testimonials & advertisements for the companies they love.  These advertisements can then be shared on their newsfeed in Facebook as official advertisements from select companies.  Of course, the companies will have the ability to approve or deny any advertisement from becoming an official ad before it is published.

When an ad is published to someone’s news feed the person who published it will be effectively promoting this company directly to their friends and family through a medium that they are already used to, Facebook.  These individuals can then share the ad with their friends and even add on additional comments or video testimonials to the original ad to make it even more compelling.  The hope for companies using this type of advertising is that these ads will quickly go viral showing their products and real world testimonials to millions of people.

Several major companies have apparently already signed on to this new platform and more will certainly follow suit as they learn about this new and innovative marketing strategy.  Eventually the service will be expanded out to smaller companies and even individual marketers.   What types of steps will be taken to prevent false advertisements from being created has yet to be announced, but it seems like that will be an important part of keeping these types of ads relevant.  Having dozens of ‘Fiverr’ gigs creating these apparently authentic advertisements would only reduce the effectiveness of these ads.

The idea as it stands today, however, seems like an exciting opportunity for the advertising and marketing world to continue to become more social.  Would you use this type of advertising for your product or services?  I’m interested to see what kinds of costs or payment structure will be set up around this.  I believe this type of service has a lot of potential and is definitely something I’ll be watching closely as more details come out.

Engage:BDR, the #1 performance marketing display network in the world, has announced that they have opened inventory that reaches over 50 million unique female visitors, age thirty-plus, to media buyers.

Engage:BDR has long been the leader for targeted media buys, and with this huge inventory selection open, this is a unique opportunity that you will not be able to find anywhere else.

“We have found through extensive research that this is the perfect channel for numerous types of campaigns that run on women’s fitness, mommy blogs, health, fashion, news and reference, Local TV, Radio, ISP and Portal sites” said Ted Dhanik, the CEO of Engage:BDR. “If you are looking to buy targeted media that actually works, and reaches women 30+ this is one of the premium places to go buy media.”

Women influence over 85% of all purchasing decisions and are heavily involved with all sales online especially for the household. According to emarketer, Moms for example, are online more than the average population, with 94.5% of all moms online compared to 75.5% of the generation population.

This is often a highly affluent population with purchasing power.

This is premium inventory that is suddenly open because of Engage:BDR’s strategic partnerships with numerous women’s oriented websites that have turned to them to monetize their inventory. Additionally, Engage:BDR has taken a preemptive strike on advertisers that aren’t following FTC regulations and recommendations, removing all weight-loss and beauty campaigns that aren’t fully compliant late last year.

“We want to make sure that anyone advertising with us doesn’t have to compete with scammy type product sales,” emphasized Dhanik, “This allows marketers and advertisers to promote real products in a legit, compliant way and reach the audience better because the users and publishers will trust the sale more.”

Sign up for Engage:BDR here.

 *Please note, FLOGS, fake news sites and similar type landing pages will be rejected immediately.

For More Information: Sign up here

With all the payment issues in the industry, it’s good that a company continues to try to attract the top-notch publishers with unique opportunities. Despite having one of the top growth years ever, AdStation by Adknowledge continues to try to recruit new publishers who haven’t tried their revolutionary system.  In order to help improve your ROI while trying a new system, they are offering a 50% bonus on new publishers that will allow them to play around with the system and see what works.

Let’s make this clear: everyone who has worked with AdStation says the same thing, “Improved my revenue, boosted my deliverability, helped me become a better super-affiliate.” It’s constantly the same thing you’ll read in almost every forum, that Adknowledge’s AdStation continues to be the best place for email marketing offers and data monetization.

 So you probably asking why AdStation is the #1 Choice for Email Marketer?

“It’s all about the data,” said Matt Hoggatt, GM of Email. “We don’t just indiscriminately fire out emails to our users.  We’re proud to have the largest and most comprehensive response-based targeting system on the planet behind us. Our offers are delivered to people who have an inherent interest in seeing our ads because they have been intelligently and specifically selected just for them.”

Simply put, AdStation uses a purely opt-in system that works better than anything out there. They have over a decade of experience in email marketing, and with a multi-million dollar team behind them, they ensure your profitability.

Try them out immediately at: http://www.adstation.com/asl02/

It is really no surprise that congress is finally taking up the issue of applying sales taxes to e-commerce sales.  Honestly, many people are surprised it has taken them this long.  If the house passes the “Marketplace Fairness Act” which they are expected to vote on within the next few weeks there will be some significant changes to how Internet Marketers do business.  The bill is meant to give a fair market to both online retailers and those in the traditional brick and mortar stores.

As the bill is currently worded it would require all remote sellers (aka online marketers) with gross receipts over $1 Million to collect sales tax in qualifying states.  This applies to states whether or not they have a physical presence within the borders of the state.

There are two main concerns for marketers regarding this bill.  The first, and most obvious, is whether they will end up having to pay taxes, and if so how much.  Many retailers thing that gross receipts over $1 Million sounds like a lot, but depending on how the bill is implemented it may not go down to the individual marketer.  ClickBank as a whole, for example, has far more than $1 Million.  If the state or federal governments attempt to put the tax at that level the costs will trickle down to the individual marketers in one way or another.

In addition to the actual costs of any potential new tax there is the worry about how it will be implemented.  If the bill passes there will be adjustments that need to be made, and while within a year or two all the bugs will be worked out, the transition period may be quite difficult for some businesses.

There are supporters and opponents of this bill throughout the e-commerce world making this an even more complex issue.  Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, for example has recently said that they will already have physical locations in over half the states so they will already have to pay sales tax in them.  Having to collect additional taxes from other states is not a significant burden to them and they are supportive of the bill.

NetChoice, a trade association for ecommerce companies including overstock.com and eBay recently came out against the bill.  They believe the new taxes will slow down the growth of ecommerce which has been such a huge benefit to the US and Global economies in the past several years.

One thing I think we can all be sure of, however, is that companies in the world of ecommerce have always been extremely resilient and flexible.  If this bill passes it may cause some problems and even some businesses to have to close shop, but others will come in and fill the gap as they always have.  Personally I am against the bill, but I do expect it to pass and I’ll plan my future accordingly.

What do you think?  Would you be hit by any of the new taxes from this bill?  Do you support this bill?  This is definitely one everyone should be keeping a close eye on to see if it passes, and if it does what the long term impact will be to online marketers everywhere.

Free Mobile Optimization for Advertisers

In what is shaping up to be one of the most active months in history for Google’s SEO team they have just announced late Tuesday evening that they took action against thousands of link selling sites.  These sites which build up networks of well ranked sites and sell links to people have become quite popular for SEO purposes, even though they are technically against the SEO guidelines put out by Google.  Google is clearly making an effort to de-incentivize the use of these types of networks in their ongoing effort to improve the overall results they are producing for their users.

About a year ago they de-indexed thousands of sites being used by the “Build My Rank (BMR)” service which caused the rankings of both these sites and those whose links were put on the sites to drop dramatically.  According to Matt Cutts, Google’s chief anti-spam man, they have gone after similar sites which offer the same types of services last night.  Rather than a single company which manages them all, however, they went after many different networks of varying size.

They did not announce which specific networks, but one thing is for sure, people are seeing the effect.  Listening to webmasters and so-called seo experts making posts on Internet Marketing forums everywhere this was quite a significant move on Google’s part.

This comes less than a week after what many believe to be a fairly minor change to their algorithm, and just before the announced Penguin 2.0 (or 4.0 by my count) is scheduled to take effect in the upcoming weeks.  This upcoming change is expected to be more impactful than previous versions of the Panda or Penguin updates of the past so webmasters everywhere are getting ready for some major adjustments.

As always, however, those who practice true ‘white hat’ strategies on their sites should have little, if anything, to worry about.  People playing with the ‘black or gray hat’ strategies will need to watch out.  Even if you are not hit this time, it appears Google is making a big push to improve their rankings.

Personally I’ve never used these link building networks for this very reason.  It is far too easy for Google to catch on and ruin your rankings.  What about you?  Did you see any changes in your rankings after last night?  Did you move up or down?  I’d love to hear about your experience and what you’re expecting with the big upcoming Penguin update!

Nielsen and ABC today announced the network’s participation in Nielsen’s first-ever trial to expand its Nielsen Online Campaign RatingsTM solution to mobile. Quickly emerging as the standard for online campaign measurement, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings measures the audience of digital advertising. Incorporating mobile apps will significantly extend the solution’s coverage footprint, which currently includes computer and tablet browsers.

The proliferation of mobile devices coupled with the ease-of-use of the in-app environment has contributed to significant growth in video viewing on both smartphones and tablets in recent years, according to Nielsen research. Through the Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings pilot program, ABC will be able to measure audience demographics and understand the reach and frequency of online campaigns across ABC content on the web and in mobile apps.

ABC’s Geri Wang, President of Sales, announced their participation in the pilot during today’s ABC Upfront presentation. “An increasing amount of our digital video viewing comes from apps on mobile devices, so the ability to understand who sees ads is crucial for our business,” said Wang. “Viewers have demonstrated that they want to watch ABC content everywhere they can, and that increasingly means on their smartphones and tablets. This trial with Nielsen is a significant next step in allowing us to help advertisers see the whole picture, and make our ABC Unified offering even more compelling.”

ABC and Nielsen have a history of collaboration and innovation around multiplatform advertising. Earlier this year ABC began comprehensive use of Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings to provide advertisers with metrics for their ABC Unified offering — one buy across all screens. In 2012 ABC and Nielsen announced work to develop a custom tablet measurement panel and consumer insights connecting media exposure with purchase behavior using Nielsen Buyer Insights.

“When we first launched Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings 18 months ago, we knew that it was the beginning of a market-moving shift in digital advertising. For the first time it enabled all parties to understand the audience of an ad campaign using metrics comparable to TV,” said Cheryl Idell, Executive Vice President, Client Solutions for Nielsen. “In that period, mobile usage has skyrocketed and the need to extend our measurement has become clear. We are excited to be announcing this pilot and to collaborate with ABC once again to deliver high-powered, multiplatform insights into the market.”

The mobile expansion of Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings will use a similar approach to the solution’s Media Rating Council-accredited methodology, which combines the industry-leading Nielsen Cross-Platform Homes panel with data from providers to measure all ads, including video and display, within iOS and Android apps. The pilot runs through summer 2013.

ABOUT NIELSEN CAMPAIGN RATINGS

Nielsen Campaign Ratings delivers clients comprehensive, comparable metrics for TV and online advertising campaigns. Part of the Nielsen Campaign Ratings product suite, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings combines Nielsen’s Cross-Platform Homes panel data with aggregated, anonymous, privacy-protected demographic information from participating online data providers. Campaign reporting is available the day after the launch of a campaign, providing vital delivery information in-flight to both advertisers and publishers. Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings, also part of the suite, draws upon Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings as well as Nielsen’s proprietary TV data to deliver unduplicated and incremental reach, frequency and GRP measures for TV and Internet advertising.

ABOUT NIELSEN

Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

*Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings is the first Internet measurement system that provides demographic ratings for online advertising campaigns of any size with certain metrics comparable to those used for TV advertising to be accredited by the MRC.

No, I am not obsessed with Matt Cutts. I barely even know him. We once shared a drink and then… well. that’s another story…Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, released a video to help answer many of the questions webmasters have been asking over the past several weeks.  He focused primarily on what webmasters and SEO professionals can expect in the near future regarding what types of things will help, and what will hurt as far as ranking in Google’s results goes.

The video contained ten specific areas and how they will affect the future of SEO for virtually every type of site.  It is no surprise that the main theme of the video is that black hat strategies will continue to be penalized and good sites who follow the rules will benefit.  Here is a quick overview of the points Matt made in his video:

• Penguin Updates – Google will continue to tweak their penguin updates starting with a big change expected to go live in the next few weeks.  This update is supposed to have an even bigger impact than the original penguin update.  Naturally, this will make some people happy and others angry, but it really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
• Advertorials – Sites using advertorials to attempt to inflate their overall link profile were penalized earlier this year.  Even more action against this type of link building is going to be coming out later this year.
• Spam Queries – Some keywords tend to attract black hat techniques more than others.  Terms like payday loans, for example, are flooded with hundreds of low quality sites.  Due to requests from outside of Google, these types of terms are going to be getting the attention of Matt’s spam team.
• Upstream Targets – Link builders have been using layered ‘networks’ to avoid getting punished by Google for their unnatural link building.  Google is going to start looking upstream at where the links are coming from and punishing those who are building unnatural link networks.
• More Sophisticated Link Analysis – This point was perhaps the most interesting of all of them.  Google claims they will be creating a more sophisticated profile of each site’s back links and where they are coming from.  This more detailed analysis will undoubtedly help them find black hat SEO strategies and penalize them as well.
• Hacked Sites – Google will be implementing improvements on warning users of potentially hacked sites as well as notifying the webmaster so corrective action can be taken.
• Authority Sites – It is no surprise to anyone that Google loves authority sites, and Matt made it a point to say that they will continue to give ranking boosts to authority sites.
• Panda Smack – Google acknowledged that some of the sites which were hurt by the panda updates were really not true black hat sites and they will be working to ‘soften’ the impact this update had on some of these sites.
• Multiple of Same Domain in SERP – In an attempt to diversify the results on the first page of results Google is going to reduce the number of pages from the same domain that are displayed.
• Webmaster Communication – Finally, Matt once again expressed his desire to have more open communication with webmasters so everyone can get the rankings they deserve.

Overall this was a very informative video and I highly recommend everyone take a look.  You can see the video in its entirety on YouTube here.

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