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Social Media Caters to Democratized Entertainment

Monday, August 30th, 2010

This year’s Emmy Award Show had the most tech savvy host the show has ever seen, and this was no mistake. Jimmy Fallon has been integrating The Emmys with Twitter, Facebook and other social networks since last week, motivating fans to get involved in the whole experience. Jimmy Fallon included his his over 2 million Twitter followers by reading their Tweets on live TV, and by giving them insights to what hosting The Emmy Award Show is like. This blog will be discussing the democratization of TV and other outlets of media, and providing you with the tools to get the vote of popularity.

Making an award show entertaining is no easy feat, but with a lot of hype and attempts at hilarity this year’s Emmys came really close. This year’s opening performance featured a large variety of TV stars, such as Betty White, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, and Jorge Garcia from ‘Lost’. The main idea behind this all inclusive opening act was to perform in a Glee Club competition, and the song they chose to recreate was The Boss’ Born To Run. After watching the entire opening act it occurred to me that they we able to combine an American icon; Bruce Springsteen, the Glee club, stars from hard hitting dramas, hilarious comics and flamboyant fashion designers. The show opened with a very approachable cast because a member from each genre was present, so immediately all TV fans felt like they were being catered to in some way.

Engaging the fans was a prevalent theme in this year’s Emmys and there was no better example of this than the online presence of backstage cameras next to the live Twitter feed.

This cross over theme continued with Jimmy Fallon’s comical depiction of Sir Elton John, Boys II Men, and Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong. This compilation of a wide variety of artists was another attempt to speak to the complex collection of TV fans which were present for the show. Even advertisements running throughout the show followed the cross over lead when the cast from ‘Community’ enjoyed a ride together in the new Infinity QX56.

Because there are so many options for customers in this democratized world of media, companies have to beware of trends and the preferences of their customer’s. This truth is exemplified with MySpace’s recent partnership with Facebook, enabling the synchronization of of their content on to Facebook.

This synchronization is a great example of a company staying nimble to a client’s needs, as apposed to trying to combat stiff competition.

I am officially out of room, but I do want to leave you with this quick link to all of the award wining shows from this years Emmy Award Show. Also for more tips on how to stay ahead in the world of SEO check out Wpromote online.

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Posted in Blogging, Business, Content Marketing, Daily non news Stories of Interest, Editorial, Internet News, Marketing, Online Advertising, SEO, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, Viral Marketing, Wpromote | No Comments »

Apps for the Real-Time Era

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Interacting online with real-time media is quickly becoming a leading trend in recently released websites, content, and applications for smart phones. Staying updated and informed about the most recently released information is a feature that websites or applications have to offer in order to stay relevant. Companies and concepts have emerged that cater to this constant real-time release of information like Twitter, Digg, Facebook, Gilt, and many more. This article will help you understand why this trend is about to be integrated into your daily life, and will give you a look into some of the most popular real-time websites and applications that are only a few hours new.

For those who have not heard yet, ESPN released a real-time media application that is similar to Foursquare late last week. This application, named Passport, allows you to check into sporting events, see who is there, and converse with other attendees. This application will allow true fans to declare there unwavering dedication to their team, and provide another platform for immense amounts of trash talking. Philo and Miso are new real-time applications that allow people to chat about TV shows currently airing on public platforms. These applications, will be apparent to mainstream app users by the Fall, and will undoubtedly continue to partner with cable conglomerates like Miso’s relationship with TNT.

Participating in real-time media provides extremely useful analytical information for companies, and that is why companies like Gap have implemented promotions for customers who check into Foursquare when showing up to shop. Gap offered 25% off a foursquare participant’s entire purchase last weekend when they checked in, but because of the lack of advertisements for this event almost no one was aware of this opportunity. Be on the look out for additional events like these in the future.

Blurring the line between entertainment on your phone and the real world is also something that real-time media is trying to offer with certain apps. SCVNGR is a site that tries to link experiences in the real world with your phone by placing you on scavenger hunts with people in your area. This app allows you to check into cafes or any location but also alerts you to scavenger hunts or activities that people are engaging in. I am also reminded by my hunger that their are applications that give you up-to-the-moment announcements of where LA food trucks can be found.

The underlying factors of immediate interaction with real-time updates in entertainment, news, and contacts is the enjoyment people get by staying informed, and the benefits advertisers obtain by staying fresh on the minds of their consumers. The constant presence of a company’s message is a dream come true for advertisers, but is easily disguised as daily entertainment. The introduction of new interactive information is a great tool for a site’s SEO attempts as well, so integrating games or a reward system in your content is a great incentive to get customers to continually return to your site or app.

Please leave your favorite real-time website below so we can all stay in the loop.

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Posted in Blogging, Business, Google, Internet News, Marketing, Mobile marketing, Online Advertising, Random!, SEO, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, Wpromote | No Comments »

Monetizing your blog and minimizing costs, without sacrificing Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

SEO - Expert post - Aaron Kronis is the SEO Director for Wpromote Inc.

Monetizing your blog and minimizing costs, without sacrificing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts.

Today I’m going to touch base on different ways to monetize your blog and the importance of using more than one method to achieve results while keeping a focus on SEO at all possible times.

Think about it.

You can’t control the traffic that comes to your site, and much will bounce due to the nature of the Internet. However, if you do get enough sheep to graze in your pastures long enough, you can put enough pots of honey out there that some will click on your ‘deals’ to take advantage of your breaks and affiliate referrals to make purchases you suggest to them.

Ways to make money from your website:

Well, first you need traffic! I suggest focusing on building a community of recurring users that refer their friends to participate in your website’s discussions when possible to grow a user base over time.

This is not easy, it is hard work and takes time and passion. If you are looking for a quick buck, do something else!

If Google Analytics on your site shows that you have barely any repeat visitors, then your ‘community’ may simply exist when new users come to your site and never return. This means you are mostly getting new visitors based on the monthly global and local searches done in the search engines.

Once you have roughly 5K uniques per month, you can start things rolling. To get there, use Twitter, Facebook and any type of online word of mouth you can to promote your website’s great content.

Hopefully you were smart enough to create at least one interesting article or download that people would want to view.

Affiliate Revenue Made Easy

Other ideas? Perhaps you wrote a cool e-book and offer a free download of it for a limited time.

Next, once you have some traction based on positive user reviews and twitter mentions, you start selling it for $2.99.

You then could offer affiliate revenue for $1.00 per download sold earning you $1.99 for those and $1.00 to the affiliate.

What are the fixed costs of being a blogger?

All of this is possible, you just have to plan it out and start trying things. Your costs are really not all that high when you think about it. The largest investment is your time. Thus this can be a very lucrative way to do things.

The main things you will need to pay for are:

Annual Reliable Website Hosting.

While this can be very cheap, it may benefit your SEO efforts if you purchase things like

Private Domain Registration

Dedicated IP

Virtual private server hosting

Dedicated server for shopping carts

Content each month from a professional content writer

Infographics about your industry from a graphic artist/programmer

Content Writers
Graphic Design costs for new images where needed (i.e. creating digital products like e-books, or other downloads.
Site Admin / Support
Website Community Management

What to use?

The main ways that bloggers make money is from advertisers who want to get the eyeballs of the site’s visitor who frequents a specific type of content to look at their ads during that visit.

Adsense: Although many people feel that the presence of Google Adsense can be detrimental to the site’s experiences this can account for a large portion of the site’s online revenue. Right now, the economy is such that it may not be feasible to get a lot of direct ad sales.

Amazon: This affiliate program can really make you a lot of money and is easy to setup and tailor to fit your niche.

E-Books: Create a free e-book about your industry and make sure it is something that you would download. Use this to get traffic, then start charging a small amount for them, offering affiliate programs to others for a small cut. The small programs really add up over time!

Forums/Posting Boards:

Having a ‘Craiglist.org’ type of area on your site that allows users to post jobs, announcements, or whatever can be a quick and easy stream of back end income if you have a community already. Simply selling ads for $25-50 each can help you cover your car payments if you have enough traffic to warrant your users to post there in your ‘highly specific’ niche.

To Sum It All Up?

The key is to not put all your ‘advertising’ revenue eggs in one basket, to pay attention to what your users want/are doing and to keep a pulse on your market/niche. Keep your users informed of the latest changes in your industry and try to engage them wherever possible. If you can feature some type of User Generated Content (UGC) on your page that will cause them to tell others about your site, then you have them working FOR you now. It is not easy, but hard work and great quality websites will pay off.

Good luck and work/think hard.

Till next time,

Aaron @KRONiS

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Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Business, Content Marketing, Editorial, Google, Internet News, Marketing, Online Advertising, PPC, SEO, Twitter, Wpromote | 2 Comments »

If I Had My Way: Volume 2

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Disclaimer: This post is meant to be purely satirical. It is tongue-in-cheek, and we ask that readers keep that in mind. Please take no offense to anything contained herein. Wpromote and many of its employees are active users of Twitter and other similar services, and we encourage all to explore and utilize these social media tools. — The Management

If I had my way… there would be an end to inane tweets.

I mean, who gives a crap?

I don’t. That’s for certain.

I don’t care that you’re extra tired today because you stayed up late playing Farmville. I don’t care that some days, your shoes just won’t stay tied. I don’t care that your favorite song just came on the radio. I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care.

Now, I understand the hypocrisy of writing a blog post criticizing microbloggers (I secretly hope no one reads this), and I understand how easy it is to avoid Twitter and the other sources of mindless drivel. However, this is one of those things, the mere existence and popularity of which just bother me.

To whom are these people speaking? Their friends? I can’t imagine they have many. Otherwise, they wouldn’t feel the need to tweet in the first place. Does tweeting make them feel important? Heard? Connected? They’re not. They’re merely putting noise into the desolate wasteland of cyberspace. It is a disturbing trend of self-importance being used to mask feelings of loneliness and low self-worth. I’m pretty sure that were Narcissus alive today, he would have died from Tweeting.

A study published by Pear Analytics last August found that over 40% of tweets can be classified as “Pointless Babble,” defined as “I am eating a sandwich now” tweets, the worst kind. That seems about right. The next most common classification was “Conversational,” which consists of back-and-forth communication between individuals. These tweets make up almost another 40% of the total. Why are these people having one-on-one conversations in a public forum? What’s wrong with phone, email, IM, text… ? They’re like the people who have conversations in crowded elevators. I hate them, too. To top it off, another 10% of tweets are made up of “Spam” and “Self promotion.” So, that brings us to almost 90% of all tweets being completely worthless and devoid of anything other than self-service and -import.

Now, this is not to discredit those who use Twitter responsibly, those who fall in that remaining 10%. Wpromote has dozens of clients who use the service effectively as a tool to communicate and interact with their potential clients and customers. Further, we have a number of employees who distribute insightful, thought-provoking or humorous stories and musings through their Twitter accounts. In fact, right here on this blog, our one-and-only Amanda Moshier published an informative piece on the opportunities and benefits presented by Twitter. There is simply no questioning the potential behind this platform.

However, this is meant to address those who abuse it, those who clog our existence with their desperate needs for attention. Next time you go to tweet, ask yourself a few questions first. Do people want to hear about my iced soy vanilla green tea chai latte? Do people want to know the color of my dog’s poo? Do people care how full I feel after eating In-N-Out? No, they do not. Ask yourself if people actually will give a crap or if you just really WANT them to give a crap… because there’s an enormous difference.

Oh, and make sure to retweet this! Loves!

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Tags: pointless babble, report, Twitter
Posted in Editorial, Social Media, Twitter | 15 Comments »

Last Call, 2009: Here Are 6 Posts from The Wpromoter That Help Put the Year In Perspective

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

2009 was a lot of things, but one thing is wasn’t? Boring. As we’ve said before, A LOT happened this year, and the bloggers here at Wpromote worked hard to keep up. We hope we succeeded in providing you a valuable and entertaining mix of content.

As we approach the beginning of a new decade, let’s take a look at six posts from The Wpromoter that highlight some of the most important online news from 2009.

The Google Witchhunt

Calling it a ‘witchhunt’ is probably extreme, but let’s face it - everyone had a reason to sue Google this year. Whether Google is at fault is not for us to decide - we’ll let the courts handle that. Get an overview of some of Google’s battles from Michael Block, Wpromote’s VP of Client Services and resident PPC expert, in “Tues News: 6/30 (Google vs. Everyone Edition).”

The Quest for Better ROI

A recession year in terms of spending on advertising, everyone was looking for ways to increase ROI. The beauty of online marketing tends to be accountability, but another huge benefit is the ability to make nominal tweaks and notice relatively instant results. Check out this roundup from Wpromote’s President and CEO, Mike Mothner, called “8 Things You Aren’t Doing That Will Boost Your SEM Results.”

The Twitter Phenomenon

Twitter made it cool to ‘do you’ in 2009. If you’re still unsure what all the fuss is about or simply want a better understanding of the microblogging service that took the world by storm, check out my post, “Tweeting to Transparency: 4 Reasons to Be Who You Are in 2009.”

The Viral Marketing Explosion

It’s effective, powerful, and ‘cool.’ It has that ‘everybody’s doing it and so should we’ cache to it. But viral marketing is not a paint-by-the-numbers tactic, and poorly executed viral campaigns can cause a brand more harm than good. Get some tips from Jesse Bouman, Wpromote’s Viral Marketing and Social Media Manager, in his informative post, “3 Common Viral Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.”

The Broadband vs. Broadcast Battle

Another big development this year was the growing popularity of online video and the effect it had on consumer viewing habits and the broadcasting industry as a whole. Get an overview of the way online video is changing the TV game in my post, “Hulu Desktop App Challenges Cable Networks.”

We hope you enjoyed this recap. Here’s to more great content, and lots of success in 2010! Happy New Year!

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Tags: 2009 recap, 2009 retrospective, google witchhunt, hulu vs. cable networks, quest for ROI, twitter phenomenon, viral marketing mistakes
Posted in Daily non news Stories of Interest, Editorial, Google, Online Advertising, Random!, SEO, Social Media, Technology, Tues News, Twitter, Viral Marketing, Yahoo! | 2 Comments »

Webmaster World / Pubcon Las Vegas Recap: VIDEO

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Las Vegas Pubcon 2009

Wpromote was fortunate enough to attend this year’s pubcon in Las Vegas in a slightly different manner than the previous two years we’ve attended. This time Christian (@itsxtian) and I (@KRONiS) had different agenda’s as I had a speaking gig on a great SEO Tools Panel and was armed with my new Zi8 Kodak HD camera. After having lots of experience with our SEO team, Christian was looking for more interesting and specific advanced SEO tactics to take away from pubcon, while supporting my efforts of speaking, networking and also enjoying our time at Pubcon.

Now that we’ve attended several of these events and I’ve spoken at BlogWorld, 140character conf, and the Wordcamp LA/Vegas confs, our world of SEO and search-related networking has expanded such that we know who most of the movers and shakers are in this industry. This gives us some piece of mind in knowing who we are looking to meet up with at these events and what we wish to accomplish.

I was asked to speak on a SEO / SEM Tools panel with Rand Fishkin (@randfish of SEOMoz), Jon Henshaw (@RavenJon of RavenTools), Jim Boykin (@jimboykin of WeBuildPages) and at first I was simply introducing myself to the community, explaining the things I did to become an SEO.

For example: Going to as many conferences as possible and meeting the guys like the ones on this panel and exchanging information, asking the burning SEO questions I had for my clients and also becoming a go green blogger as well.

Lots of SEOs at the Werewolf SEOMoz Party (l to r: Erika Mamber (Demand Media), Michael Martin (Google Android Blogger), Emily Spence, Shirley Tan, Aaron Kronis, Evan Fishkin)

Video where matt talks about malware, international domains and more.

I decided to put together a video compilation of what I could film at pubcon, including some candid moments where Matt Cutts was shaving people’s heads and answering SEO questions. That inspired this graphic:

Which you can pass around with this link: http://bit.ly/3baldmoon

Part 2, matt shaves another SEO, Nelson James who has questions, Matt answers several International questions for others as well as one for me about Canadian .ca domains hosted in USA.

Then he gets into Malware and Hacking being really on the rise and how webmaster central will help you diagnose your hacked sites using ‘fetch as Googlebot’ to combat sneaky hackers who don’t show the hacked page unless it is Googlebot coming to fetch it, and if you have a noarchive meta tag, you would never know you were hacked.
(note: Matt says “.ca we already know is relevant to Canada and the US IP should still be fine. You can have the TLD and then host it somewhere else, in theory we might think that you are relevant to both the spots…usually i don’t recommend that sort of granularity and tinkering with that stuff because people make mistakes and can shoot themselves in the foot if they are not careful“)

This next clip is from the PUBCON part of pubcon…