About online advertising, what advantages does it have compared to print?

In most ways that impact the bottom line, online outperforms print media. That is not to say print media is without value, but as the marketplace grows more digital (and therefore more accountable) the ability to track, measure, and optimize the results generated by media are difficult to beat. Print's strengths include highly targeted or niche audiences and the business-to-business sector--though search is impacting that as well.

ojvcentral

When will online advertising really start to take off?

It's already taken off, most dramatically a year or so ago. It was also consumed by entrepreneurial direct marketers--Endai Worldwide was among the first--that figured out economic models after the easy money exited the marketplace. Many of these upstarts have had to evolve into far more sophisticated players, as the market and competition have grown and matured. A company such as Endai Worldwide had to invest heavily in technologies to stay competitive and provide clients with increasing value.

ojv

About online advertising, what are some of the major trends?

Search is becoming the dominant form of online advertising, increasing the sophistication of search engine results and content as well as the consolidation of industry players. Market pricing will function more like network television, although the web still remains the great equalizer: Small business will continue to buy a significant share of online advertising because it's effective, easy to buy and the same medium used by the big boys. Because of its inherent measurability, online advertising is already having an effect on the accountability of all advertising.

ojvcentral and ojv

Google Louches Campaign Optimizer?

It is a free AdWords tool designed to help you fine-tune your advertising campaigns. When you run the Campaign Optimizer, we automatically analyze your budget, keywords, and landing page, and create a customized proposal for your campaign. You can then review the proposed changes and accept the ones you want to apply.

You can reach the Campaign Optimizer via the Optimize Campaign link on your campaign details page. You can also go to the Tools page of the Campaign Management tab and click Campaign Optimizer.

By ojvcentral and ojv.no

The iPhone Could Boost Mobile Advertising

Apples iPhone might be the first platform to truly make mobile advertising popular. The Apple touch in making videos available and enjoyable to view could make mobile advertising mainstream, depending on how aggressive Apple pursues advertising, and how successful the iPhone is.

The iPhone should enhance the mobile video experience by playing YouTube videos and the quality of the videos, encoded using the H.264 standard.

Advertisers will flock to the iCrowd, a demographic of people willing to spend more for technology and to live on the bleeding edge. The question is how quickly will Apple and AT&T incorporate video ads? Advertisers could offer iTunes content for free in exchange for watching some ads, but Apple has traditionally focused on paid rather than ad-supported content. It could be a whole new iBallgame.

By ojvcentral and ojv.no

Internet advertising continue the explosive growht

Figures shows that Internet advertising revenues continue to skyrocket, the tech wreck of six years ago just an insignificant correction. The 2007 first quarter revenues of US$4.9 billion represent a 26 percent increase over Q1 2006 at US$3.8 billion and a 2 percent increase over Q4 2006 at US$4.8 billion. “The continued growth of online ad revenues clearly illustrates marketers’ increased comfort with the extraordinary vitality and accountability of this medium,” commented IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg. “It reaches consumers with an unprecedented level of efficiency and measurability that provides marketers with actionable data. And the ever-changing landscape of new platforms and technologies that enrich interactive advertising guarantees that this growth trend will continue.”

“The recent results are particularly impressive when the size of the advertising revenue base is taken into account,” said Peter Petrusky, director, PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Given these results, we may expect continued strong revenue growth buoyed by an expanding broadband subscriber base, which could translate into more users spending more time online and offers a platform for rich media and video ads that dial-up connections can’t render.”

The continued growth of internet advertising, on top of the record growth of 2006 and despite advertising’s traditional sluggish first quarter, demonstrates the growing significance of interactive advertising to the overall advertising and marketing industry.

About the IAB

Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau represents over 300 interactive companies responsible for 86% of online advertising revenues in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices; fields interactive effectiveness research, and educates the advertising industry about interactive advertising.

By ojvcentral and ojv.no

Make money from your website with Google advertising program

Will Widgets apps bring advertising to our desktop?

Once only seen on Apple machines, now that Microsoft has installed them on Vista, advertising outfits want to hijack widgets for their own use.

Widgets are mini-applications that offer easy access to Internet-based content and information. Advertisers like widgets because they blur the line between an ad and a service and people are more likely to keep such branded content on their desktop.

Reuters quotes Jai Shen, co-founder and chief technology officer of widget developer RockYou as saying that widgets will be the new ring tone. Most of the widgets being created are music related.

But Reuters points out that one of the problems the industry needs to over come is that widget use is unmonitored by the tracking companies so it is impossible to tell how successful they are as an advertising option.

ojvcentral and ojv.no

Google Buys GreeBorder

Google bought GreenBorder, a Mountain View-based company that creates security software designed to protect a computer as you surf the web. According to Silicon Valley Watcher, GreenBorder developed "an easy solution to virus, spyware, and trojan threats by isolating each Internet session from the rest of the PC and earlier Internet sessions. The beauty of the Green Border Pro software is it doesn't need to be updated to guard against new virus signatures or new types of malware. It creates a secluded, virtual Internet session and when you are done, it flushes everything away, in your cache and in temporary files."

It supported Internet Explorer, but now it also supports Firefox and lets you open files downloaded from the Internet in a virtual environment. Each application protected by GreenBorder has a colored border around the window, so you know you're safe.

By ojv at ojvcentral and ojv.no

Google deal with Feedburner worth of $100 million

Rumors about Google acquiring RSS management company Feedburner from last week, started by ex-TechCrunch UK editor Sam Setui , are accurate and are now confirmed according to a source close to the deal. Feedburner is in the closing stages of being acquired by Google for around $100 million. The deal is all cash and mostly upfront, according to our source, although the founders will be locked in for a couple of years.

The information we have is that the deal is now under a binding term sheet and will close in 2-3 weeks, and there is nothing that can really derail it at this point.

Huge congratulations to Feedburner. The company was founded in 2003 and has raised just $10 million in capital over two rounds. Portage Ventures funded their $1 million Series A round in 2004. The $9 million Series B round was closed in mid 2005 (second close in 2006), from Mobius Venture Capital and Union Square Ventures.

By O.J.V at ojvcentral and ojv.no

Google Website Optimizer

Website Optimizer is a free multivariate testing application from Google. It allows users to test different combinations of content on a site or landing page with the goal of increased conversion rates. It is available to all AdWords users and provides analytic power on par with any website optimization software package out there.

If you are using PPC or email campaigns to drive users to a landing page with the goal of conversion, Website Analyzer is a godsend. Through well thought out landing page design and testing you can get feedback that will significantly impact conversion rates.

By O.J.V at ojvcentral and ojv.no

Google release a New Beta Version - Google Analytics.

If you are still measuring your website success using a hit counter or similar archaic system (hopefully none of you are?) Then you should take a look at the Google’s Analytics programme.

Google unveiled the latest enhancement to their free website analytics service (Google Analytics) at the recent Emetrics Summit in San Francisco. The improvements are based around better controls and sharing of data, and should be visible to Google Analytics users in the coming weeks.

When Google launched the free Google Analytics service, it was a great way for newbie website owners to gain an understanding of what their visitors were doing on their sites. By continually developing the strong analytics platform, Google Analytics is now more than just a basic service for newbies, with useful traffic and conversion data and a intuitive user interface.

The enhancements were summed up well at the Google Analytics Blog

What's different?
We've redesigned the reporting interface for greater customization and collaboration. This should make it easier for businesses and website owners to find and share the data you need to make informed decisions. The new version presents data more clearly and in context, so you can look at a single report to gain insights rather than having to pull up several reports to understand what action to take.

...here are some of the improvements:

• Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format.
• Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can email to others.
• Trend and Over-time Graph: Compare time periods and select date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.
• Contextual help tips: Context sensitive Help and Conversion University tips are available from every report

Google Analytics' improvements will continue to place increasing pressure on their paid
rivals. As they are now embracing the data needs of both experts and non experts
in a simple way, it starts to beg the question - "why pay for an expensive analytics
package?"

By ojvcentral

Web 2.0 distracts good design.

Hype about Web 2.0 is making web firms neglect the basics of good design, web usability. sites peppered with personalisation tools were in danger of resembling the "glossy but useless" sites at the height of the dotcom boom. Research into website use shows that sites were better off getting the basics righ. Good practices include making a site easy to use, good search tools, the use of text free of jargon, usability testing and a consideration of design even before the first line of code is written. Read more here.

Ojvcentral

The World and Widgets on the Internet.

The web has seen an explosion in the use of widgets over the past year. Let's explore what a widget is and its uses. We are discussing Web-based widgets only, not the desktop widgets such as those provided by Yahoo Widgets or Microsoft's Vista widgets.

A Web widget can be described as a mini application that can add functionality to your web page, blog, social profile etc. If you find a widget that you like, you simply copy and paste some code and add it to the HTML of your web page. Photo galleries, news, videos, advertising, mp3 players and pregnancy countdown tickers! You name it, there is probably a widget that does it.

Google Adsense has made a lot of money for website owners since its inception. It is probably the most widely distributed widget around. You can sign up for an Adsense account and relevant adverts are shown where you place the widget on your site. You then get a share of the revenue generated with Google. Whole sites and services exist today on the web that are solely funded by their share of revenue from displaying the Adsense widget. Estimated value? Billions!

By ojvcentral

Google Share YouTube Revenue!
May 8, 2007. Google are starting to pay their top YouTube users for the video content they submit! The revenue sharing partner program will see creators getting a cut of the AdSense revenue generated by their videos. How to get a share of the profits!

ojvcentral

Google Enters Widget Business

Officials from Google have confirmed the company has been beta testing "Gadget Ads," according to a MediaPost report. The new product will allow advertisers to embed rich media into webpages.

Like widgets, Gadget Ads are small HTML-based applications that offer advertisers the option to ad flash, video, real-time feed and transaction functionality to ad displays.

According to Zal Bilimoria, product marketing manager for Google, Gadget Ads won't be complicated to use.

"Anyone who can build a website can have a Gadget Ad," he said.

The Gadgets will work in conjunction with AdSense and come in standard IAB ad formats.

Google plans to make Gadget Ads available sometime this summer.

ojvcentral

Yahoo Inc., the world's second-largest supplier of instant-messaging, has begun offering a new version that works inside a Web browser rather than requiring users to download a separate piece of software.

By dispensing with the need to install and run a separate IM program, Yahoo is looking to reach out to tens of millions of consumers around the world who use the Web in Internet cafes instead of on personal computers at work or at home.

The move also appeals to travelers, business professionals on the go and office workers whose companies block IM software downloads on their internal networks for security reasons.

Read rest of the article

ojvcentral

Google Announce “iGoogle” release

Google announced their new iGoogle Personalized Homepage service. This announcement includes a variety of new features, and more insight into where Google is going with personalized search.

A couple of example of how this might work is that search results can be personalized based on your recent search history. If you have recently searched on "maserati", and then type in "jaguar", the auto results will receive a boost over the animal. Or if you type in pizza, and you have set a default location in Google Maps, you will get information on pizza places near you.

This is very interesting stuff. Of course, it gets complicated in a few ways:

1. Benefiting from the functionality requires that you are logged in to your Google account. Not every one does that all the time.

2. If you are like me, I have multiple Google accounts. Which one am I logged into at the moment? Couldn't tell you.

3. Many machines have multiple users, such as family machines. When my daughter cames into use my computer, I am still logged in.

Now users are supposed to be able to use Gadget Maker without doing any programming all. Google's announcement states: "Anyone who can upload a photo or write an email can use one of Gadget Maker’s seven modules to create a personalized gadget without knowing how to write code".

Here is the list of gadgets that Google is allowing non-programming types to access:

1. A photo gadget

2. Google Gram greeting gadget

3. A mini-blog gadget

4. personal list gadget

5. personalized daily countdown gadget

6. YouTube video favorites gadget

7. Customizable free form gadget

There is a lot of great stuff in here, and its implications on SEO and web marketing will take quite some time to figure out.

The original Google home page is still very clean and simple - but note the "iGoogle" and "Sign in" links at the top right corner of the page. Yahoo, especially, should take note. For people who want a lot of customization of a personalized home page, those simple little links might lure away MyYahoo users in search of a bit more freedom

ojvcentral

Google Pays more than $1 Billion to people who use AdSense

Google have announced they paid over $1 billion to AdSense publishers in the first quarter of 2007. This figure was up from the $976 million they paid at the end of last year.

The earnings report also shows Google are now sharing more revenue with AdSense publishers than ever before, with 83.7% now given back to publishers. The graph below shows AdSense revenue sharing over the last 4 years.

So why are Google now sharing more revenue with publishers?

• Higher quality of publishers & partners
• More strategic partners with negotiated revenue share
• Higher share due to competition at Yahoo Publisher Network, Federated Media and other ad formulas
• The introduction of image and video advertising in Google AdSense

If you're keen to get your hands on some of this revenue, it's never been easier to start displaying Google Ads on your website or blog. Sign-up for an AdSense account, and let us know if you see an increase in your earnings.

OJV at ojvcentral

The title tag is important !

By O.J.Vik

One of the most important actions that you can take to make your site more visible to the search engines is to incorporate key words in your title tag. Sometimes you will find title tags "Welcome to our site" or something similar, while the content of the page is to f.eks, to sell IPOD’s or other elctronics.

In that situasjon, this is not a correct title tag as no one is searching for "Welcome to our site". Use the key words found in the research and strategy. If your site is about widgets, then the title would include your key words using widgets

title tag Definition

HTML tag used to define the text in the top line of a Web browser, also used by many search engines as the title of search listings.

Explanation

A title tag belongs in the HEAD section of a Web page, above the BODY section. Technically, it may be above or below the META tags, but it is common practice to place the (very important) title tag above the (less important) meta tags.

The information contained in a title tag appears at the top of the Web browser when viewing a Web page, and at the top of (most) search listings.

Writing descriptive title tags is an important part of optimizing a site to rank well with the search engines (and get clicked by visitors). A well-crafted title tag can stand on its own without the benefit of the accompanying page content, as this is how it appears to Web searchers who know nothing about your site.

Include at least one targeted keyword or phrase, maybe more, instead of using all generic words that do not distinguish your page. If possible, keywords should be used early in the title to help search engines and visitors identify the main subject of the page, and also to avoid getting cut off by search engines that use relatively short titles. Search engines have limits as to how many characters are used from the title tag and typically display between 50 to 70 characters.

ojvcentral