Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Survey Said . . .

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screenshot of what people want pollsClick to view larger image in another window or just visit the site.

What the People Want is a wacky sales website developed for Volkswagon in tandem with the talk show host campaign that features Max, the talking 1964 VW Beetle.

On the website, you simply submit a yes/no question. When someone responds to a question, they may see how many people wanted the same thing.

What is interesting is that 93 percent want cars to run on something other than gas, which is more than double the number of people who want to live forever. Wow! Gas hits $3.50 a gallon and we give up our fantasies of living forever. LOL


Saturday, April 26, 2008

Letting Your Inner Child Show

2 comments:
I just read this interest post on behavioral targeting tools and techniques used on the ground rather than online. Anthropology and ethnographic research is used to describe the activities of people in a certain environments. In this case, the environments were Universal Studios and Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Behavioral Insider » Blog Archive » Demystifying Escape

However, observation does not tell the story of motivations and triggers, so researchers:
conducted interviews that addressed some emotional experience issues to understand how they experienced the two parks. We did everything from guided imagery to recreate the thoughts and the feelings connected to the theme park. We gave them words to differentiate the two.
The article brings up an interesting theory on the life stage of the family and their reactions to the two theme parks. As one parent put it, "at Disney our kids share experiences with us; at Universal we are sharing our experiences with our kids."

While a trip to Disney might be the epitome of being a good parent, parents are mostly observers there. Universal allows families at certain stages to bond and parents do not have to sacrifice their fun.
Younger families with younger kids, the mother and father were seeing the world through their child's eyes. So there was a kind of vicarious experience. We observed that as distinct in these two parks. Whereas the older families that went to Universal, the parents connected with their kids and the parents became kidlike.
So here is another argument about trying to place people in categories by age or the fact that they have children at home. Learn from it. In 2007, Universal earned a record $92 million, twice what it had made the year before, even though travel to Florida was down.


Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Webcast : More on Blended Search

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Blended Search One Year Later: Strategies for Large SEO Campaigns

Tuesday, April 29 - 1 PM EDT

Speaker: Chris Sherman, Search Engine Land

This webcast will look at the revolutionary change happening with blended search-the practice of blending search result listings from news, video, images, and specialized, vertical search engine-and how search marketers can ride the wave to success.

Free webcast, but registration is required.




Upcoming Search Marketing Expo events:

Monday, April 21, 2008

Earth Day 2008 : Prayer for Mother Earth

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Garden of Eden
G
racious God,
open our hearts and eyes to the wonders of
your presence among us in all forms of being.


Help us to reach beyond ourselves
so that our love and concern embraces all creation
that shares this universe with us:
people of every nation,
animals of every species,
all forms of vegetation,
the planets, stars, and all the elements.


We pray this in union with the incarnate Word of God
in whose image all was created.
May you be blessed
throughout the ages and for all eternity.


Amen



Sunday, April 20, 2008

Carnival Coming : Family Memories

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Blog Village Quarterly Carnival

Family Memories . . .

April 28, 2008

DEADLINE April 25, 2008 Midnight

This Quarter's BLOG VILLAGE Carnival is focusing on FAMILY MEMORIES and will be hosted on Dirty Butter's YESTERDAY'S MEMORIES blog.

So, how about sharing stories of your childhood, or maybe how you met your spouse. Does your family have special bonding rituals? Do you have some "strange" family members who help to make your family unique? How about sharing lessons you've learned from past generations. Are you into genealogy? Does your family story include adoption, blended families, or divorce? You name it - if it has to do with your family, past or present, we'd love for you to share.

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Click the banner to ENTER the carnival.
Feel to copy this picture for your blog!

BLOG VILLAGE Health Carnival DEADLINE April 25 Midnight.

DEADLINE April 25, 2008 Midnight
Carnival will be online on April 28, 2008

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Rules
1. Blog MUST belong EITHER to a BLOG VILLAGE member OR link directly TO a BLOG VILLAGE Blog. (If you link to any of my blogs, you may submit a post, as all are members of BlogVillage.)

2. Only 1 entry per blog.

3. Only English language posts will be accepted.

4. No posts with titles, or with pictures, containing profanity, or of a sexual or suggestive nature, will be accepted.

5. Choose MEMBER or GUEST from the Categories, and put the required information in the REMARKS.
GUESTS of Villagers must submit the URL of the BLOG VILLAGE blog they are linked TO for your entry to be eligible for consideration.

VILLAGERS need to enter their MEMBER NUMBER in the REMARKS.
Blog Village

Wondering about BlogVillage? Click here to find out how to join Blog Village. It is easy to do, fun to participate, and you will be in the company of some fabulous bloggers--like me! LOL


Sunday, April 13, 2008

Cyber Beggars : Blog Begging

10 comments:
Lately, I have noticed an alarming trend: BLOG BEGGING.

I am sure you have seen these thinly disguised solicitations:
  • "Like my post? Pay me."
  • "Help me buy a domain."
  • "I need a new computer."
  • "Help me pay my tuition."
  • "Buy me a cup of coffee."
  • "Buy me a beer."
  • "Help me move out of my parents' house."
  • "I want implants. Can you help?"
Now, do not get me wrong. I have sponsored runners and walkers for cancer, Muscular Dystrophy and the United Way. I have charities that I support and am a soft touch for kids, animals, the homeless and disabled Veterans.

If you are struck by an emergency, like fire, flood, tornado or hurricane, then, by all means, post a plea for assistance. If you are uninsured or underinsured and you or a member of your family needs an operation or other medical treatment, a wheelchair or medicine, please ask for help.

I am not including anyone who provides software, templates, plug-ins and has a spot for donations. Without these types of developers, we would not have many programs, like SpyBot or Mr. Linky.

But, if you need money, put up a plug board, sell ad space or get a TopList. Or, be honest and call it what it is, begging, and sign up with CyberBeg or DonateMoney2Me.


Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Minor Issues that Matter

21 comments:
Two things bother me about the new Entrecard system.

First, replacing Thanks! with Go! Go! Go! and Alright! on the Entrecard widget bothers me. The Go! Go! Go! makes me anxious and I think the correct term in the latter case would be All Right!

Second, the image to the left makes me angry. Not only is it a knockoff of the Entrecard widget, being used by a real estate site, but it is misleading when placed on a blog. I believe this violates copyright laws. I hope they are taken down soon. I do not appreciate clicking and being led off site to some other place. I want to be in control of my computer and browser.


Changes on Entrecard : Good or Bad?

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While I was doing my taxes, the entire system at Entrecard changed. All my blogs had a backlog of blogs wanting to advertise when I signed in. Some blogs were queued up more than once. Whoa, why am I so popular? I explored the site, trying to discover the changes that had been made.

Advertising on Blogs

When I looked for blogs on which to advertise, there are no prices below the blogs on the category page. Instead, I must browse all blogs or blogs in one category, ordered by:
  • Most Popular
  • Newest
  • Biggest Advertiser
  • Cheapest
  • Most Expensive
  • Random
You may set the browse to certain criteria, like:
  • Favorites first?
  • Must have widget?
  • Accepting ads?
  • Don't already have an ad in queue?
  • Maximum number of credits.
However, I could click Advertise from the browse page and the transaction was automatic.

Color Codes

The Entrecards now have color codes. Blue means I already am in the queue for advertising, purple means it is a favorite of mine.

Drops Inbox

The drops inbox does not work correctly. When I filter by blogs on which I have not dropped, sometimes I get the same ones I just dropped. I noticed a problem with the count of cards I had dropped, and some of the credits seem to get lost.

New Pricing

Finally, I found the magic pricing algorithm on the Entrecard blog.
. . . start at 2 credits, and double it for everyone waiting for an ad on your site. For example, if you have 5 people approved and stacked in the “On your widget” column of the dashboard, and 5 people waiting for approval, you would calculate 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2, or 2 to the power of 10, which equals 1024 credits. And then in 24 hours, when an ad has completed running, their price would go down to 512. If no one bought an ad that day, tomorrow it would go down to 256. And then if someone bought an ad for 256, the price would go back up to 512.
Well, I suddenly realized why my blogs were so popular. They were CHEAP. Oh, well . . .


Thursday, April 3, 2008

Common Errors on Entrecard Blogs

6 comments:
Just a quick post on some of the problems spotted over the weekend on Entrecard blogs.

Make sure your blog name is spelled correctly on your Entrecard, banner or logo.

Do not place the Entrecard widget at the bottom of your blog or bury it in a mass of 125x125 pixel ads. This is disrespectful to your advertisers and to your visitors. You cannot make anyone read your blog, but you can aggravate everyone that stops by.

Select an engaging picture that is related to the theme of your blog for your Entrecard, banner or logo. If you feel that a come-hither look or an anime is the best representation of your blog, no problem.

Badges, banners, 125x125 advertisements, contextual ads, social networking widgets and affiliate links are most effective when used in moderation. Your blog should not look like Las Vegas on steroids.

If your blog is "heavy" with graphics, JavaScript and widgets in the sidebars, have the content load BEFORE the sidebars. No one wants to wait for the entire blog to load before they read your latest post or drop their Entrecard.

The most important real estate on your blog is what may be viewed without scrolling. Do not devote this space to a huge header image or a block of advertisements. You want your blog to load and people to see what your blog has to offer before they click off.

Before you change anything in your template or upgrade to a new software version, back up your template, databases and content. Do not lose three years of content because you did not.

Nothing should play automatically when you open your blog: no music, no video, no sound ad, no virtual assistant, nothing.

Whenever you change your template, make sure that you view your blog in Mozilla and IE browsers. I had this wonderful three-column layout for WordPress, but when I looked at my blog with Internet Explorer, the third column dropped to the bottom of the blog.

Have you spotted an error lately that is not on the list above? Please share if you have.


CoolAdzine is an Entrecard Favorite

4 comments:



CoolAdzine for Marketers blog has been named an Entrecard favorite for the blog post, Entrecard: Marketing or Neurosis?







Thanks, Lady Rose. Below is what she said about CoolAdzine for Marketers blog.
I rarely visit any kind of marketing blog, it's just not my thing, but I am very glad that dropped in on this one because I learned some very useful pointers. It's written clearly in understandable language, uncluttered layout, and contains quality information even if you're not into "marketing" per se, but just want your blog to be the best it can be.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Entrecard: Marketing or Neurosis?

18 comments:
Symptoms of Entrecard Neurosis

Have you found yourself gritting your teeth, opening 99 blogs at a time and hoping that your browser does not freeze because someone decided they need to add a popup advertisement or malicious coding to their blog?

Eventually, you will wonder why you ever joined Entrecard. Next, you will wonder why you added more than one blog to Entrecard. Finally, you decide that paying $ per 1000 credits is much better than dropping for them. Then what?


Stop, Drop and Comment

I use what I call the Stop, Drop and Comment strategy. It is a combination of chain surfing, reciprocal dropping and do follow. Just login to your Entrecard account to conduct your advertising business. As you visit blogs to see if you wish to display their advertisement or if you want them to display your ad, drop a card.

If you like the blog, leave a comment. If you have good response when advertising, favorite them. If you like them, click through on their widget to see what type of blog they display. If you find a great blog by clicking through on their Entrecard widget, let that blog know how you found them.

Soon, you will find that your inbox is full of the blogs you like and that they want to advertise on your blog. You will build a community of bloggers who read your blog, comment and advertise. You will have more time to write blog posts and to visit other bloggers.

Also, if you are not dropping 300 card per blog per day, you will find that your blog value is lowered to where a majority of the bloggers can afford to advertise on it.

Less Stress,
Less Spam,
Less Adware.

More Quality Comments,
More Time for Your Business,
More Advertisers for your Blog.


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