Cribbed Content for May 29th
At first glance when starting to compile this week’s Cribbed Content, it didn’t look like much was going on. My Google Reader was kind of light, as were the other scoops and news coming across my desk. But then when I really started to dig, I found some cool stuff! Including a really easy Twitter Contest from DIY SEO to win a Kindle!
- Last week I reported that Affiliate Summit East 2009 was all sold out of booths. They’re now all sold out of Meet Market tables as well, the first time for them that they’ve sold out of exhibitor space before Early Bird pricing was done. Congrats to the ASE09 team!
- Speaking of Affiliate Summit, co-founders Missy Ward and Shawn Collins were in Dallas at the Inbound Marketing Summit speaking about monetizing blogs. Missy was kind enough to share their slides from the presentation.
- Affiliate network ShareASale is toying with an Affiliate API and has released the initial sections for use.
- Google recently changed their trademarks policy in regards to AdWords paid search ads. Search Engine Land wrote an article on how to protect your brand under Google’s new trademark policy, and Geno Prussakov also wrote an article on how this applies to affiliate marketing.
- Apparently Google mucked around with PageRank… AGAIN… and devalued Twitter profiles. Which is fine with me since I realized awhile back my twitter page was PR9 when this here blog was only PR2 (currently my twitter page is a PR3). What really irritated me was that, out of nowhere, this blog went down to PR0 out of nowhere with no real changes other than a redesign (that, if anything, should have HELPED SEO). So in my opinion Google can shove with with their PageRank racket anyway. Anyway, Andy Beard explains a few things about the change.
- I’ve seen a certain someone from a certain CPA network tweeting a lot in the last two days about making money from Twitter with CPA ads. That seems to be ALL this person is tweeting about and it’s getting on my anti-spam nerves. So instead of calling this person out, I’ll be passive-aggressive and just pass on this article for everyone: 10 Irritating Mistakes that People Make with Twitter. Thanks Nikki Pilkington for a good article right when I was thinking about it!
- I’m a big fan of to-do lists. There’s been some talk about different apps recently (I was turned onto Toodledoo and love its integration with iGoogle homepage). Nate Moller wrote a great article on why to-do lists are key to entrepreneur success that any slightly unmotivated or scattered entrepreneur should read!
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics #7: Tweeting, Speaking, & Blogging
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
We’re back after a fortnight away! We don’t do it on purpose, it just happens that way, we swear! We’re back in the swing of things this week with a relatively short show for us clocking it at an even 30 minutes and 30 seconds! This week we delve into our favorite topic of Twitter… I think we might as well just rename this the TwitterCast! Specifically we discussed:
- Twitter monkeying around with the @replies and the #fixreplies fiasco that ensued.
- Commission Junction has finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, and we ponder why larger companies take so long to make the social media move.
- We excitedly ham it up about the fact that we’ll be speaking on a panel at Affiliate Summit East 2009, and another show I’ll be at next month.
- Mike’s discovered a HARO-like service specifically for bloggers called Blogger LinkUp run by Cathy Stucker and we talk about the two.
- Finally we give some well deserved shout outs to our fellow ASE09 panelists Jen Goode, Stephanie Lichtenstein, and our fabulous moderator Lisa Picarille.
ad:tech San Francisco: Master Class Workshop: Kick-Ass Creative—Left Coast Style
Session Description: Leading Left Coast creative directors showcase a cross section of innovative digital and integrated work for multiple clients including the strategy behind each campaign and the related pieces that supported the work. Learn from these master class creative directors about how to inspire and harness the big idea in an increasingly digital world dominated by fragmenting media and attention spans. What customer insights and trends spark new ideas and how do leading creative directors factor in evolving trends such as on-demand media and user-generated content when developing campaigns? This is the place to be to see the latest examples of strategic and tactical creative thinking and execution.
This session took place Wednesday, April 22, 2009. The speakers:
- Conor Brady, Chief Creative Officer, Organic (Moderator)
- Niels Aillaud, Senior Manager Digital Marketing, LG Electronics
- Scott Briskman, VP, Executive Creative Director, Agency.com San Francisco
- Jared Cluff, VP, User Acquisition, Ask.com
- John Rabasa, Executive VP, Managing Director, Publicis Modem West
Unfortunately this sessions was really a long brag session from LG and Ask.com. While the television media they showed was funny and entertaining, I expected this “master class workshop” to actually teach me a few things. Maybe some tips on creating engaging creative? Nope. So I was pretty let down and I only have a few notes for you.
Bullet Point Review! LG Electronics:
- Markets may be conversations, but make sure you are invited.
- Social media is about two things: context and people.
- Participation is good but creative participation is better.
- A good campaign is organic and will want to keep going.
- If your brand is befriended (e.g. on Facebook or Twitter), be a friend back.
Ask.com:
- Positioned Ask.com as an answer engine.
- Video ads delivered an 80% reduction in CPC.
- Crawls were 4 times better – higher traffic than traditional 15 second spots.
- They were surprised by the top performing question they asked – Who is Kim Kardashian?
- The agency is not bringing ideas that are exciting to them just because they’re exciting – they’re bringing them because they make sense for their business.
Web 2.0 Expo: Optimize Your Organic Search Results Leveraging Social Media & Blogging
Session Description: I’m all a Twitter ‘Cause your MySpace hurts my Facebook when I’m Linked-in – Learn how to leverage social media and your current website to DOMINATE search engine results and improve your organic rankings! Sponsored by Verio.
Industry expert and published author Heather Lutze gives you the rundown on her social media strategies from her new book, The Findability Formula. This breakout will give you actionable tactics you can implement immediately to get your website ranked higher in search engine results. Social media is HOT and delivers results if you know how to use them to their fullest potential. Learn how to use keywords effectively with Twitter, Linked-In, Youtube, Facebook, as well as your own company website to increase your search engine rankings. It is all about knowing and understanding the Findability Formula – and that is what you’ll learn in this workshop!
This session took place Thursday, April 2, 2009. The speaker:
- Heather Lutze, Lutze Consulting
Heather had a lot of great things to say; it was a shame that she didn’t have enough time to really go over it because of such a long pitch by Verio, the sponsor of the session. One thing Verio did that was annoying but I can’t really fault them for, was parking someone at the door and using the leads scanner to scan the name badges of the people coming in. Annoying, but since they were sponsoring the session, I can’t really fault them for it.
Bullet Point Review!
- Social media gives you a platform to position yourself as an expert in your field.
- Strategy:
- Connect with the right search keywords.
- Edit your social media profiles and elements with keywords.
- Track the results in Google search results.
- Know how users search:
- 15.2% are 1 word search phrases
- 31.9% are 2 word
- 27% are 3 word
- 14.8% are 4 word
- 6.5% are 5+ words
- The longer the keyword, the faster you’ll show up.
- Longer search terms are looking more to purchase, less informational or shopping.
- Resources: Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug and The Long Tail by Chris Anderson.
- Tool: Google External Keyword Tool
- Tool: Keyword Discovery
- Connect with the customer when they’re ready to take decisive action.
- Misspellings can rank highly (sometimes they convert higher).
- Look at the pages and be sure you actually want to show up amongst that company.
- Anything over 100 searches, long tail.
- Open tool, whats most targeted keyword, then write blog post (put the keyword at the front).
- Recommends All in One SEO Pack, ShareThis for WordPress.
- On LinkedIn, when you put your last name in put a dash and your keyword.
- Start on the long tail and work your way backward.
- Do it for your name, do it for misspellings, rank the whole page to push out the “sucks” terms.
Because of the 20 minute pitch for Verio at the beginning of the session, there was zero time for questions, which was a shame. I was hoping for some more real-world examples that weren’t just about Heather. There was time for one where a woman who is a voice-over talent was looking at it from her standpoint and Heather walked through the practical application, which was pretty cool.
Overall it was a good session once Verio was done talking, and I wish she’d shared her slides with the Web 2.0 Expo folks, but alas it’s not on their website.
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 5: Staring Down the Governator
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Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
We are a touch late with delivering last week’s show to you. I was out of my office away lobbying against California AB 178 on Tuesday and then at Web 2.0 Expo the rest of the week, so Mike and I took today to catch up on a few things. We start all business and devolve into my rant on the etiquette of booth staff at trade shows. So be sure to heed my words and stop, collaborate, and listen!
A few things we mention this week:
- My second job as a California lobbyist against AB 178
- Affiliate Voice: The Voice of the Affiliate Industry launched this week. Their president is Melanie Seery of NYAffiliateVoice.com
- Twitter dropped their auto-follow service, so we took a look at 3rd party apps like Tweet Later.
- Mike explored Max Banner Ads as an adserver for his blogs.
- A brief recap of the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco and the tools I found potentially useful: StartForce, Safari Books Online, and GooseGrade
- Another tech blog by our pals Sam Harrelson and Scott Jangro called Cloud39.com
- Shout outs: Stephanie Lichtenstein’s awesome work on the #advertisingtax organization and Facebook group, and Daniel M. Clark’s great help via Twitter.
This episode comes in at a mouth watering 52 minutes.
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics Episode 4: Listen to your Community
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
This week we’re less all over the map, more focused on affiliate conferences, social media and communities, and once again our cherished shout outs. Of course our favorite topic of all time, Twitter, makes an appearance as they were in the news this week. The show comes in and just under 40 minutes for your listening pleasure.
- Social Media: Facebook caves into community pressure again, YouTube adds a Twitter Button
- Jermey Palmer uses surveys to make his affiliate marketing education products better.
- Twitter: Salesforce.com creates Twitter brand management service for companies and sells it for 1K/month, Twitter will have paid pro accounts
- Conferences: Jim Kukral organizing the monetization track for Blog World Expo Oct. 15-17, CJU dates announced Sept. 15-17, Big Omaha tech conference for midwesterners announced. Trisha will be attending Web 2.0 Expo and ad:tech SF next month.
- Shout outs: Sam Harrelson who called us Aff Marketing Maniacs, Brook Schaaf & Karen Garcia for their efforts with the Lobby Day against CA AB 178, Tim Robinson and shameless plug for Comic Book Fury
So please, go check it out and comment and let us know what you think!
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