Archive for December, 2007

Google is expanding its successful AdWords format into newspaper advertising, allowing online companies to buy space in newspapers.

The introduction of the new Google Print Ads, which is an expansion of Google AdWords, veers away from the auction format of the original advertising sales system.

AdWords allows online companies to bid for a slot in advertising space which appears alongside a specific word search or string of online word searches.

However, the new system allows companies to pick a newspaper online through Google and enter a bid for advertising space on any given page or day available.

Instead of offering to pay a set rate for the advertising space, however, the company then enters the amount it feels the space is worth, with the publisher either declining or accepting the offer.

The system has already been successful in the US, with over 600 titles included so far.

And one British newspaper chief told the Times: "It is an interesting development with the prospect of bringing new advertisers into our newspapers.

"If advertisers find it to be an effective channel, then there is the prospect to form direct relationships on a more normal basis."

Popular online video-sharing website YouTube now has a new rival in the shape of Metacafe, a site which pays people to upload videos.

The site uses a filter system to avoid any pirated material being shown, while also ensuring only quality videos are shown.

And, by sharing its advertising revenue, the site can pay out USD 5 (GBP 2.50) for every 1,000 views a video gets, although each video has to be watched at least 20,000 times before it qualifies for payment.

So far, Metacafe has handed out some USD 1 million in payments to video producers, while the site’s top earner, Kipkay, has earned over USD 82,000 in the past year.

Erick Hachenburg, chief executive of Metacafe, exlained: "If you create quality content in the user-generated content space, you should be paid for it."

"Last year advertisers said you could never advertise on user-generated content. Now they are asking how they can advertise on user-generated content," he said.

The site uses a community of 80,000 reviewers to make sure that material is not duplicated or pirated.

Google’s dominant position in search marketing and online adverts is set to be challenged by a new open-source search engine from the people behind Wikipedia.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of that online encyclopaedia, finally revealed the site launch day to be January 7th 2008.

This means that the beta period which has been underway for months has been worked through to provide a service Mr Wales is willing let the public see it.

Using the power of community, rather than Google’s algorithms, Mr Wales hopes to harness the goodwill of fellow net users to find, filter and ranks sites for whateever you’re looking for in a more transparent way.

While this may present intriguing difficulties for web marketers, it should see further innovation in the sector as companies work to bring their messages to the online public through search engine marketing.

The use of online sales have changed how many online and technology-oriented enterprises have conducted business this year, experts have claimed.

Major companies like Dell, Google and Amazon launched new online services in the hopes to revamp its attractiveness and invite even more web users to their platforms, vnu.net reported.

Their marketing strategies were buoyed by the reports from Footfall, a market research company, that showed an increase in overall shoppers as they hunted for bargains during the last weekend before Christmas.

Google expanded its ad sales campaigns into television, radio and newspapers, while Dell launched deals with Wal-Mart, Carphone Warehouse and Carrefour this year for major campaign projects to win back losing customers.

Amazon meanwhile launched an online music store offering DRM-free music downloads, while Yahoo’s online services suffered a blow when its e-commerce service malfunctioned on the busiest shopping day of the year in November.

Figures have revealed that more than 472,174 have logged on to YouTube to watch the Queen’s speech.

The clip attracted thousands to the video sharing site in what marked the first time the Royal had relayed her famous Christmas Day address over the internet.

It was shown on the Queen’s recently launched Royal Channel which allowed visitors to watch the 81-year-old’s speech at 3pm on Christmas Day as well as previous footage of the Royal family, including the first message to the nation 50 years ago.

Back then, the Queen was hoping to broadcast her annual speech on the television, saying: "I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct.

"That it is possible for you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us."

The Christmas day speech was accompanied by previously-unseen footage of the Royal Family celebrating the 60th anniversary of Elizabeth’s reign.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been advised to invest in search engine marketing (SEM) while it still remains cheap.

Advertising over web search engines may be fairly new to the marketing world, but it offers good returns for lower prices than other mediums, according to Ben Potter, sales director at search engine firm Leapfrogg.

But he warned that cheaper deals may not always be the case.

"I believe there to be a closing window of opportunity for some SMEs to get online before ever-increasing competition, and therefore costs, push search out of reach for those with limited resource," he said.

Mr Potter therefore urged SMEs to seriously investigate their options in search marketing now or miss out on picking up the cheapest deals.

"The costs at this stage remain relatively low in comparison with other forms of marketing and although a degree of time is required on the part of the client, most of the activity is covered by the agency," he said.

This follows last month’s research from Microsoft adCentre which found that 62 per cent of small British firms have not invested in search marketing techniques such as search engine optimisation (SEO).

Google is expanding its successful AdWords format into newspaper advertising, allowing online companies to buy space in newspapers.

The introduction of the new Google Print Ads, which is an expansion of Google AdWords, veers away from the auction format of the original advertising sales system.

AdWords allows online companies to bid for a slot in advertising space which appears alongside a specific word search or string of online word searches.

However, the new system allows companies to pick a newspaper online through Google and enter a bid for advertising space on any given page or day available.

Instead of offering to pay a set rate for the advertising space, however, the company then enters the amount it feels the space is worth, with the publisher either declining or accepting the offer.

The system has already been successful in the US, with over 600 titles included so far.

And one British newspaper chief told the Times: "It is an interesting development with the prospect of bringing new advertisers into our newspapers.

"If advertisers find it to be an effective channel, then there is the prospect to form direct relationships on a more normal basis."

Popular online video-sharing website YouTube now has a new rival in the shape of Metacafe, a site which pays people to upload videos.

The site uses a filter system to avoid any pirated material being shown, while also ensuring only quality videos are shown.

And, by sharing its advertising revenue, the site can pay out USD 5 (GBP 2.50) for every 1,000 views a video gets, although each video has to be watched at least 20,000 times before it qualifies for payment.

So far, Metacafe has handed out some USD 1 million in payments to video producers, while the site’s top earner, Kipkay, has earned over USD 82,000 in the past year.

Erick Hachenburg, chief executive of Metacafe, exlained: "If you create quality content in the user-generated content space, you should be paid for it."

"Last year advertisers said you could never advertise on user-generated content. Now they are asking how they can advertise on user-generated content," he said.

The site uses a community of 80,000 reviewers to make sure that material is not duplicated or pirated.

Google’s dominant position in search marketing and online adverts is set to be challenged by a new open-source search engine from the people behind Wikipedia.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of that online encyclopaedia, finally revealed the site launch day to be January 7th 2008.

This means that the beta period which has been underway for months has been worked through to provide a service Mr Wales is willing let the public see it.

Using the power of community, rather than Google’s algorithms, Mr Wales hopes to harness the goodwill of fellow net users to find, filter and ranks sites for whateever you’re looking for in a more transparent way.

While this may present intriguing difficulties for web marketers, it should see further innovation in the sector as companies work to bring their messages to the online public through search engine marketing.

The use of online sales have changed how many online and technology-oriented enterprises have conducted business this year, experts have claimed.

Major companies like Dell, Google and Amazon launched new online services in the hopes to revamp its attractiveness and invite even more web users to their platforms, vnu.net reported.

Their marketing strategies were buoyed by the reports from Footfall, a market research company, that showed an increase in overall shoppers as they hunted for bargains during the last weekend before Christmas.

Google expanded its ad sales campaigns into television, radio and newspapers, while Dell launched deals with Wal-Mart, Carphone Warehouse and Carrefour this year for major campaign projects to win back losing customers.

Amazon meanwhile launched an online music store offering DRM-free music downloads, while Yahoo’s online services suffered a blow when its e-commerce service malfunctioned on the busiest shopping day of the year in November.