Internet and Coffee

AdPacs Content Network

We are designing new AdPacs Ad Widgets for the iNetGlobal AdPacs Content Network. Our Content Network will allow Publishers to place AdPacs ads on their own web sites to “Monetize” them.

It looks like we may ahead of schedule on the release of the Content Network. The scheduled release date is September 15th. This is an exciting new feature for AdPacs Online Advertising, as we will be taking the ads outside of the Surfing Network and placing them on potentially 1,000’s of web sites all over the internet, worldwide.

People have commented that the see some similarity to the Google Adwords/Adsense program. Yes it is a similar advertising model that was pioneered bu Overture and is use by many Online Marketing companies, and Search Engine Marketing companies, like Yahoo, MSN, LookSmart, Miva, to name a few.

AdPacs is a service of iNetGlobal

iNetGlobal Provides Internet Marketing Services
Designed Exclusively For Internet Marketers

InetGlobal AdPacs Rally Houston TX Sept 6th, 2008

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Help! No One’s Searching For My Products and Services

Great. You're the #1 search result for cross-platform infrastructure cluster visualization software. That's exactly what you sell. All set.

Except... nobody's actually searching for that phrase (except you, when you're checking your keyword rank). You're not getting any traffic or leads or customers - so who cares that you're the #1 result?

There are two problems here.

First, you're optimizing your website for the wrong keywords. "But we sell [insert your esoteric term of choice here]". Yes, but no one knows what that is and no one's searching for it. At this point we say, you need to go through a full keyword research process to identify the best keywords for you business - those that have a high number of monthly searches, are relevant to your business, and are actually within your reach to rank for in the first 10 organic search results on Google.

The second problem is, well, these words we found - the high volume, less difficult, somewhat relevant phrases - aren't exactly what you sell, that's not how you would describe what you do. This is a tricky problem. Your customers don't know they need your product, but you know it solves such-and-such problem that they have. Well, in this case you need to educate your customers on what you do. Six months ago do you think anyone knew what "inbound marketing" meant? Still, a lot of people say, "inbound market-wha?" It takes some education. But what we did is we took the perspective of our buyer. He knows he needs to generate leads online to grow his business. She knows she needs to monitor her company's web presence and get found in search engines and start blogging. They know they need to do this "Internet marketing stuff".

We still call ourselves an inbound marketing system. But we know it requires explanation. We recognize people are looking for an Internet marketing solution and so that's where we meet our market in the middle. We go to them, understand their problems and needs, and explain how what we do solves their problems. The focus here is changing from yourself to your customers. Because otherwise you're just standing alone on that soapbox of yours shouting to a nonexistent crowd.

Photo Credit Thomas Hawk

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iNetGlobal AdPacs Content Network

The iNetGlobal/AdPacs Content Network is coming September 15th. Now you can advertise your Product or Services on 1,000’s of partner web sites worldwide. This will take AdPacs outside the box and give our advertisers more exposure for their ads.

Ads by AdPacs Banners

Advertisers:
Advertise AdPacs Banners or AdPacs TextAds on our Content Network of 1,000’s of Publisher web sites around the world. Get massive exposure for your Online Business. Your ads will be seen!

Publishers:
Be an iNetGlobal/AdPacs Content Network Publisher and earn Money for hosting AdPac Banners and AdPacs TextAds on your site. Plus you can earn Ad-Credits to display your own ads!

Ads by AdPacs TextAds

AdPacs now gives our Advertisers more ways to advertise and to Drive Traffic to their Web Site than ever before. Always on the Cutting Edge of Internet Marketing Strategy the iNetGlobal/AdPacs Online Advertising Services are light years ahead of the competition and provide our Advertisers with a  Fast and Easy way to generate More Traffic, More Leads, and ultimately More Sale which equals More Profits for you! (Watch for our Search Engine coming soon!)

iNetGlobal Provides Internet Marketing Services
Designed Exclusively For Internet Marketers

InetGlobal AdPacs Rally Houston TX Sept 6th, 2008

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Viral Doesn’t Have to be an Infection

5 Tips To Creating An Effective Viral Video Marketing Campaign

This is a guest article written by Eric Guerin. Eric Guerin is CEO and Executive Producer for SmartMarket Movie, an online marketing video production company specializing in word-of-mouth / viral marketing videos ending with a call-to-action.

Viral marketing sounds like something you may be stuck in bed with for a few days maybe with a stuffy nose, and a fever...but it doesn't have to be. Did you know that every minute over 10 HOURS of video are uploaded to YouTube. Think about it...10 HOURS...while you were just thinking about this...another 10 hours just got uploaded to YouTube! So how do you make your viral marketing video stand out? How do you get it passed on to others without you asking (hence the going "viral")?

Here are 5 tips to keep in mind when creating a viral marketing campaign for your online video:

1. State Your Objective - Before you hire a video production company or pick up a video camera...why are you making the video? Like any other marketing endeavor online or offline you need to have a plan. Part of this plan should also be tracking the effectiveness of your campaign - whether using a website analytics program to track the video views or using a service like TubeMogul where you can accurately track the viewing statistics from a number of video sharing sites through one panel - you'll want to know how effective your viral marketing video is and having tracking systems in place will help simplify this process for you.
2. Be Yourself - Viewers respond to originality, so do what comes natural. Be inspired, make it memorable and capture the viewer's attention. Don't make your message too "salesy". You can increase your brand recognition with a very clever video without ever having to give a sales pitch. A sales video without a hook story will be watched once and forgotten but a video with a hook that captures the viewers' emotions can get passed on endlessly.
3. Keep it Short - Online video should be shorter than 3 minutes to be effective. Most of the pieces we produce are between 1 and 3 minutes in length. If you have a ton of ideas - make a series of short videos instead of one long one. It will only help to increase your brand recognition. A great example of this is the Blendtec Videos. They have created a series of videos titled 'Will it Blend?' that have been a hit all over the web and a new video is released weekly. Since starting this series in September of 2007 their videos have had over 30 million views and their online sales have grown by more than 500%.
   
   
   
4. Write A Good Description - Video-sharing sites let you create "tags," which are words that describe your video. These tags, along with the title and description, are how your video will get searched for and located on video sharing sites. Search engines like Google have recently added video to their search results, so optimizing the metadata around your videos is increasingly important. The more "relevant" metadata you add describing your video, the more likely someone is to find your video. Remember to be accurate, don't place your video in the "comedy" category because you think it will get more views...especially not if it is about file compression algorithms which would probably do better in the technology "category".
5. Increase Your Online Profile - Now that you've launched the video online. How do you let people know about it? Embracing social media platforms as part of your communications mix is an integral first step. Blogs, social networking sites (such as LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter) and video sharing sites (such as YouTube, MetaCafe, Revver & DailyMotion) are where consumers spend a majority of their time online and where the greatest opportunity for online engagement exists. Where applicable, send bloggers a link to your video or comment on other people's blogs and include a link to your video there, as long as it is relevant. By relevant I mean don't add a link to your video about your kitchen gadget company to a blog about a non-profit school. Don't spam bloggers with comments adding your video link if it adds nothing to their blog.
   
   Most importantly, add the video to your website, make it part of your email marketing campaign, add a link to the video in your email signature, add it to your blog - if someone sees the video on YouTube and then views it again on your website...this only helps to increase your brand recognition.

Here's an example that we utilized for ourselves using word of mouth or viral marketing as a self-promotional piece in a B2B environment with measurable results. Last September I was named by a regional Business Journal to their 40 Under Forty list. So to celebrate this we created a funny movie poking fun at myself. We set very clear goals to:

1. Increase our brand recognition within the region served by this Business Journal.
2. To open a discussion which would hopefully lead to a working relationship with the Business Journal. 

First, we sent it to our contact at the Business Journal to get their "blessing" before sending it out to our e-newsletter subscribers. The Business Journal's editor-in-chief called us within 15 minutes to say that it had already been forwarded around their entire office and they wanted to show it at the awards banquet the next night with over 500 attendees. At the event the owner of the Business Journal (and several other regional business newspapers) came up to me and asked if they could send it out on their e-newsletter to their list of over 5,000 subscribers.

Within about two weeks after the event our e-newsletter subscriber list doubled and from that event we have created videos for two of the event attendees, we produced videos for all three business journals owned by this company and have all three business journals set up to resell our online marketing video product. As with any word of mouth marketing campaign, it needs to grab people's attention and be easily passed on. We include a call-to-action at the end of the video on our website video versions which simplifies this process.

Although these tips won't guarantee the success of your viral marketing campaign, this will at least give you the tools to get started in the right direction. So put down the Menthol VapoRub - a viral marketing campaign won't require a trip to the pharmacy. Just a shot of creativity and a "call me in the morning".

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Calling All Door-to-Door Salesmen - Time for Some Inbound Marketing

I was talking with a friend of mine who shocked me by telling me that someone actually came to her door recently, trying to sell her magazines. I was in disbelief that door-to-door salesmen still existed and that they could think they could get any business with these old, outbound marketing techniques.

She went on to tell me how he had come to her door under the rouse of some pre-college program whereby he was competing for a scholarship, which he would win just by visiting enough people door-to-door.

She went along with it, although completely surprised and confused, until, of course, he whipped out his trusty catalog of all the magazines he was actually trying to sell.  She was, of course, shocked and appalled and immediately tried to get him off her doorstep as soon as possible. No, I don't want any magazines. No, I don't want this catalog of coupons either. No, no, no.

After my laughs subsided, and I got over my shock that door-to-door salesmen actually still exist, it got me thinking. There are so many things about this salesman's approach that are incredibly ineffective (and annoying). So here are my inbound marketing tips for this unfortunate merchant.

1. No more interruption marketing.

You're really going door to door, pulling people away from their dinner, or family, or tv? You really think you are important or interesting enough for them to want to talk to you instead of doing whatever they were doing when you rang their doorbell? They have not invited you into their home, and they certainly do not happen to enjoy being interrupted in the middle of their day (nor will they necessarily be home when you happen to stop by their house). Instead of spending your whole day interrupting people, and hoping they pay attention to you, try setting up a blog and writing interesting content, so that people want to hear what you have to say and come find you when they're interested in your products.

2. Get found by the prospects looking for you.

My friend is not interested in buying your magazines. Nor your coupon book. But I bet there are people who are interested. Why not connect with them? Instead of spending your time going door to door to every single person, spend your time setting up a website, a blog, an online presence, so that when people are looking for exactly what you sell, they find you. This is a much better use of your time and effort.

3. None of that bait-and-switch!

With a bait-and-switch, you introduce one offer (You're the 10,000th visitor! You win an iPod!) but, after the prospect buys into it (clicks on the ad), they're redirected to a completely different offer (What? I didn't want any Viagra). After switching stories on my friend, Mr. Salesman - from your college scholarship competition to your true mission, to sell magazines - my friend was not actually interested in buying your magazines. That is not the story that interested her. Just because she was interested in your scholarship program, that does NOT mean she's interested in your magazines. It does NOT mean she's going to buy your magazines.

With inbound marketing, you spend your time creating thoughtful content that is of interest to your audience. You get found by the people actually looking for what you sell, and you engage with your market so that they come to you when they're ready to buy. By leveraging inbound marketing techniques, Mr. Door-to-Door Salesman, you use your time and effort more effectively so instead of getting the door slammed in your face, you're engaging in conversations and generating more business.

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