Who needs the network programming.

User Generated Programming will only get better. We have already seen user generated ads gaining popularity. Why not programming? Most of whats on TV now is horrible anyway. I think people would love to see some regular programs written directed and starring us. What made me think of this?

Saw an article in the WSJ entitled “TV Industry Clouds Google’s Video Vision” In the article the author goes on to talk about how much trouble Google has created for itself by buying youtube and devoting so much to online video models. This seems to be the general trend most articles take when talking about Google. The article lists some of the setbacks to Google’s grand plan. We have all heard about the Lawsuits with YouTube and then the Networks that were going to offer programming and then changed their mind ie.. CBS and Google were close to a deal that would allow users to view clips and programming on You Tube.

I say who cares. YouTube, on-line video, user generated video, and Google are still the most talked about topics in offline and on-line media.

This post probably would be better on our Real Estate Blog Marketing site but … I happened to be reading the paper last Sunday morning and Glanced at the real estate section as I usually do since we have so many real estate clients online now. The front of the section was just a report about some award for one of the larger real estate brokers in the area and had a picture of some guys in tuxes etc… and glancing in the section a little further I noticed that the real estate section seemed to be entirely written for people in real estate and not at all for consumers…. yet it was filled to the brim with ads for consumers.

The whole scenario seemed silly. The ads are clearly put there by real estate company offices that still believe that consumers use the newspaper to find houses, despite much evidence to the contrary and almost every article in the section was written for and about real estate agents.

I highly doubt that the advertising dollars spent by these offices is at all reaching their intended consumer.

I just happened to read an article entitled “Search Engines Cleaning Up” and it caught my attention since I assumed it was refferreing to how much money the engines are making. Instead it really was about them cleaning up their results.

Most of what was said can be summed up by saying they did a PR update but i saw this last paragraph and thought it deserved a quick mention.
” Backlinks, or inbound links from other websites, are crucial to website ranking and the update has resulted in many websites dropping off the Google index” When I read this I realized there are still people that don’t realize how important this is.
Just another reference to the importance of a quality link building campaign. Have questions about a linking campaign? Let us know.

I don’t know if you’ve seen this but I ran across a cool search engine that is HUMAN powered…..Cha Cha Search.

You can elect to search with out without human help, it looks like some sponsored results mixed in with Google results when you search normally but when you pick a “guide” you have a chat window to the left (see picture) that will actually go out and find what they think are the most relevant results.

“And with Cha Cha, you get great results instantly and you have the option to search with a Guide who can help find your result.” is how they describe it.

I had Tracy, she was very helpful and obviously I was very happy with her guided results for a blog marketing company since 2 of our properties were in at the Top. She then asked if those results were good for me and up popped some smiley faces to rate her performance.

This makes searching a little more fun if you have the time to chat or you just want to get a different opinion, one not determined by an algo.

Check it out its fun.

“The Internet She’s a Changin” Anonymous Triangle Direct Personality.

You can hardly get online lately without hearing about online video and online video ad news. From You tube to Google Video the buzz is building and building. Yesterday I saw an article on Marketing Vox talking about Google testing an ad words type video ad system. Online Video Advertising Distribution is going to be very important to many companies in the near future.

On marketing vox there is an article referencing a study by burst media showing that 6 of 10 recall content viewed in online video ads.

Also interesting is a study on the Burst media site you can download it here. This report goes into detail about the viewing of online video ads.

The Headline of a recent article on emarketer made me laugh “Welcome to the money tube”.

Over 1/3 of the US population over 3 years has watched a video online according to the article. Estimates put that number going to over 50% in 2007. I think both numbers probably Should be much higher.

I do not know anyone that hasn’t watched a video online at least once.

These studies showing the large audiences viewing online videos mean we are looking at a host of services that will be offered by many companies in the coming months and years.

Here are a items we will see:

• Online Video Production – Spotrunner everyone knows about now but plan on many more online video sites making videos on the cheap to come and go
• Online Video Ad Optimization-Got video? great now the RIGHT people need to see it. Who cares if you have a video that gets viewed by a huge audience of all the wrong people. Enter the OVO (Online Video Optimization) or VSEO (Video Search Engine Optimization) companies to optimize your video and all delivery systems of that video to target and reach your best audience.
• Video Marketing companies-1 stop shops doing production and distribution

In the short term I think everyone company will try and jump on the bandwagon, including SEO Firms, Ad agencies etc…most will do a bad job. The most important item when starting an online video advertising campaign is where and how are people going to find it. The best results will be achieved by companies that have the expertise and resources to distribute the video to a network of sites ready display the videos.

An article today titled “Blogs for Shoppers” in the Wall Street journal Personal Journal Section Page 1 gives another validation to what everyone in our company has been talking about for the last year. Retail Websites, and Manufacturers of products can benefit tremendously from a professional corporate blog and a business blog marketing campaign.

Here is a quick excerpt:
“Shoppers scratching their heads for gift suggestions are seeking advice from a cadre of bloggers who are up on the hot products in their fields. Although mining the sites may require sifting through industry news and the occasional life story, blogs can provide ideas from people with particular expertise — backpack suggestions from trekkers or gadget advice from techies”

The article by JESSICA E. VASCELLARO goes on to provide some examples of niche blogs that are popular. The ones they show are good, but doesn’t even scratch the surface of whats out there… pull up some blog stats about how many blogs are created every day and how many people read blogs(55 + Million), and its not hard to see that there are some retailers and manufacturers out there that need to get to work branding their company and products in the blogOsphere. If they you as a retailer or a manufacturer are not controlling your brand, who is?

A recent article talks about the effect of “time shifting viewers” (People that use DVR’s) on TV ad revenue.

Article is found here. Online Video Advertising.

Interesting but not surprising. Online Video and Video Search optimization are quietly being done now by a few companies….

Personally I don’t watch any commercials on TV, except during live sports. I am apparently not the only one since 40% of people are reported to be using DVR’s. (Digital Video Recorders, Like TIVO)

Online Video Ads and Video Search Optimization.

Alexa Rank is accurate. According to a study that shows how Sites with lower (better) Alexa Rankings are in fact getting more traffic. Pretty Interesting. There will always be debates about Alexa but it is still true that its the only universal way of judging or measuring the amount of traffic a site is receiving, short of seeing actual stat packages of a site that is. Who can argue with the the top 5 alexa ranked for the U.S:

• Yahoo
• Google
• Myspace
• MSN
• EBAY

Alexa Ranking is not something I would use as the ONLY way to judge a sites progress but it is definitely something to use as a key indicator of how successful a site is in bringing in traffic.