Billy The Billboard is on his way to the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most website tattoos on his body – so being the kind and understanding person that I am, I decided to do my part and help him out.
These are a few pics from the first session of his newest tattoo. The tattoo will be completed soon, and more pics and video will follow.
Do your part! DIGG Billy The Billboard on Digg.com
It’s official! Microsoft’s answer to Google Adsense is going into public beta!
Up until now Microsoft has been testing PubCenter (Adcenter for publishers) in a very small, closed beta – but beginning April 22 Microsoft will be expanding their PPC advertising product to an open beta. My sources tell me that Microsoft’s product manager for the pubCenter beta will be talking more about pubCenter and the open beta at AdTech San Fransisco tomorrow (April 22). Microsoft will also be opening the pubCenter Blog to the public tomorrow morning, so check it out to learn more about pubCenter as it matures (remember, you heard about it here first!)
I’ve been using PubCenter for several months now and it has some great features for publishers such as fully customizable ad-layouts (backgrounds, gradients, font size, font colors, etc) powerful reporting features and (so far) great support. As the product matures and the beta expands and eventually goes fully public, I expect it to go head-to-head with Adsense (eCPM, earnings, etc) and give Google a run for it’s money.
If you have a quality website and are interested in joining the Microsoft pubCenter open beta program, you can sign up here: Microsoft pubCenter Beta application
If you have questions about Microsoft’s new Adcenter for Publishers (pubCenter) PPC product, feel free to post them here and I’ll do my best to answer or get an answer for you.
This is a bit off-topic for my blog, but I think anyone trying to do any sort of Internet Marketing can probably learn something from it.
As you may have already seen, Jack In The Box (a quick-service food company based in Southern California) is running a combo TV/Radio/Internet/Real-World advertising campaign that looks to be the smartest and best-executed I have ever seen. How many attempts at Internet/viral marketing from “big companies” have you ever seen that were not totally lame? Jack In The Box has really broken the mold and done it right.
The Idea:
The Execution:
Sounds like your run of the mill, moderately well-done advertising campaign – UNTIL you look at the blog they have created to give updates on Jack’s condition, www.hangintherejack.com. This is where Jack In The Box has really used the power of the internet, and pulled everything together correctly, like I’ve never seen any other ‘big company’ do before. Take a close look at what they are doing at HangInThereJack.com:
Again, maybe it’s just me, but it seems like the boys at Jack In The Box really pulled this off the right way. It may not go “viral” the way they are hoping (or, maybe it will – It got me to blog about it!) but this is the first time I have seen such ‘real’ use of the internet for an advertising campaign.
If you have ever seen a better-executed internet advertising campaign, please post a comment about it. And, oh, please post your get well wishes for Jack too!
I found this question in my inbox this week:
My company is looking to jump into the video medium and we’re on the prowl for a good video ad network. I was wondering if you had any advice for seeking out the right one.
Is it best to call each one and request a quote?
This question is pretty easy for me to answer: I have no flibbin clue!
Because I don’t have the budget or bandwidth for video advertsing I have never even considered it – heck, I don’t even advertise on standard text/PPC networks! I am familar with Google Adwords video ad units only because I’ve seen a few on my site and other websites during my internet travels – and when I say a few, I mean a FEW. It seems that the Adword video units have just not ‘taken off’. I have also heard of BrightRoll and YuMe, but to be honest, I’ve never seen any of their ads anywhere.
I’ll leave this question up to readers that have had experience with video advertising – So if you have used any video advertising networks, or have any wisdom to share please post a comment.
Over a year ago I removed all advertising from my blog making it 99.8% advertisement-free. It would be 100% but I do still post the occasional affiliate-link for products that I use or recommend – but I always make it clear that the post contains affiliate links, and never hide them or try to ‘trick’ anyone into using them.
Why I removed all advertisements from my blog:
I did it for three reasons:
1) YOU
If you read my blog on a regular basis I am guessing you are probably a webmaster/blogger or thinking of starting up a website or a blog of your own. I also assume that you are at least an above-average internet user and are familiar with how PPC and other advertising systems work. Finally, I assume that A) you don’t click on ads very often and B) you probably get annoyed with advertisements. I am going out on a limb and going on the theory that you might enjoy my blog and trust me just a tiny bit more without ads cluttering it up and without me trying to trick you into clicking on them or otherwise trying to sell you something.
2) The ADVERTISERS
Because most people coming to my blog are probably totally ad-blind, any money that an advertiser invested in my blog would probably just go to waste. And since we all know that some (not you, but other) webmasters/bloggers often click on PPC ads just to “support” other bloggers, I feel putting this kind of advertisements on my blog would not be fair to advertisers such as Adsense, Kontera or YPn.
3) ME
Now can can say whatever I want, however I want, whenever I want, without having to worry about breaking any policies or TOS’s – I can curse excessively if I want and I can talk-bad about products I don’t like. Heck, I can even post naked pictures of my next-door neighbor if I wanted to! Can your favorite blogger do THAT without getting a nasty-gram from the Adsense police?
How Can I Afford Not To Have Ads In My Blog?:
Earnings at GrownUpGeek.com are averaging over $7,000/month, so I can afford not to have ads here in the blog – and frankly I’m surprised that other “rich” bloggers don’t do the same. To me, being “owned” by the advertiser makes me trust these bloggers just a little-bit less – not to mention that it’s just damn annoying on some blogs.
Now don’t get me wrong – if some advertiser made me one of those offers that I could not refuse, AND if I thought that you the reader might also benefit from the ad – for example if it was for low-cost web hosting or something, I would probably jump on it – However, I’ve turned-down several direct-ads in the past, and I seriously doubt that any advertiser would be willing to pay me enough to sway my feelings on this subject. So for now and the medium-term future I shall remain 99.8% advertisement-free.
If you think that other bloggers, particularly ones that are already rich from other ventures should follow my lead, post a comment on their blog and ask why they aren’t Ad-Free like Randy Brown’s blog!
This post was orginally made in 2007. It has been slightly updated and reposted for new readers to enjoy.
I stopped using EntreCard a few months ago but I had a balance of just over 1,500 eC. I held a contest to give away the credits, but nobody was interested. I offered the credits to another blogger who held a contest, and nobody was interested..
So.. If anyone wants 1,541 EntreCard credits, for free, no strings attached, just post a comment that says “I want them!”.. If you post a comment that says “entrecard sucks”, etc, I’ll assume that you arent interested in them.
The FIRST person to post a comment that they would like my EntreCard credits can have them..