The Next Phase of Social Business Networking is Here! By: Business Wire | 27 Jan 2009 | 09:57 AM ET Text Size AVENTURA, Fla., Jan 27, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Analysts have been talking about how Social Networking will be transformed into a new Business Networking platform in 2009. In today's economy, everybody from small businesses to major corporations have been cutting back on their advertising budgets and moving towards Social Networking as the next phenomenon in business marketing.
Networkers United Worldwide (www.nuworldwide.com) is a brand new community of social business networkers that share the same vision of helping each other in growing their businesses by referring business to one another, exchanging tips and ideas, educating, promoting and connecting with each other on a localized or global basis.
The group believes in the Giver's Gain Principle. Give to people first, and in return you will get business back. It is a very simple law of attraction. The community was started on LinkedIn and Facebook just a few weeks ago and growing exponentially by the day. Our goal is to have over 500,000 members by March 2009 and 5,000,000 members by the end of the year.
"We are overwhelmed by its success and the quality of our members. The feedback we're getting from our members is only positive for setting up such a great and needed platform for business referrals," says founder Daniel Pansky.
The principle behind this was started in September 2008 when Victoria Blintser (Daniel's wife) decided to expand her LinkedIn profile. Upon expanding her profile and setting up the business group, she is now considered one of the biggest success stories on LinkedIn. This has led to many opportunities including joint venture offers, consulting offers, radio appearances, and the offers just keep rolling in by the day. Four months ago I was a struggling Real Estate broker having problems finding the next deal in one of the toughest Real Estate markets in history. Today, four months later, my business is on turbo charge to where I can't hire enough real estate agents fast enough. We are currently selling bulk portfolios, all thanks to the power of social business networking.
www.nuworldwide.com is absolutely Free to join and Free to use for the entire business community worldwide. Members can go ahead and utilize the NU Worldwide platform, or set up their own groups pertaining to their desired subject or business. The group offers free services to all their members such as tips, social business networking strategies, and guest moderators from the world's top leaders in Social Business Networking.
SOURCE: Networkers United, Inc.
CONTACT: Networkers United, Inc., Aventura Daniel Pansky, 954-239-7093 www.nuworldwide.com Copyright Business Wire 2009 -0- KEYWORD: United States
Showing posts with label Gasta Brand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gasta Brand. Show all posts
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Gasta Mobile news
Mobile social networking grew by 152% between November 2007 and November 2008 in Western Europe, according to ComScore.
The figures show that in November 34% of mobile social network users in Western Europe accessed social media exclusive of all other mobile web content.
The UK has the highest penetration of mobile social networking at 9%, nearly triple that of Germany, where the activity is the least popular at 3.3% penetration. The average penetration rate across all countries is 5%.
Alistair Hill, analyst at ComScore M:Metrics, said, "A large portion of the growth in the mobile internet audience can be attributed to social networking."
"In the UK, for example, the audience of those accessing news and information, but not social networking services, with their mobile browser or an application grew by 149,000 unique users, whereas the number of those exclusively accessing social networking grew by six times that number in the past year."
The figures show that in November 34% of mobile social network users in Western Europe accessed social media exclusive of all other mobile web content.
The UK has the highest penetration of mobile social networking at 9%, nearly triple that of Germany, where the activity is the least popular at 3.3% penetration. The average penetration rate across all countries is 5%.
Alistair Hill, analyst at ComScore M:Metrics, said, "A large portion of the growth in the mobile internet audience can be attributed to social networking."
"In the UK, for example, the audience of those accessing news and information, but not social networking services, with their mobile browser or an application grew by 149,000 unique users, whereas the number of those exclusively accessing social networking grew by six times that number in the past year."
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Gasta News: The future of search & Blended Search
The future of search: 5 ways to prepare
By Kevin Ryan
The process of searching and finding on the internet is changing right before our eyes. Billions of pages have been indexed and organized into relevant results to match billions of queries. The first goal of search engines was to gather as many pages as they could into an index. The next goal of each search engine included ranking the queries while delivering results as fast as possible. Searching and finding was meant to be a fast, efficient experience.
The introduction and subsequent proliferation of blended search results have changed the way searchers think while they search. Searchers are now being programmed to spend more time on the search results page. Their search experience is being enriched with more visual candy, and the days of providing a link and exit from the search page as quickly as possible are over.
Marketers have to learn how to function in the new age of search. Every inch of a company's web presence has the potential to be included on the main search results page. Video, images, and local business information (including maps) are now being included on search results pages. Smart marketers who recognize and embrace these changes will move ahead of their competitors and gain more revenue, mindshare, and brand equity.
Are you ready for the new Gasta search?
1. Rethink your thinking
Search engine optimization used to mean garnering hundreds of back links into a website and then hoping that search engines would rank your site favorably. Prior to that, search engines only read text through robotic software applications called crawlers or bots, so optimizing was all about the text.
Search engine result pages predictably included miles and miles of text listings, along with sponsored listings that can be bought in an auction format. Thus, SEO was focused primarily on obtaining better rankings through popularity and clearly labeling your content to make sure listing results were accurate and timely.
Ah, what a grand time it was.
Today's search results are a complex labyrinth consisting of text listings and advertisements for websites, along with video, maps, images, news, and local information. Google's introduction of Universal Search, combined with moves by other major search engines like Yahoo and Microsoft to offer consistently "blended" search results, has changed the way results are offered to the consuming public.
Your thinking had better change with the results.
2. Understand what's in the blend
Your content must now be segmented and thought of as individual assets that can (and should) be optimized independently. In the past, getting someone to your website from a search engine meant healthy, vibrant content. Rarely did we think of ancillary content as a means of appearing in search results.
comScore's qSearch reports more than 30 percent of all search results contained at least one blended result in September 2008. That number has been steadily increasing over time, and I expect blended penetration to continue a steady upward climb over the next year. Also in September 2008, comScore observed that 85 percent of searchers saw some type of blended result.
So, if nearly one-third of results contain some type of blend, what do those blends look like? While your business category results should be scrutinized on their own, qSearch data suggest that video is the most popular segment of all blended results.
Other segments of blended results getting attention include: "news," "images," "shopping," "entertainment," and "travel."
The problem is this: A high-ranking website doesn't necessarily mean high rankings for, or inclusion of, other site assets. It also doesn't mean that your content will be featured in an associated search for your brand, products, or services. Therefore, challenges facing the search engine marketer going forward will include stiffer competition for getting assets included from competitors, amateurs, and related providers.
Understanding where engines place emphasis is mission-critical.
3. Know who's blending what
Google is blending everything from news, images, and shopping to maps, stocks, weather, and travel. Google stands alone in including "books," "blogs," and "groups" information in its blended results.
Microsoft's Live Search is including health information as well, but unlike Google, MSN is taking a pass on "multiple" types of blended results and the likes of "books" and "groups." Yahoo is not including "books," "blogs," "groups," or health information in its blended results.
Every search engine is including local information, news, and video in its blended results. Local business information is also included with maps and weather, so local ads and assets are becoming more important than ever. Are all of your local addresses and telephone numbers correct? Get on it.
Another interesting development is the inclusion of "answers" and "definitions" categories in blended results across the top three search sites. These are most often in response to information gathering, as opposed to immediate commerce-driven searches, but that doesn't mean people aren't searching for technically specific information in searches. Technical information about an electronics item or the national switch to digital television, for example, may be high in the purchase funnel, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be there.
A searcher looking for information on "sarcoidosis" might be looking for information on diagnosis, but they could also be a potential medical drama audience member. Why shouldn't a 20-second clip from the television series "House" appear in a "sarcoidosis" search result alongside the mountain of pharma ads and "answers?"
A mid-tail search like "foam ear pads" for in-ear headphones might appear benign enough, but what about the commercial impact of images in results? If I am peddling $500 in-ear noise isolating headphones like the Shure SE530, I'd want to make sure my images (as opposed to only amateur images) appear in search results.
Any way you slice the blend, search is getting more personal.
4. Get personal with results
As search results become more personalized and relevant to the unique searcher, competition will increase for paid search market share. Searchers are either unaware or could care less about providing information to search engines about how they search.
My iGoogle page has local information news and fun gadgets. Yahoo and Microsoft also offer customized search solutions driven by the natural human desire to make everything one's own. Google even introduced an experimental project that allows users to rate search listings and suggest alternative sites. Yahoo's Search Monkey is another example of the search personalization phenomenon. Search Monkey is an open platform that Yahoo hopes will make search more useful and visually compelling.
Why would people invest time in helping Google make money? Why aren't people just searching and finding? The basic human need for recognition is a flame that has burned since the dawn of modern man. The internet and personalized search have poured napalm on that flame.
In the early stages of video's inclusion in blended results, one could watch the video on the results page. Watching video in results was quickly eliminated for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the need for search engines to have searchers click off the page, as opposed to loitering on it.
While many of the projects search engines are engaged in to make search more efficient may be temporary, we will see components of these experiments incorporated on future search pages.
Information gathering is not a new phenomenon for search engines hoping to create a more relevant experience for searchers. The impact this information gathering has on the results page has never been more pronounced.
Personalization and customization will serve to facilitate increased blended search and thus serve to increase competitive activity in paid results. Recreating the search results page as a temporary destination, as opposed to a quick clicking-off point, will work against you if you do not shift your search engine marketing strategy to accommodate the change.
The search model has changed; how shall I begin to change with it?
5. Optimize everything
Now is the time to use every aspect of what you know about your existing and potential audience. You must apply that knowledge to your search strategy. You can't optimize everything out of the chute, so focus on the top-blended search categories initially.
Whether searching for "sushi" or "puppies" to the latest on "Beyonce" and "Britney," along with everything in between, the social components of the web are beginning to appear in search results. If you can't afford to start shooting video with your latest and greatest information, chances are your fans and detractors already have created brand love or hate content. Amping up social media marketing strategies with a search priority should be another driver for embracing the new search.
Video, local, news, and maps are among the highest categories represented in blended results, but niche interests are also represented. Consider the random and obscure search for a "coach gun scabbard." Embedded within the results page for coach gun scabbards was an amateur video reviewing scabbards made for -- you guessed it -- coach guns.
Make sure images, video, and local information are both accurate and included. Tagging video information is very important, but so are popularity rankings, so make sure you are putting your best foot forward.
From top-end search traffic to obscure mid- and long-tail searches, blended search has changed the way we find everything on the web. It is still early enough in the game to achieve some big and quick wins with modern audience optimization tactics -- so what are you waiting for?
Kevin Ryan is CMO of WebVisible Inc.
By Kevin Ryan
The process of searching and finding on the internet is changing right before our eyes. Billions of pages have been indexed and organized into relevant results to match billions of queries. The first goal of search engines was to gather as many pages as they could into an index. The next goal of each search engine included ranking the queries while delivering results as fast as possible. Searching and finding was meant to be a fast, efficient experience.
The introduction and subsequent proliferation of blended search results have changed the way searchers think while they search. Searchers are now being programmed to spend more time on the search results page. Their search experience is being enriched with more visual candy, and the days of providing a link and exit from the search page as quickly as possible are over.
Marketers have to learn how to function in the new age of search. Every inch of a company's web presence has the potential to be included on the main search results page. Video, images, and local business information (including maps) are now being included on search results pages. Smart marketers who recognize and embrace these changes will move ahead of their competitors and gain more revenue, mindshare, and brand equity.
Are you ready for the new Gasta search?
1. Rethink your thinking
Search engine optimization used to mean garnering hundreds of back links into a website and then hoping that search engines would rank your site favorably. Prior to that, search engines only read text through robotic software applications called crawlers or bots, so optimizing was all about the text.
Search engine result pages predictably included miles and miles of text listings, along with sponsored listings that can be bought in an auction format. Thus, SEO was focused primarily on obtaining better rankings through popularity and clearly labeling your content to make sure listing results were accurate and timely.
Ah, what a grand time it was.
Today's search results are a complex labyrinth consisting of text listings and advertisements for websites, along with video, maps, images, news, and local information. Google's introduction of Universal Search, combined with moves by other major search engines like Yahoo and Microsoft to offer consistently "blended" search results, has changed the way results are offered to the consuming public.
Your thinking had better change with the results.
2. Understand what's in the blend
Your content must now be segmented and thought of as individual assets that can (and should) be optimized independently. In the past, getting someone to your website from a search engine meant healthy, vibrant content. Rarely did we think of ancillary content as a means of appearing in search results.
comScore's qSearch reports more than 30 percent of all search results contained at least one blended result in September 2008. That number has been steadily increasing over time, and I expect blended penetration to continue a steady upward climb over the next year. Also in September 2008, comScore observed that 85 percent of searchers saw some type of blended result.
So, if nearly one-third of results contain some type of blend, what do those blends look like? While your business category results should be scrutinized on their own, qSearch data suggest that video is the most popular segment of all blended results.
Other segments of blended results getting attention include: "news," "images," "shopping," "entertainment," and "travel."
The problem is this: A high-ranking website doesn't necessarily mean high rankings for, or inclusion of, other site assets. It also doesn't mean that your content will be featured in an associated search for your brand, products, or services. Therefore, challenges facing the search engine marketer going forward will include stiffer competition for getting assets included from competitors, amateurs, and related providers.
Understanding where engines place emphasis is mission-critical.
3. Know who's blending what
Google is blending everything from news, images, and shopping to maps, stocks, weather, and travel. Google stands alone in including "books," "blogs," and "groups" information in its blended results.
Microsoft's Live Search is including health information as well, but unlike Google, MSN is taking a pass on "multiple" types of blended results and the likes of "books" and "groups." Yahoo is not including "books," "blogs," "groups," or health information in its blended results.
Every search engine is including local information, news, and video in its blended results. Local business information is also included with maps and weather, so local ads and assets are becoming more important than ever. Are all of your local addresses and telephone numbers correct? Get on it.
Another interesting development is the inclusion of "answers" and "definitions" categories in blended results across the top three search sites. These are most often in response to information gathering, as opposed to immediate commerce-driven searches, but that doesn't mean people aren't searching for technically specific information in searches. Technical information about an electronics item or the national switch to digital television, for example, may be high in the purchase funnel, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be there.
A searcher looking for information on "sarcoidosis" might be looking for information on diagnosis, but they could also be a potential medical drama audience member. Why shouldn't a 20-second clip from the television series "House" appear in a "sarcoidosis" search result alongside the mountain of pharma ads and "answers?"
A mid-tail search like "foam ear pads" for in-ear headphones might appear benign enough, but what about the commercial impact of images in results? If I am peddling $500 in-ear noise isolating headphones like the Shure SE530, I'd want to make sure my images (as opposed to only amateur images) appear in search results.
Any way you slice the blend, search is getting more personal.
4. Get personal with results
As search results become more personalized and relevant to the unique searcher, competition will increase for paid search market share. Searchers are either unaware or could care less about providing information to search engines about how they search.
My iGoogle page has local information news and fun gadgets. Yahoo and Microsoft also offer customized search solutions driven by the natural human desire to make everything one's own. Google even introduced an experimental project that allows users to rate search listings and suggest alternative sites. Yahoo's Search Monkey is another example of the search personalization phenomenon. Search Monkey is an open platform that Yahoo hopes will make search more useful and visually compelling.
Why would people invest time in helping Google make money? Why aren't people just searching and finding? The basic human need for recognition is a flame that has burned since the dawn of modern man. The internet and personalized search have poured napalm on that flame.
In the early stages of video's inclusion in blended results, one could watch the video on the results page. Watching video in results was quickly eliminated for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the need for search engines to have searchers click off the page, as opposed to loitering on it.
While many of the projects search engines are engaged in to make search more efficient may be temporary, we will see components of these experiments incorporated on future search pages.
Information gathering is not a new phenomenon for search engines hoping to create a more relevant experience for searchers. The impact this information gathering has on the results page has never been more pronounced.
Personalization and customization will serve to facilitate increased blended search and thus serve to increase competitive activity in paid results. Recreating the search results page as a temporary destination, as opposed to a quick clicking-off point, will work against you if you do not shift your search engine marketing strategy to accommodate the change.
The search model has changed; how shall I begin to change with it?
5. Optimize everything
Now is the time to use every aspect of what you know about your existing and potential audience. You must apply that knowledge to your search strategy. You can't optimize everything out of the chute, so focus on the top-blended search categories initially.
Whether searching for "sushi" or "puppies" to the latest on "Beyonce" and "Britney," along with everything in between, the social components of the web are beginning to appear in search results. If you can't afford to start shooting video with your latest and greatest information, chances are your fans and detractors already have created brand love or hate content. Amping up social media marketing strategies with a search priority should be another driver for embracing the new search.
Video, local, news, and maps are among the highest categories represented in blended results, but niche interests are also represented. Consider the random and obscure search for a "coach gun scabbard." Embedded within the results page for coach gun scabbards was an amateur video reviewing scabbards made for -- you guessed it -- coach guns.
Make sure images, video, and local information are both accurate and included. Tagging video information is very important, but so are popularity rankings, so make sure you are putting your best foot forward.
From top-end search traffic to obscure mid- and long-tail searches, blended search has changed the way we find everything on the web. It is still early enough in the game to achieve some big and quick wins with modern audience optimization tactics -- so what are you waiting for?
Kevin Ryan is CMO of WebVisible Inc.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Gasta News: China online growth explosion
China's online population, already the world's largest, has expanded to 298 million.
This marks a 41.9% increase on the previous year and is still growing fast, said the government-linked China Internet Network Information Centre.
The study also showed huge increases in the number of people in China accessing the internet through mobile phones.
The report by Cinic also noted that internet use in the countryside was increasing faster than in the cities.
At the end of 2008, the number of net users in China, which has a population of 1.3 billion, was almost the same as the entire population of the United States.
Users in the countryside surged by 60.8% year-on-year to 84.6 million, compared with much more modest growth of 35.6% in the urban areas, the report said.
The Cinic report said 117.6 million people accessed the internet using their mobile phones last year, up 133% from 2007.
Students are the main strength of mobile internet users, the study said: 43.5% of them use their mobile phones to read online news, download music, check email and perform a variety of other tasks.
3G boom
China, with 633.8 million mobile phone users, last week issued long-awaited licences for third-generation (3G) mobile phones to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.
CHINA'S INTERNET USE
Total users: 298 million
Year-on-year increase: 41.9%
Mobile net users: 117.6 million
Internet penetration: 22.6%
"With the coming of the 3G era, wireless internet will have exponential growth," Cinic said in a statement accompanying the release of its report.
3G phones enable faster data transmission and services such as watching TV, playing online games, wide-area wireless calls and web surfing.
By 2011, the three operators expect to start 3G services all over China, a move which analysts predict will spur further massive growth in mobile internet use.
As the categories of mobile internet services increase, charges have also been dropping fast.
China's internet penetration is still low at just 22.6%, leaving more room for rapid growth, Cinic said.
Constraints
The study said 234 million people surfed the internet to read or watch news by the end of 2008, a much higher estimate than recently made by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In 2007, 155 million Chinese internet users relied on the web to read news, accounting for 73.6% of the total internet population, according to Cinic.
It also said the number of Chinese bloggers hit 162 million by the end of 2008.
China's booming internet use comes despite the government's tight grip on the web.
Certain websites deemed politically sensitive are blocked; these include the BBC's Chinese language news site, Reporters Without Borders and some Hong Kong and Taiwan sites.
Access to sites offering diverse political opinions remains highly restricted, even as Chinese intellectuals and activists regularly brave the constraints to post new statements.
The government is also targeting what it calls unhealthy content on the internet. Earlier this month, it launched a campaign to get rid of vulgar and pornographic content, targeting 19 websites and search engines it said had failed to remove unsuitable material.
Authorities in Beijing, meanwhile, actively use the internet to sway opinion, put across actions and ideas, and promote top leaders.
This marks a 41.9% increase on the previous year and is still growing fast, said the government-linked China Internet Network Information Centre.
The study also showed huge increases in the number of people in China accessing the internet through mobile phones.
The report by Cinic also noted that internet use in the countryside was increasing faster than in the cities.
At the end of 2008, the number of net users in China, which has a population of 1.3 billion, was almost the same as the entire population of the United States.
Users in the countryside surged by 60.8% year-on-year to 84.6 million, compared with much more modest growth of 35.6% in the urban areas, the report said.
The Cinic report said 117.6 million people accessed the internet using their mobile phones last year, up 133% from 2007.
Students are the main strength of mobile internet users, the study said: 43.5% of them use their mobile phones to read online news, download music, check email and perform a variety of other tasks.
3G boom
China, with 633.8 million mobile phone users, last week issued long-awaited licences for third-generation (3G) mobile phones to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.
CHINA'S INTERNET USE
Total users: 298 million
Year-on-year increase: 41.9%
Mobile net users: 117.6 million
Internet penetration: 22.6%
"With the coming of the 3G era, wireless internet will have exponential growth," Cinic said in a statement accompanying the release of its report.
3G phones enable faster data transmission and services such as watching TV, playing online games, wide-area wireless calls and web surfing.
By 2011, the three operators expect to start 3G services all over China, a move which analysts predict will spur further massive growth in mobile internet use.
As the categories of mobile internet services increase, charges have also been dropping fast.
China's internet penetration is still low at just 22.6%, leaving more room for rapid growth, Cinic said.
Constraints
The study said 234 million people surfed the internet to read or watch news by the end of 2008, a much higher estimate than recently made by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In 2007, 155 million Chinese internet users relied on the web to read news, accounting for 73.6% of the total internet population, according to Cinic.
It also said the number of Chinese bloggers hit 162 million by the end of 2008.
China's booming internet use comes despite the government's tight grip on the web.
Certain websites deemed politically sensitive are blocked; these include the BBC's Chinese language news site, Reporters Without Borders and some Hong Kong and Taiwan sites.
Access to sites offering diverse political opinions remains highly restricted, even as Chinese intellectuals and activists regularly brave the constraints to post new statements.
The government is also targeting what it calls unhealthy content on the internet. Earlier this month, it launched a campaign to get rid of vulgar and pornographic content, targeting 19 websites and search engines it said had failed to remove unsuitable material.
Authorities in Beijing, meanwhile, actively use the internet to sway opinion, put across actions and ideas, and promote top leaders.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Gasta Vertical ad network
Can Advertisers use Ad Networks for Brand Advertising?
That depends on the network. Over the past decade we have seen some very creative advertisers do amazing online brand building programs. Yet, most of these clever programs that come to mind were executed on an individual site or portal. Are ad networks only going to attract the direct response campaigns and the low CPMs associated with direct response? The answer is: “No”
The more complete answer is still “that depends” on such things as the quality of the network’s members and the networks ability to execute hi impact ad opportunities. Most ad networks are often associated with remnant advertising on lesser quality sites. This is often why the network does not disclose a complete list of its sites. Call me old fashioned, but if I am responsible for building a brand I want to know where my hard earned ad dollars are being invested, and I probably don’t want my ad impressions only showing up at 2:00 AM (unless of course I am selling sleeping aids).
More and more ad networks are willing to show a complete site list, offering things like geo targeting and even day parting. Yet, that is still not enough to satisfy many brand advertisers who care about things like editorial quality and high impact ad campaigns. That is why vertical ad networks associated with real media companies are becoming more popular.
Media companies like IDG, Forbes, Martha Stewart have been creating some of the highest quality content in their respective verticals and have been executing big online brand campaigns for year. Now these established media companies, and many more like them, are expanding the brand solutions they offer by building online ad networks. This creates a great opportunity for brand advertisers looking to expand their market share.
When you stop and think about it, a media company like IDG already is an ad network with over 450 “owned and operated” technology websites around the world. It makes sense for IDG to expand to include selected independent technology sites. For example, IDG already knows how to recognize, recruit and nurture the best editorial experts in technology media. IDG also has executed countess online branding campaigns across its network of sites. IDG’s TechNetwork is a natural extension. Plus, IDG’s vetting of each partner site insures advertisers will get the quality editorial environment and multiple site execution which are critical to an ad network branding campaign.
The best part for big brand advertisers is when these high impact ad campaigns arrive on these independent sites the impact can be well above average. That is because independent sites often miss out on the online brand campaigns until they partner with an establish media company. Many experts predict that more and more established media companies will be building high quality networks of sites which is good news to brand advertisers looking to find uncluttered ad environments and independent sites looking for access to brand advertisers in their markets.
By Kevin Normandeau on Jul 21, 2008 in The Aggregation of Fragmentation
That depends on the network. Over the past decade we have seen some very creative advertisers do amazing online brand building programs. Yet, most of these clever programs that come to mind were executed on an individual site or portal. Are ad networks only going to attract the direct response campaigns and the low CPMs associated with direct response? The answer is: “No”
The more complete answer is still “that depends” on such things as the quality of the network’s members and the networks ability to execute hi impact ad opportunities. Most ad networks are often associated with remnant advertising on lesser quality sites. This is often why the network does not disclose a complete list of its sites. Call me old fashioned, but if I am responsible for building a brand I want to know where my hard earned ad dollars are being invested, and I probably don’t want my ad impressions only showing up at 2:00 AM (unless of course I am selling sleeping aids).
More and more ad networks are willing to show a complete site list, offering things like geo targeting and even day parting. Yet, that is still not enough to satisfy many brand advertisers who care about things like editorial quality and high impact ad campaigns. That is why vertical ad networks associated with real media companies are becoming more popular.
Media companies like IDG, Forbes, Martha Stewart have been creating some of the highest quality content in their respective verticals and have been executing big online brand campaigns for year. Now these established media companies, and many more like them, are expanding the brand solutions they offer by building online ad networks. This creates a great opportunity for brand advertisers looking to expand their market share.
When you stop and think about it, a media company like IDG already is an ad network with over 450 “owned and operated” technology websites around the world. It makes sense for IDG to expand to include selected independent technology sites. For example, IDG already knows how to recognize, recruit and nurture the best editorial experts in technology media. IDG also has executed countess online branding campaigns across its network of sites. IDG’s TechNetwork is a natural extension. Plus, IDG’s vetting of each partner site insures advertisers will get the quality editorial environment and multiple site execution which are critical to an ad network branding campaign.
The best part for big brand advertisers is when these high impact ad campaigns arrive on these independent sites the impact can be well above average. That is because independent sites often miss out on the online brand campaigns until they partner with an establish media company. Many experts predict that more and more established media companies will be building high quality networks of sites which is good news to brand advertisers looking to find uncluttered ad environments and independent sites looking for access to brand advertisers in their markets.
By Kevin Normandeau on Jul 21, 2008 in The Aggregation of Fragmentation
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Gasta Vertical Ad Network
As advertisers look for more ways to yield greater efficiency, going narrower but still with some scale means looking seriously at vertical ad networks.
Vertical ad networks are all the rage. If they aren't the toast of the town these days, they certainly are the talk of it.
However, vertical ad networks are nothing new. They are online advertising networks that have a particular focus. They aggregate a collection of sites together that have an affinity with one another and bring those "passion places" together in a way that provides advertisers meaningful scale without the uncertainty of a vast collection of unknown and dissimilar sites.
The appeal of a vertical ad network is first and foremost its focus. Second is the modicum of control it offers. As advertisers look for more ways to yield greater efficiencies and better accountability, going narrower but still with some scale means looking more seriously at vertical ad networks.
Travel Advertising Network is one such vertical, and company representatives gave the folks at the iMedia Agency Summit in La Quinta, Calif., a good look at what they are doing and why vertical ad networks are so important.
Travel Ad Network actually has the largest travel information audience in the world, with 19 million users worldwide (14 million in the U.S.). Notice that I did not say "travel" audience. This is an audience looking for information about traveling, be it destinations or transportation or boarding. This is not where they transact, according to Cree Lawson, founder/CEO, and Brian Silver, president. Their users are "in the aisles."
Why a vertical ad network?
The reason Travel Ad Network went this route was for three reasons: They listened to their clients who were demanding some level of transparency; they could get a better quality of advertiser; and they offered exclusive representation.
The guys from Travel Ad Network proceeded to deliver some valuable information in the form of a kind of Trivial Pursuit game. These questions and their answers make a terrific primer on vertical ad networks (particularly of the travel variety).
1. Are consumers different at vertical ad networks than horizontal ad networks? No. The reason advertisers should use vertical ad networks is not necessarily because the audiences there are so different than horizontal ad networks, but because those audiences are more engaged. As Lawson and Silver pointed out during their Spotlight presentation, people found in either horizontal or vertical ad networks are equally diverse. But those found within the confines of a vertical network have a higher degree of engagement and specialization. They are in their passion places.
2. Which ad supported property is in comScore's Buying Power Index top 10 list? Yes, Yahoo is there. But at the very top is Travel Ad Network, with a BPI of 280. That means that the average person found within Travel Ad Network has 2.8 times more buying power than the average person online.
3. What percentage of brands that advertise in verticals are endemic versus non-endemic? It turns out a lot more non-endemic advertising is going on. Just to give you a sense of what is meant by this: Less than 25 percent of advertising in a travel magazine is from travel product advertisers.
4. How many visits to travel sites does the average consumer make before booking a trip? Twenty-two. Before you click that "buy" button to book your airfare or hotel, chances are you've been to sites 22 times. That doesn't mean you've been to 22 sites, but you have made 22 different trips online before making your decision. It turns out that 15 percent of people don't know where they are going when they start planning, and 39 percent don't know when they will be traveling. This provides ample opportunity to talk to people in the questing frame of mind, to inform their seeking.
5. How much has the share of total page views changed for travel agencies in the last two years? It's down 15 percent. With all the information out there, people are starting to go around booking engines to find out what they want to know, and then pop onto that booking engine at the last minute to get the transaction done. If you are looking for an audience that is a travel audience, or has affinity with it, there are many chances to message that audience before they get to buy.
6. How much of every dollar spent online is spent on travel/travel products? Forty-four percent. That's right, $.44 of every dollar is spent on travel. This does not mean that travel makes up the bulk of the transactions. As someone in the audience pointed out, the dollars per transaction for travel are much higher than they are for, say, books. But all that means is that the online travel buyer is someone comfortable with spending a good deal of money online. The point here is that verticals are good for those "spending" audiences.
Vertical ad networks, like any ad network, may consist of a lot of sites an advertiser has never heard of. But if the audience they are looking for has, and that audience is at those sites, it makes sense to be there when the audience is there. You may not recognize the cover of the book, but if the book is being read, isn't that all that matters?
Jim Meskauskas
Vertical ad networks are all the rage. If they aren't the toast of the town these days, they certainly are the talk of it.
However, vertical ad networks are nothing new. They are online advertising networks that have a particular focus. They aggregate a collection of sites together that have an affinity with one another and bring those "passion places" together in a way that provides advertisers meaningful scale without the uncertainty of a vast collection of unknown and dissimilar sites.
The appeal of a vertical ad network is first and foremost its focus. Second is the modicum of control it offers. As advertisers look for more ways to yield greater efficiencies and better accountability, going narrower but still with some scale means looking more seriously at vertical ad networks.
Travel Advertising Network is one such vertical, and company representatives gave the folks at the iMedia Agency Summit in La Quinta, Calif., a good look at what they are doing and why vertical ad networks are so important.
Travel Ad Network actually has the largest travel information audience in the world, with 19 million users worldwide (14 million in the U.S.). Notice that I did not say "travel" audience. This is an audience looking for information about traveling, be it destinations or transportation or boarding. This is not where they transact, according to Cree Lawson, founder/CEO, and Brian Silver, president. Their users are "in the aisles."
Why a vertical ad network?
The reason Travel Ad Network went this route was for three reasons: They listened to their clients who were demanding some level of transparency; they could get a better quality of advertiser; and they offered exclusive representation.
The guys from Travel Ad Network proceeded to deliver some valuable information in the form of a kind of Trivial Pursuit game. These questions and their answers make a terrific primer on vertical ad networks (particularly of the travel variety).
1. Are consumers different at vertical ad networks than horizontal ad networks? No. The reason advertisers should use vertical ad networks is not necessarily because the audiences there are so different than horizontal ad networks, but because those audiences are more engaged. As Lawson and Silver pointed out during their Spotlight presentation, people found in either horizontal or vertical ad networks are equally diverse. But those found within the confines of a vertical network have a higher degree of engagement and specialization. They are in their passion places.
2. Which ad supported property is in comScore's Buying Power Index top 10 list? Yes, Yahoo is there. But at the very top is Travel Ad Network, with a BPI of 280. That means that the average person found within Travel Ad Network has 2.8 times more buying power than the average person online.
3. What percentage of brands that advertise in verticals are endemic versus non-endemic? It turns out a lot more non-endemic advertising is going on. Just to give you a sense of what is meant by this: Less than 25 percent of advertising in a travel magazine is from travel product advertisers.
4. How many visits to travel sites does the average consumer make before booking a trip? Twenty-two. Before you click that "buy" button to book your airfare or hotel, chances are you've been to sites 22 times. That doesn't mean you've been to 22 sites, but you have made 22 different trips online before making your decision. It turns out that 15 percent of people don't know where they are going when they start planning, and 39 percent don't know when they will be traveling. This provides ample opportunity to talk to people in the questing frame of mind, to inform their seeking.
5. How much has the share of total page views changed for travel agencies in the last two years? It's down 15 percent. With all the information out there, people are starting to go around booking engines to find out what they want to know, and then pop onto that booking engine at the last minute to get the transaction done. If you are looking for an audience that is a travel audience, or has affinity with it, there are many chances to message that audience before they get to buy.
6. How much of every dollar spent online is spent on travel/travel products? Forty-four percent. That's right, $.44 of every dollar is spent on travel. This does not mean that travel makes up the bulk of the transactions. As someone in the audience pointed out, the dollars per transaction for travel are much higher than they are for, say, books. But all that means is that the online travel buyer is someone comfortable with spending a good deal of money online. The point here is that verticals are good for those "spending" audiences.
Vertical ad networks, like any ad network, may consist of a lot of sites an advertiser has never heard of. But if the audience they are looking for has, and that audience is at those sites, it makes sense to be there when the audience is there. You may not recognize the cover of the book, but if the book is being read, isn't that all that matters?
Jim Meskauskas
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Gasta Search Statistics
Search engine data is the most relevant on the net
The net reveals the ties that bind
Regular columnist Bill Thompson wonders what it will take to get used to living in a networked society.
One of the throwaway remarks I sometimes make at conferences is that "Google knows you're pregnant before you do".
I can say this because the things you search for will change as your life changes, and search engine providers may well be able to spot the significance of these changes because they aggregate data from millions of people.
Now Google's philanthropic arm, google.org, has shown just what it can do with the data it gathers from us all by offering to predict where 'flu outbreaks will take place in the USA.
It has found that "certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity", in that they correlate well with reports from the official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And it claims that "across each of the nine surveillance regions of the United States, we were able to accurately estimate current flu levels one to two weeks faster than published CDC reports", a result that could save people's lives by alerting them to have 'flu vaccinations earlier than they might otherwise have done.
This is a really interesting piece of work and clearly demonstrates the power of data mining. Its potential usefulness is not limited to health matters.
Pick and mix
As John Naughton pointed out in The Observer, "everyone I know in business has known for months that the UK is in recession, but it's only lately that the authorities have been in a position to confirm that - because the official data always lag the current reality."
Perhaps the answer lies buried somewhere in the queries being made online, with company directors or politicians searching for terms that imply a coming recession, like details of redundancy pay or bankruptcy protection.
It isn't only Google who can do this of course. Its database of queries is vast and fast-growing, but it is only one among many databases that underpin the modern world.
The banking system is really only a collection of collected databases recording who has which assets, while neither government nor business could operate without complex data stores.
Soon the national ID register will store details of everyone in the UK, while the forthcoming Communications Data Bill is likely to include proposals to create a vast system that will record details of every e-mail sent, every website surfed and every file downloaded.
As we have seen with flu trends, sometimes the "interesting" knowledge that can be extracted is well-concealed until comparisons can be made with other sources, as it was the correlation between some search terms and the real-world data that mattered.
Of course Google has not revealed which search terms it analysed because doing so would undermine the model's effectiveness.
Unfortunately it is being equally reticent about how it has ensured that the data its uses is properly anonymised so that users cannot be identified on the basis of their queries.
A letter from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Patient Privacy Rights to Google boss Eric Schmidt has not been answered, leaving those concerned with online privacy uncertain over the broader implications of the project.
Early warning
But as Cade Metz points out in an insightful article in The Register, we may all be happy to know that a 'flu outbreak is coming, but what happens when the disease involved is more life-threatening and the government asks Google for the names and IP addresses of anyone whose search terms indicate that they are infected?
It's not that I don't trust Google. I don't trust any company, government department or individual without a good reason to do so.
In the case of search engines that claim to protect my privacy I want to know just how they do it and will not accept vague reassurances.
In the case of governments that want to build vast databases, I want strong legal sanctions against their abuse and full disclosure of the technical details.
Those of us living in the west with access to technology and the network have lived through a revolution in the last decade and a half that is as radical in its impact as the industrial revolution, and it has happened a lot faster.
It is hardly surprising that we do not yet know how to operate in a networked world where amazingly detailed data is routinely stored, processed and made available.
We will need to think in new ways, learn to assess risk according to new criteria, and find ways to hold those who have power over us - whether political, social or cultural - accountable in new ways.
The US writer Curt Monash has written about this topic many times over the years, arguing that since we clearly cannot halt the move towards data capture and use we should put legal and regulatory frameworks in place as a matter of urgency.
We have made a start in Europe with data protection legislation which could be strengthened and reinforced if politicians were willing to make the effort.
But first we need an active press and an engaged population, one that asks hard questions, forces those who want to develop new databases to be accountable and open, and makes the boundaries of acceptable surveillance a matter of public debate.
And perhaps we should ask google.org to start work on "Privacy Trends", hoping to spot privacy disasters before they happen by looking at searches for "compromised data", "hacked database" and "lost USB stick".
Bill Thompson is an independent journalist and regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Gasta Organic Search Marketing
Organic Search Engine
Marketing - It Really Works! by Brooks Donner
While helping traditional ecommerce companies boost their organic search engine marketing, I realized that the services and techniques we apply to those traditional ecommerce clients can be utilized by Internet marketers anywhere and everywhere, including affiliate marketers!
My realization led me to write this article. My goal here is to outline the general process and techniques we employ for organic search engine marketing.I'm going to construct the body of this article with the following sections:
1. Organic search engine marketing v. paid search engine marketing (PPC)
2. Blogs v. static web pages
3. Long tail keywords v. short head keywords
4. Unique content and Web 3.0
5. Internet marketing and Web 2.0
1. Organic Search Engine Marketing v. Paid Search Engine Marketing (PPC)
Organic search engine marketing is marketing a website to improve the ranking for its web pages in the organic, or natural, search engine results pages (SERPs).
Paid search engine marketing is incorporating paid advertising strategies such as Google's Adwords or Yahoo's Search Marketing in order to be listed in the "sponsored" or "advertisement" sections of the search engine results pages (SERPs).
With the increasing costs of paid search engine marketing, advertisers have been suffering from a downward trend in return on investment (ROI). On the other hand, with more sophisticated and proven strategies for organic search engine marketing, the return on investment (ROI) for those who market to rank higher naturally in the SERPs is increasing. Therefore, we advise ecommerce companies, affiliates and super-affiliates alike to shift their resources from paid search engine marketing to organic search engine marketing.
2. Blogs v. Static Web Pages
Blogs have an inherent and distinct advantage over static web pages. Search engines like blogs better. Everything being equal (design, content, page layout, H tags, Alt tags, age, etc.), a blog page will outrank a static web page more often than not. However, all things are not equal! Blogs take advantage of plug-ins, or features, to be very search engine friendly. We create and customize "Power Blogs" for our clients. A "Power Blog" is a search engine friendly WordPress blog with tons of SEO plug-ins. Once we install a Power Blog we use it as a platform for Web 2.0 marketing, a.k.a. social marketing.
The benefits of our Power Blog include:
(A) Multi-Channel Visitor Strategy - Instead of having Google be responsible for 95% of your visitors, now you can also get visitors from all of the Blog Search Engines. Because blogs use RSS (really simple syndication), you will find that other websites are syndicating your content on their websites, bringing you more visitors and links. By having multiple streams of visitors you protect yourself in case one of your traffic streams starts to underperform.
(B) Free Links To Your Site - The amount of links that you have to your site plays a huge role in how highly you rank on Google. By utilizing the Trackback feature in Wordpress, you can automatically get other websites to link to you for free.
3. Long Tail Keywords v. Short Head Keywords
Remember, this is called "Organic Search Engine Marketing".....it's marketing, and marketing needs a focus. In order to focus in on what to market for, you need to have a solid foundation of the main keywords that describe your business and/or products that you are selling. These main keywords are one to three phrase keywords (or keyword phrases) generally speaking and are more than likely highly competitive. These types of keywords are known as "Short Head" keywords. For example, "car insurance."
Once you know your short head keywords, you will want to market directly to more specific, longer keywords related to the main short head keywords. These longer, more specific keywords are known as "Long Tail" keywords. For example, "car insurance discounts in Georgia."
Although the traffic for each long tail keyword is usually much less than its short tail relative, if you add up all the long tail keywords, they will usually add up to much more traffíc and most importantly, targeted traffíc, than the short tail keywords alone.
4. Unique Content and Web 3.0
Once you have targeted the long tail keywords for your business or niche, then you can start marketing for them.
The cornerstone for organic search engine marketing is unique content creation. Whether it's 500-word articles, blog posts, blog comments, forum posts, social snippets, or videos, you are going to want to be able to create unique content based on your long tail keywords.
Web 3.0 is a term that refers to the future of the World Wide Web. In our opinion, that future includes the "Semantic Web" or web use affected by artificial intelligence. Sounds kind of like Star Wars, Alien and E.T. all wrapped into one big and scary WWW...doesn't it?! Well, not really of course. Semantic Web in this case just means that search engines will be able to figure out what a web page is all about in a different, more intelligent way. The major idea here is that search engines will take a more encompassing view at a page and understand its meaning rather making a determination based on figuring out which keywords pop up most often. In this new Web 3.0 scenario, a search engine might find a web page on "sun tanning in Florida" to also be quite relevant to "sun tan oil application" and therefore líst this example page in the search engine results pages under both keywords.
What does Web 3.0 mean to you? Basically, when creating your unique content, keep the semantic web concept in mind and use synonyms for your target keyword wherever it's natural. Don't stuff keywords in your content, i.e. use a keyword just to use it and not when it should be used naturally...and don't stuff keyword synonyms either!
5. Internet Marketing and Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is the "Social Web," so naturally, the concept of social marketing should apply to today's Internet Marketing strategies.
Social marketing includes posting on social networking, social news and social bookmarking websites.
You can also think of blogging as part of Web 2.0, and of course you're covered because you have read Section 2 above.
In conclusion, whether you own your ecommerce business and sell your products, or if you are an affiliate or super-affiliate, organic search engine marketing must be on your "actions líst." In the long run, outranking your competitors in the search engine results pages proves to bring a higher return on investment (ROI) than trying to out-advertise your competitors in paid search engine marketing.
You now have the basic know-how to create your organic search engine marketing strategy.
Brooks Donner
About The Author
Want more visitors to your website? We can help you! Contact TopLine Media Group today to start driving unlímited & free targeted traffíc using our Organic Search Engine Marketing service. Plus, get a no-obligation Free Internet Marketing Consultation at http://www.TopLineMediaGroup.com .
Marketing - It Really Works! by Brooks Donner
While helping traditional ecommerce companies boost their organic search engine marketing, I realized that the services and techniques we apply to those traditional ecommerce clients can be utilized by Internet marketers anywhere and everywhere, including affiliate marketers!
My realization led me to write this article. My goal here is to outline the general process and techniques we employ for organic search engine marketing.I'm going to construct the body of this article with the following sections:
1. Organic search engine marketing v. paid search engine marketing (PPC)
2. Blogs v. static web pages
3. Long tail keywords v. short head keywords
4. Unique content and Web 3.0
5. Internet marketing and Web 2.0
1. Organic Search Engine Marketing v. Paid Search Engine Marketing (PPC)
Organic search engine marketing is marketing a website to improve the ranking for its web pages in the organic, or natural, search engine results pages (SERPs).
Paid search engine marketing is incorporating paid advertising strategies such as Google's Adwords or Yahoo's Search Marketing in order to be listed in the "sponsored" or "advertisement" sections of the search engine results pages (SERPs).
With the increasing costs of paid search engine marketing, advertisers have been suffering from a downward trend in return on investment (ROI). On the other hand, with more sophisticated and proven strategies for organic search engine marketing, the return on investment (ROI) for those who market to rank higher naturally in the SERPs is increasing. Therefore, we advise ecommerce companies, affiliates and super-affiliates alike to shift their resources from paid search engine marketing to organic search engine marketing.
2. Blogs v. Static Web Pages
Blogs have an inherent and distinct advantage over static web pages. Search engines like blogs better. Everything being equal (design, content, page layout, H tags, Alt tags, age, etc.), a blog page will outrank a static web page more often than not. However, all things are not equal! Blogs take advantage of plug-ins, or features, to be very search engine friendly. We create and customize "Power Blogs" for our clients. A "Power Blog" is a search engine friendly WordPress blog with tons of SEO plug-ins. Once we install a Power Blog we use it as a platform for Web 2.0 marketing, a.k.a. social marketing.
The benefits of our Power Blog include:
(A) Multi-Channel Visitor Strategy - Instead of having Google be responsible for 95% of your visitors, now you can also get visitors from all of the Blog Search Engines. Because blogs use RSS (really simple syndication), you will find that other websites are syndicating your content on their websites, bringing you more visitors and links. By having multiple streams of visitors you protect yourself in case one of your traffic streams starts to underperform.
(B) Free Links To Your Site - The amount of links that you have to your site plays a huge role in how highly you rank on Google. By utilizing the Trackback feature in Wordpress, you can automatically get other websites to link to you for free.
3. Long Tail Keywords v. Short Head Keywords
Remember, this is called "Organic Search Engine Marketing".....it's marketing, and marketing needs a focus. In order to focus in on what to market for, you need to have a solid foundation of the main keywords that describe your business and/or products that you are selling. These main keywords are one to three phrase keywords (or keyword phrases) generally speaking and are more than likely highly competitive. These types of keywords are known as "Short Head" keywords. For example, "car insurance."
Once you know your short head keywords, you will want to market directly to more specific, longer keywords related to the main short head keywords. These longer, more specific keywords are known as "Long Tail" keywords. For example, "car insurance discounts in Georgia."
Although the traffic for each long tail keyword is usually much less than its short tail relative, if you add up all the long tail keywords, they will usually add up to much more traffíc and most importantly, targeted traffíc, than the short tail keywords alone.
4. Unique Content and Web 3.0
Once you have targeted the long tail keywords for your business or niche, then you can start marketing for them.
The cornerstone for organic search engine marketing is unique content creation. Whether it's 500-word articles, blog posts, blog comments, forum posts, social snippets, or videos, you are going to want to be able to create unique content based on your long tail keywords.
Web 3.0 is a term that refers to the future of the World Wide Web. In our opinion, that future includes the "Semantic Web" or web use affected by artificial intelligence. Sounds kind of like Star Wars, Alien and E.T. all wrapped into one big and scary WWW...doesn't it?! Well, not really of course. Semantic Web in this case just means that search engines will be able to figure out what a web page is all about in a different, more intelligent way. The major idea here is that search engines will take a more encompassing view at a page and understand its meaning rather making a determination based on figuring out which keywords pop up most often. In this new Web 3.0 scenario, a search engine might find a web page on "sun tanning in Florida" to also be quite relevant to "sun tan oil application" and therefore líst this example page in the search engine results pages under both keywords.
What does Web 3.0 mean to you? Basically, when creating your unique content, keep the semantic web concept in mind and use synonyms for your target keyword wherever it's natural. Don't stuff keywords in your content, i.e. use a keyword just to use it and not when it should be used naturally...and don't stuff keyword synonyms either!
5. Internet Marketing and Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is the "Social Web," so naturally, the concept of social marketing should apply to today's Internet Marketing strategies.
Social marketing includes posting on social networking, social news and social bookmarking websites.
You can also think of blogging as part of Web 2.0, and of course you're covered because you have read Section 2 above.
In conclusion, whether you own your ecommerce business and sell your products, or if you are an affiliate or super-affiliate, organic search engine marketing must be on your "actions líst." In the long run, outranking your competitors in the search engine results pages proves to bring a higher return on investment (ROI) than trying to out-advertise your competitors in paid search engine marketing.
You now have the basic know-how to create your organic search engine marketing strategy.
Brooks Donner
About The Author
Want more visitors to your website? We can help you! Contact TopLine Media Group today to start driving unlímited & free targeted traffíc using our Organic Search Engine Marketing service. Plus, get a no-obligation Free Internet Marketing Consultation at http://www.TopLineMediaGroup.com .
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Gasta Gleaning i-information from Search.
Gasta.com important to some, Small regional search networks with strong on the ground support and investment can reach into the factories, the offices and the families of the communities they function in. Google of course is the 'universal' search. In fact to some, Google is the 'universe' and their latest branding does not try to dispel that myth. but, small tributary search networks are the arteries that serve Google and Livesearch. The IP search information gleaned from Gasta allows advertisers to focus campaigns with laser like targeting, this is a valuable resource to any Global / European company and should be considered when acquisition is discussed.In fact this is information is a vital commodity in the information age, but why buy information of others when you can resource your own?
Monday, October 13, 2008
10 Great reasons to merge/acquire Gasta.com
Gasta is a Great internet Brand
Great distribution platform
Great geographical reach
Great and Deep Internet traction
Great digital footprint
Great Blended search functions
Great Global eyeballs
Great and Simple to use advertising platform
Great shared revenues
Great potential for growth and expansion
Great local search
comaparitive deals in Gasta.com region.
Myhome.ie sold to Irish Times for €45million
Great distribution platform
Great geographical reach
Great and Deep Internet traction
Great digital footprint
Great Blended search functions
Great Global eyeballs
Great and Simple to use advertising platform
Great shared revenues
Great potential for growth and expansion
Great local search
comaparitive deals in Gasta.com region.
Myhome.ie sold to Irish Times for €45million
Monday, September 22, 2008
Gasta News: Music goes portable again.
In a week that will see heavy coverage of MySpace Music when it launches, SanDisk (NSDQ: SNDK) has announced an ambitious venture to sell its microSD memory cards pre-loaded with DRM-fr*ee MP3 music from all the four majors EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. The service, dubbed “slotMusic”, will launch this coming holiday season in U.S., at Best Buy and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), among others, and then will be launched in Europe, though no specific timeline was given.
The MicroSD format, a SanDisk invention, is used mainly in mobile phones, and also in some MP3 players. When slotMusic goes on dale, these cards will be packaged with a tiny USB sleeve so that they can be compatible with various PCs and laptops, and any other device with a USB connector, including say an in-car sound system. The MP3-based music tracks will be played back at up to 320 kbps, the company said. With 1GB of capacity, slotMusic cards can hold songs, as well as liner notes, album art, videos, and other content that an artist/labels may choose.
There have been previous attempts by SanDisk and others to sell music and content cards through retails, though with limited success.
SanDisk is also in the midst of a takeover attempt by Samsung, which made its $5.85 billion public bid for the company last week, but the company rejected it as too low.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Gasta Advetising set to grow
Find the online opportunities in your own backyard: Gasta.com
These days, the advertising community is focusing its attention on how to create ads for online media -- including video, rich media, Flash, etc. -- and the revenue potential associated with these channels. However, a less-often-asked but vitally important question in terms of industry shift, as well as dollars and cents, is this: Where will these ads be placed?
Industry estimates suggest that mobile advertising will reach nearly $10 billion in the next few years, with online video reaching nearly $3 billion. However, advertising at the local market level -- although not as frequently discussed -- has the potential for even bigger numbers and greater growth. What's more, local advertising isn't at odds with mobile and online video, as many assume. Rather, rich media and geotargeted place-based mobile advertising are likely to be big components of that local online ad spend. Within the context of the changing media landscape, local online advertising represents a massive opportunity that is coming into its own -- and bears more attention from the advertising community.
Tip O'Neill once said, "All politics is local." And while that's not quite true of advertising, it does resonate when assessing this new shift into hyper-local marketing and advertising. According to eMarketer, $97 billion of the $157 billion -- more than 60 percent -- of the advertising market in the U.S. is focused on local. The online portion of that has thus far lagged behind the other advertising channels, with only about $2.1 billion -- 2 percent -- of local advertising being online at the end of 2007. However, that number is expected to more than triple over the next four years to more than $7.8 billion. That's a huge movement of dollars shifting toward reaching local audiences online.
But where are these dollars going to end up?
Although traditional local media -- Yellow Pages, newspapers, radio and broadcast television -- all have an online presence, none of them enjoys the dominance on the web that they do in their "home markets." Yet their audiences are moving online at faster and faster rates, resulting in major drop-offs in print subscriptions to newspapers, broadcast TV audiences, terrestrial radio listenership and Yellow Pages customers.
For example, the Kelsey Group recently found the erosion of print Yellow Pages is going to increase from 2-3 percent to more than 10 percent this year. That's a pretty massive decrease year over year. And even the Yellow Pages Marketing Association concedes that although online usage of Yellow Pages is growing, a 10 percent drop in print usage dwarfs the increase in online searches. Newspapers are in a similar boat with their advertising; online ad sales are climbing, but offline usage declines are taking a larger chunk of ad sales away from the industry as a whole.
And yet, projections show online ad sales more than tripling -- and there has to be a place for all that advertising to land, outside of the traditional media's online presences mentioned above.
With Google, Yahoo and online Yellow Pages growing their audiences, there is certainly going to be growth in local business searches. But what about brand advertising and trying to reach people who are migrating away from traditional television, radio and newspaper outlets for their news?
The numbers are a little grim. There are about 1,400 daily newspapers and 7,000 television and radio stations in the U.S., and back-of-the-envelope math shows that they each produce about three to six stories per day, or about 22,000 local stories for the entire U.S. This for an audience of roughly 20,000 individual cities and towns. All these players used to be able to back up their locally produced content with national stories, thereby providing a full news experience for their viewers or readers. But, the internet has changed all that; people get their national news from national sources. Instead of competing with other local newspapers, papers are competing with every news site that has a web page. Given this fragmentation, local news sites are not maintaining their market share.
So what's going to take up the slack?
Well, nature abhors a vacuum. Thus, amateur, user-generated content and commentaries are taking off in local markets. The internet's solution to the dearth of local news coverage is the same as it has been with other problems of scale: let the people build it themselves. Similar to Wikipedia, the Open Directory and Usenet, truly local content is going to be provided by the people who live there.
In looking at sites like MetroBlogs, Gothamist publications, Outside.in, NowPublic, Baristanet and Topix (the site that I run), it becomes apparent that a massive amount of attention and investment has been paid to giving people a platform for engagement with the places they live. And while social networks (based on who you know) like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace have generated a lot of usage, and even more buzz, none of them has really provided a locally contextual venue. You are unlikely to meet the neighbors who live two blocks away via Facebook or LinkedIn. However, when that same family starts blogging about your neighborhood or commenting on something another neighbor wrote, it's a compelling discussion -- one that you're likely to read and possibly even join.
Given the aforementioned advertising growth and the decline of the traditional places for it to go, user-generated content is where the action is going to be. The local online outlets that make the most sense for a given campaign will vary greatly depending on where you live and who you're trying to reach with your advertising. But the potential audience size available through these channels is impressive. Speaking for Topix, we've seen comment rates go from around 30,000 comments a day in the middle of 2007 to more than 140,000 comments a day -- or more than 3.5 million comments a month -- across more than 20,000 cities and towns within the U.S.
Media consumption and local audiences' preferences are shifting. Advertising is going to shift as well. So along with that cool viral video and mobile campaign, consider how you can make the most of region-specific opportunities as the $97 billion gorilla of locally targeted ad dollars spent in the U.S. starts to move online.
Chris Tolles is CEO of Topix
Monday, July 14, 2008
Gasta ® Trademark process completes
Gasta ® international trademark application complete. Murgatroyd and Partners international Law Firm has completed the successful application of the word ‘Gasta’
As the world trademark of Applied Multimedia Innovations. Gasta ® will now be appearing as the legal protection of all Gasta owned domains and websites.
Francis Higgins CEO of AMI says “that he is delighted that this long process is now complete and that Gasta ® is now protected from cyber squatters and trade infringements” AMI has a number of proposals for Gasta music and licensing rights for the new trademark including a fashion label and branding company.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Gasta Domains: www.londondocklands.com
Gasta has over 450 Domain names for sale including
www.londonsdockland.comDomain Advertising Agency Offers £1.5M LondonDocklands.com For Sale!
London, May 19, 2008 - Today Domain Advertising Agency(DAA) announces it will broker the potential sale of one the most lucrative Geo Domain Names in the UK and Europe “LondonDocklands.com”. The London Docklands is a vast geographical area and one of the most historical destinations in the city of London. The area of London Docklands also represents many billions in financial trading terms through the most powerful global investment banks such as Morgan Stanley, with thousands of employees, residential and commercial real estate such as Canary Wharf with the tallest skyscrapers in Britain.
Prospective buyers are invited to submit offers by visiting the following url:
http://sales.domainadvertisingagency.com/domains/954/londondocklands.com
Domain Advertising Agency will post the wining bid on the front page of its website http://www.domainadvertisingagency.com when the domain is sold. The price tag of £1.5M is a cinch, considering the average 1 bed apartment price of £500,000 and the average commercial premises runs into several millions of pounds on average. The 2012 London Olympics is also right on the doorstep of London Docklands, and is also likely to drive up real estate prices in the area going forward.
Only two weeks ago, another geo domain name, “Bellvue.com” a vibrant suburb in Seattle, Washington sold for $150,000. Likewise, several geo domain names have sold over the last 18 months such as Branson.com for $1.5M, Buckhead.com an Atlanta suburb for $250,000 and Surrey.com a greater London suburb for $200,000 and WallStreet.com sold for over a million dollars in 1999.
London Docklands which stretches from the historic docks of Wapping , through the massive Canary Wharf financial centre, the Royal Docks and all the way through sought after Greenwich comprises some of the most historic buildings in the United Kingdom, juxtaposed with impressive modern architecture and thousands of impressive contemporary residential apartments for 21st century living. Other major attractions are the Millennium Dome, huge venues such as the Excel conference centre hosting mavericks such as Anthony Robbins, the gleaming Jubilee line tube extension and the busy London City airport, connecting business and leisure flights directly with Europe.
We hope to attract interested buyers such as London City Traders looking for a new venture investment, city property developers, online media consortiums and particularly foreign investors across Europe, Asia the Middle East and North America, looking for a niche opportunity to leverage their presence and investment in London. We certainly notice the significant number of Russian Oligarchs all over London, they are very welcome to submit offers too!
The domain owner, a born and bred Londoner and founder of Domain Advertising Agency.com, as a humble gesture of giving back to the community, will pledge ten percent of the net resulting sale to a charitable organization catering for the welfare of homeless citizens living in London Docklands.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Gasta Search Branding and Direct Response
Gasta Search Branding and Direct Response,
We love it when a plan comes together1 The Gasta.com strategy of aquiring and hosting new domains to launch the gasta white label search is gathering momentum as more Brands recognise that Search is the key branding tool of the future web.
In this week's NMA Podcast, Microsoft's senior vice president of strategic partnerships, Yusuf Medhi, talks about the software giant's acquisition plans following the failure of its bid to buy Yahoo!. Plus Winston Binch of US hot-shop Crispon Porter + Bogusky explains how digital agencies are moving up the pecking order, and the NMA team discuss the role of search in brand-building.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Gasta News: Brand turf war
Paid Search:Low intensity warfare on Google plains
Agencies aren't practicing what they preach when it comes to using paid search to market their brands, according to Adweek, and while these agencies are sleeping, some of their smaller competitors are using paid search to their advantage.
Buying your brand name would seem logical, but of the 56 agencies assessed by Adweek, only five had sponsored links tied to their names on Google. The others did not have paid search links, but their web pages generally appeared near the top of the search results.
"It's very difficult to recommend certain things to your clients if you're not in the game yourself," said Craig Conrad or Interpublic Group's Campbell-Ewald. "So often we're focused on our client business [that] sometimes it's easy to forget about our own brand."
While brand advertisers are up in arms over Google's lack of enforcement when it comes to piggybacking, it seems that some smaller agencies are actually using the practice themselves. A search for OgilvyInteractive yields a sponsored link for Stein Rogan + Partners, a small New York agency.
"Why not put ourselves out there as a viable alternative?" said Tom Stein, Stein Rogan's CEO. "It's a little bit of counter-marketing."
Friday, June 27, 2008
Gasta Seo: Reputation Management
If your website or products suffer from bad reviews or negative feedback, Sometimes disguised as “constructive criticism” do not sit and hope that it will go away; this is a set of circumstances that you can and must change and influence. Everyone would much rather receive a pat on the back, but how do you stop this negativity from getting in the way of your clients? It’s called reputation management, sometimes clients marketing can conflict with the reputation of an area or a ‘ghettoisation’ as happened with West Belfast during the prolonged troubles, However when local communities started to respond to this negative portrayal in a positive way by starting community festivals instead of traditional ‘bonfires’ and demonstrating and discussing all the positive aspects of the West Belfast community such as low crime, lively social networks, strong community support groups, and neighbourliness. What happened was a complete turnaround of the perception of West Belfast as a ‘ghetto’ into one of a vibrant community that has become a Mecca for conflict resolution.
Gasta SEO Services explains that reputation management and SEO go hand-in-hand because it’s all about getting the positive results above the negative ones. They also suggest participating in and leveraging social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and building up the positive picture of your website to downgrade and diminish the negative comments and to help gain positive momentum.
Gasta SEO Services explains that reputation management and SEO go hand-in-hand because it’s all about getting the positive results above the negative ones. They also suggest participating in and leveraging social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and building up the positive picture of your website to downgrade and diminish the negative comments and to help gain positive momentum.
Gasta News:Internet feels the bite of Crunch!
Mixed News as internet feels the bite of Crunch!
A straw poll of media agencies from the NMA Top 100 Interactive Agencies 2007 guide found budgets are under pressure as marketers alter their media plans ahead of the potential economic downturn. The findings are in conflict with market predictions. A report by analyst firm Enders Analysis this week said UK online ad spends was set to grow...
Meanwhile automotive brands plan to stop using dedicated campaign sites as budgets tighten and consumer’s tire of fragmented content. Car brands including Mercedes and Land Rover plan to pull back from campaign sites for car launches, switching to a central online hub. Mercedes has launched a global online hub, built by Digital Annexe that will house all its brand activity. It has been built to incorporate video streaming, an easily updateable back-end system and increased promotional space....
Online Video's Short Shelf Life
On average, video viewer ship peaks early in a video's life-cycle.
Thursday 19th of June 2008 12:00:00 AM
We set out with a simple question: throughout the life of a video, do most views occur in the first few days and weeks or are they distributed randomly over time? Since Tube Mogul tracks millions of videos, we turned to the data and were surprised to find such a robust trend: viewer ship peaks early.
Methodology
Our sample includes data for views by day for 10,916 videos over a 90 day time period. In order to exclude casual creators of online video (i.e. "Mickey’s Birthday"), each video in the sample achieved a minimum of 1,000 cumulative views over the 90 day time period.
On average, videos are time-sensitive. Trends pointed out elsewhere, such as "evergreen" (non-time sensitive) content always fetching views or videos randomly "going viral," seem more of a rarity than an underlying trend in the data.
A straw poll of media agencies from the NMA Top 100 Interactive Agencies 2007 guide found budgets are under pressure as marketers alter their media plans ahead of the potential economic downturn. The findings are in conflict with market predictions. A report by analyst firm Enders Analysis this week said UK online ad spends was set to grow...
Meanwhile automotive brands plan to stop using dedicated campaign sites as budgets tighten and consumer’s tire of fragmented content. Car brands including Mercedes and Land Rover plan to pull back from campaign sites for car launches, switching to a central online hub. Mercedes has launched a global online hub, built by Digital Annexe that will house all its brand activity. It has been built to incorporate video streaming, an easily updateable back-end system and increased promotional space....
Online Video's Short Shelf Life
On average, video viewer ship peaks early in a video's life-cycle.
Thursday 19th of June 2008 12:00:00 AM
We set out with a simple question: throughout the life of a video, do most views occur in the first few days and weeks or are they distributed randomly over time? Since Tube Mogul tracks millions of videos, we turned to the data and were surprised to find such a robust trend: viewer ship peaks early.
Methodology
Our sample includes data for views by day for 10,916 videos over a 90 day time period. In order to exclude casual creators of online video (i.e. "Mickey’s Birthday"), each video in the sample achieved a minimum of 1,000 cumulative views over the 90 day time period.
On average, videos are time-sensitive. Trends pointed out elsewhere, such as "evergreen" (non-time sensitive) content always fetching views or videos randomly "going viral," seem more of a rarity than an underlying trend in the data.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Gasta Press Release :Channel 4IP
Gasta Latest Channel 4 News
From 2nd July, potential suppliers will be given an opportunity to register their interest and ask questions about the 4IP fund at http://channel4.com/4ip. We will keep the site updated with information on how to submit ideas, the range of projects we are looking for, as well as how our partnership arrangements work. Throughout July & August, the Channel 4 team will be taking part in a number of activities and events - including sponsoring 2gether, a new festival taking place in London in July - in order to talk broadly about Channel 4's ambitions for digital media and engage informally with some of the people who may want to submit ideas and look for funding from 4IP when we launch in September.
The official 4IP launch will involve a range of events (currently planned for 17-25 September) at which we will outline our vision for the fund, introduce our partners and provide examples of the type of projects 4IP will be looking to invest in. We will also begin actively soliciting ideas and responding to proposals.
We will be in touch again soon with details of the September launch events, but if you would like any more information in the mean time then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
From 2nd July, potential suppliers will be given an opportunity to register their interest and ask questions about the 4IP fund at http://channel4.com/4ip. We will keep the site updated with information on how to submit ideas, the range of projects we are looking for, as well as how our partnership arrangements work. Throughout July & August, the Channel 4 team will be taking part in a number of activities and events - including sponsoring 2gether, a new festival taking place in London in July - in order to talk broadly about Channel 4's ambitions for digital media and engage informally with some of the people who may want to submit ideas and look for funding from 4IP when we launch in September.
The official 4IP launch will involve a range of events (currently planned for 17-25 September) at which we will outline our vision for the fund, introduce our partners and provide examples of the type of projects 4IP will be looking to invest in. We will also begin actively soliciting ideas and responding to proposals.
We will be in touch again soon with details of the September launch events, but if you would like any more information in the mean time then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Gasta News:Brand Identity
Here at Gasta HQ we have noticed a pattern in our advertisers inluding the brand names of competitors in their advertising keywords, we have seen an upsurge of brand identity marketing of terms such as Louis Vuitton, 12th Sreet by Cynthia Vincent, Adidas, Alexander McQueen, Anya Hindmarch, Bottega Veneta, Chloé, Derek Lam, E-bags, Erva, Fendi, Gucci, Hoss, Intropia, Jimmy Choo, Kate Moss, Laccoste, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu, Net-a -Porter, Nike, Orange, Oscar de la Renta, Puma, Ralph Lauren, Roberto Cavalli, Samsung, Sony, Stella McCartney, Toni&Guy, Valentino, VBH, Vivienne Westwood, Red, Zoe&Morgan.
This change is due to the new rules introduced by Google about brand keywords, and the savvy marketers are the ones using the Gasta search marketing keyword tools to capitalise, Big brands you have been warned. buy your brand keywords now!
This change is due to the new rules introduced by Google about brand keywords, and the savvy marketers are the ones using the Gasta search marketing keyword tools to capitalise, Big brands you have been warned. buy your brand keywords now!
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