The advertising on the blog is very subtle. There’s two words you don’t hear together very often: subtle and advertising. It reminded me of the challenge I have with a friend who has a food website, a food blog, a cooking website, a cooking blog, videos on YouTube, DVDs for sale and a monthly newsletter. In an effort to consolidate her work so that her fans could find everything from one website, I built a spec website for her. She loved it, but she hated the catch. I wanted to put advertising on the site. By consolidating the food, cooking, recipes and how-to videos, I could create a compelling marketing strategy and attract sponsorships that would pay for the web work. I know how to get sponsorships, but she was afraid advertising would make the site look tacky. So a year has slipped by.

Advertising is Your Friend

Some people think advertising is bad the way children think vegetables are bad. But advertising can be very nutritious, as in “you need money to keep going.” I suspect that the home decor blogger (let’s call her DIYgrrl.com) feels that keeping the “organic” quality of her blog is crucial to long-term audience growth. And she’s right. So here’s how to add national sponsors while retaining the design purity and increasing revenue.

Rotation – It Makes the World Go ‘Round

Most national brands use television advertising which is sold in rotation. This is a concept that advertisers and media buyers are familiar with, but few bloggers are aware of. This panel shows six squares of sponsor ads. If DIYgrrl want to limit advertising space on her blog to this area, and to triple the number of sponsors, all she has to do it ROTATE the ads. Think of each square as a slot with three flash cards in it. One flashcard appears in the square each time the web page is loaded. Simply sell the ads “in rotation” and you can have 18 sponsors in the space of six.

As your audience increases and you increase your advertising rates, explain to your original sponsors that prices have gone up, and that you will honor the old rate if you can show the ad in rotation with new advertisers. If a long-time sponsor insists on paying for all three “flashcards,” make three separate, similar ads to create visual interest in the spot each time the page loads.

Where’s the Big Sponsorship Money?

DIYgrrl will not do paid product reviews, but she has developed a preference for some national brands and the husband has these targets in mind. Most are paint and hardware products typically marketed to men, so let’s use the hypothetical paint brand “Coatorama.” I recommended putting together a compelling presentation showing

• existing articles that put the brand in a favorable light
• comments from visitors grateful to learn about the brand
• photos showing the brand being used in creative, innovative ways

The husband needs to persuade the Coatorama brand Product Manager that the blog is a channel to new markets — women who are unafraid of tools. The blog often shows how different Coatorama products can be used to get fabulous home decor results. The Product Manager, who works for Coatorama, is always looking for new categories of customers and ways to reach them economically. This blog would be a great way to showcase his product to a market segment (homemakers) that is a small but growing portion of total sales.

Can the Product Manger (PM) make the sponsorship deal? Maybe, but he will probably say, “I can’t sign this, all the media buys are made by our ad agency.” Husband persuades PM to set up an appointment with the Account Executive (AE) at the ad agency. AE says, “Our client Colorama likes this idea, but you have to talk to the media buyer.” Husband takes the media buyer to lunch, she signs the contract giving the appearance that it is her decision, but it is really the PM’s decision just going through the chain of command. Note: this process does not work in the other direction.

Two ways to sell sponsorships

Nearly all advertising is purchased on “efficiency” which means getting the most for your advertising dollar. On the web, it means that you reach a lot of people in your target market for a reasonable price. Good Housekeeping and Better Homes and Gardens have great websites, many more visitors, plus they throw in magazine ads to get the “efficiency” ratio that media buyers want.

DIYgrrl has a great blog and the audience is growing, but the numbers are still too small for a national advertiser to consider it in the ordinary “efficiency” calculation. Time to go to the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl Sell

You know what that means… the ad costs so much money you can’t possibly justify on “efficiency” but the client wants it regardless of cost. That’s the strategy this blog needs. Locating the Product Manager and getting the meeting takes a lot of work. Linked in and Facebook contacts may help. A Skype meeting may be easier to set, and he can make an almost-in-person pitch that allows him to demonstrate the blog while selling. He need to show the PM the enthusiastic product comments and photos. He will talk about the rate of growth and project this growth into the future so that the PM is looking at some decent audience numbers one or two years out. He needs to have some dollar figures ready, to be willing to negotiate, to have a contract ready to email, to make sure the ad is sold IN ROTATION for a year, and that the sponsorship runs until canceled.

Who can sell this?

So, if I know all this, why didn’t I take the job? Because a sponsorshp like this can be sold only by the blogger herself, or the husband. The “Super Bowl Sell” requires you to have substantial skin in the game. The PM and AE must be convinced that there is a continuing commitment to the blog and that the quality will continue for the years necessary to build the audience that they are buying on the come. They must believe the blogger and her husband can go the distance before they buy the sponsorship.

A Fine Line

There will be some discussion with the PM and the AE about the content of future articles on the blog. The husband must be charming, diplomatic, and crystal clear that Coatorama has exactly the same amount of content control as if they were advertising on The Daily Show. None. The PM and AE will ask, and he must say no. It’s part of the dance.

I hope they succeed because it is a great blog. And I hope my food friend comes to realize that advertising is a valid source of information to readers and income to writers. What do you think is the best way to get a sponsorship? Any special sponsorship tips?

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How To Get Blog Sponsors

Is it coincidence that Google’s Android phones also don’t play Flash video? Maybe phone carriers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile don’t want the network load. Maybe smartphone users don’t want to pay bandwidth charges for Flash ads appearing on their phones. The bandwith required for other types of online content created in Flash, including animated advertisements and online gaming may not be how cellphone carriers want to tax their network capacities.

Many online video sites have been experimenting with a new video format, called HTML5. Unlike Flash, which is a downloaded piece of software that can interact with a computer’s operating system, HTML5 works directly in a Web browser.

The popular video-sharing site Vimeo.com is also experimenting with new platforms, based on comments from its online community. “We received a tremendous amount of feedback from our users saying that they wanted to have HTML5 as an option for their videos,” said Andrew Pile, vice president for product and development at Vimeo, an online video service. Mr. Pile does not see this new format replacing Vimeo’s Flash-video inventory, but will instead offer it as an option for its viewers.

And while HTML5 may help standardize Web video, it does not necessarily address the needs of other types of online content created in Flash, including animated advertisements, short “adult” movies and online gaming.

What do you think? Is it Apple who left Flash video out of the iPhone and iPad, or was it AT&T and the other carriers? How would you feel about paying bandwidth charges for unwanted Flash video advertising?

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No Flash video on iPad & iPhone?

To learn more about Westec’s web development process, see our article “Are Static Websites Obsolete?”

If your company is ready for Google advertising, and ready for a website to make Google advertising work for you, please call us at 707-408-2638 or contact us.

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Google advertising moves Westec up in tough year

In a blog post on Thursday afternoon, McAfee said that after examining the malicious software code used in the attacks, it believes a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser was an important pathway for the attacks, which were directed at Google and more than 30 other companies:

These attacks will look like they come from a trusted source, leading the target to fall for the trap and clicking a link or file. That’s when the exploitation takes place, using the vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Once the malware is downloaded and installed, it opens a back door that allows the attacker to perform reconnaissance and gain complete control over the compromised system. The attacker can now identify high value targets and start to siphon off valuable data from the company.

I urge you to take a look at Firefox security, and to download Firefox 3.5. It will not overwrite your Internet Explorer files, and it works fine with my online banking. Finally! It was really weird when I had to use the world’s least secure web browser, Internet Explorer, for my online financial transactions. Luckily, the financial community caught up with the times.

The German Government’s Federal Office for Information Security has officially advised web users to find an alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer according to Sitepoint.com because of the same vulnerability involved in the Chinese attacks on Gmail.

My statistics show that only about 60% of visitors to my websites are using Internet Explorer. Firefox is gaining rapidly. I actually use Opera as my default browser because it is standards compliant, very fast, very secure, and (ahem) rather cool. Anything from Norway is cool. Opera is usually the leader with new features, such as tabbed browsing and being able to open or close a tab right from the tab bar. They were the first to offer a blank page start populated with screen shots of your most frequently visited sites. And they were founded by the guy who invented CSS. How smart is he?

Opera’s main business strategy is to provide a browser that operates across devices, platforms and operating systems, and can deliver a faster, more stable and flexible Internet experience than its competitors. Bottom line — make Firefox or Opera your default browser. Anything but IE!

Post from: aNetGain.com

Microsoft IE Flaw in CyberAttack

I can create a sensational ad campaign, but the money will be wasted if the website does not convert visitors to customers. How do you create an effective website that will bring in money instead of wasting of money?

Sell the sizzle. What do you have that your competitors don’t? Why should people buy from you? Put it RIGHT UP FRONT. I teach my Blogging for Business students to use a “sticky post” so that their marketing message always stays right on top.

Make your website easy to find. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is just a fancy way of saying, “make your website easy for search engines to understand.” Your sticky post marketing message is right at the top of the page, in text (not an image) so search engines can see exactly what you are selling. Remember that search engines cannot “see” images, they can see text, so make sure you know the difference.

WordPress makes it easy. Easy for me to say… I have been building websites for years and have been building ad campaigns for LOTS of years. Keep in mind that the Web is still growing and changing every day, and that advertising is a fashion business. WordPress offers lots of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools to jump-start your website.

A blog is the cheapest, fastest way to get good organic page rank on Google. Organic is just a fancy way of saying FREE listing on the left side of the page — the side that people trust. Google likes fresh info, and frequently updated blogs are the kind of content Google likes to favor. So put your blog on the home page! I’ll show you how.

It takes time to work your way up in the page ranking, and it can take years to get to the first page in the organic listings. How do you leapfrog to the first page of Google? All it takes is money. I can get your ad on the first page of Google within a month. Will that make you rich?

Only if your website turns visitors into customers. How much does it cost to get a website like that? It costs less than $100 to take my WordPress Class, and everyone left with a multi-page website. Every single student had a website with a blog, an About Us page and a Contact Us page.

Exciting from the ground up — that’s how the students build their blogs.

The best way for me to help established businesses find new customers through the Web is to:

• Build great advertising
• Send the right prospects to a great website

When they call you, that’s when you make your magic. In this economy, people have more time than money. And websites can look out of date in just a few years because fashion changes so rapidly. WordPress makes it easy to update your website — both in content and in design. Find out more about the Blogging for Business class on Saturday, March 6.

To learn more about WordPress, visit the WordPress Links list I developed for a presentation to the North Bay Internet Society. To find out how to get a WordPress website for your business, contact me.

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Why I Teach WordPress

I first saw Tim Ferriss at WordCamp SF earlier this year.  In response to a question from the audience, he gleefully recounted how he outsourced finding a girlfriend.  I loved his sense of humor and respect for his own time and creativity.  We all know that hit-or-miss dating can be drudgery, and he could not afford the time to go through that, so he created systems and benchmarks and outsourced the work… most hilariously, to French-speaking Philippinas.

Creativity needs large blocks of uninterrupted time; things like designing web pages and coding websites are not activities that fit well with answering phone calls from India offering to list me in the Yellow Pages.  Tim offers concrete ideas on how to train capable people to perform repetitive task so that his creative time is not impinged by increasing maintenance demands.  His systems approach matches tasks to people with the right talents.  His customer response when callers interrupted him while he was coding or writing could be sub-optimal.  Tim shows how to redirect questions skillfully and effectively.

Creativity also needs time away from the grindstone.  When Tim lost some friends and relationships prematurely, he realized the “deferred-life plan” with retirement as the payoff for years of hard work was a cruel trap.  When he imagined his life in fast-forward (he calls it “telescoping”) Tim saw himself on track to become “the fat bald man in the red BMW convertible.”   Determined to unshackle himself from the cliché, and unable to find a book with the recipe to create a lifestyle that allowed maximum creativity, maximum cash-flow and maximum fun, Tim wrote the book himself.

The new, updated version of “The 4-hour Workweek” was just released and is available as an audiobook, a Kindle book or a hardback book.  I recommend it to every business person who needs  a fresh approach to balancing life, work, fun and creativity.

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The Tim Ferriss School of Business

Nick Fox, Google’s Business Product Management Director for AdWords told Barry Schwartz of SearchEngineLand that the policy change is to shut down all advertising on an account, not just the offending campaign. This is a drastic step by Google and may signal that they are getting heat from their search engine users, their customers who are legitimate advertisers, and their lawyers who fear government intervention.

Post from: aNetGain.com

Lifetime Ban from Google

I really wanted a thin client for PowerPoint presentations on the road, but I don’t foresee building websites from a hotel room in Denver. I got an OLPC XO because it was the first one out, but the SUGAR operating system baffled me. Then I got an Asus, but their custom linux wouldn’t update and I sent it back with an RMA number. Then I got an Acer Aspire One (AA1) with Windows XP and an Atom processor and got into the Chrome game.

Google wrote a whole Chrome Book, well, comic-style book that explains the technology effectively. The term “chrome” refers to all the stuff displayed on the screen that ISN’T the web page. You know, like the buttons, the URL, the search box, etc. This is not a problem on the big honkin’ screens I use for web design, but on the teeny-weeny netbook screen, real estate is at a premium. And Google Chrome has the least “chrome,” giving me the most web page for the money. The Google Chrome browser is clearly designed for netbooks.

We all kinda hoped that Android would work great on netbooks but, well, netbooks are not Class 5 switches. As fabulous as Android is, trying to force a lightweight, efficient telecom stack to ALSO work as a personal computer is like… well, trying to make a Formula One racer carry cargo.

Google decided to create Chrome OS as a new project, separate from Android. The Chrome Operating System, running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel, is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. Both Google Chrome OS and Android are linux, and there are areas where they overlap, but Google funded the Chrome OS project separately because they believe it will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

Google is working with several netbook manufacturers using both x86 as well as ARM chips, with an eye to providing software for computers that will do their computing in “the cloud.” That is, use the lightweight netbooks to access programs that live on Google’s servers and using Google Docs and similar services to create business documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

A friend recently asked me which netbook to buy and I suggested that if she can wait a few months, she can get a dual-boot system that will offer EITHER Windows or Chrome OS in the same machine. That would give her maximum flexibility to create documents when she is on the road. Her work would live BOTH on her machine and in her Google Docs account or elsewhere on line, giving her an automatic backup system. I think this is the wave of the future. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts in a comment…

Post from: aNetGain.com

Chrome Browser or Operating System?

They knew that Madeline and Patrick Wallen’s wine cellar business jumped dramatically when aNetGain.com upgraded their website to make it easy to find on Google. As much as Madeline and Patrick wanted to share their good fortune with Millsap Degnan, search engines can’t see anything on the Millsap website because the entire website is in Flash. A 100% Flash website is like a movie on videotape. You know how if you hold up film to the light you can see something, but if you hold videotape up to the light you can’t see anything?

The Flash pages are images, not HTML web pages. I suggested Madeline check this out for herself by trying to highlight the “text” in their website as if cutting and pasting. You can’t. If you try it with ArtisticCellars.com you see it is regular text that can be read by search engines.

Search engines can’t see images, they can only see text. Madeline and Patrick’s old website didn’t have much text. It had a lot of pictures but… search engines can’t see images, so the page rank was poor.

The magic I worked for that website was to create new HTML pages with text where the search engines could find them easily, and to create navigation so search engines could see the old HTML pages already existed on the website.

The strategic challenge is making the choice between the luxurious, expensive Flash portfolio, and a construction website that is search-engine friendly, like McDevitt & McDevitt.

Flash elements in an HTML website can be excellent. If the objective of a business website is to be found by prospective customers, then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial. A well-designed business website should appeal to both humans and machines (search engines). One hundred percent Flash websites look good only to humans, but attractive, informative Flash elements in a professional website give a polished appearance. Here is one we did for OmniFlo, Inc., for an innovative dialysis machine. Here is another for Cooling Tower Resources, Inc. which successfully increased the per-order revenue by informing customers of the range of products offered.

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How to Waste Thousands on Flash

See the list of new websites at anetgain.wordpress.com

Post from: aNetGain.com

WordPress Business Blogging Class