MarketingSherpa’s 2008 Online Advertising Handbook & Benchmarks
Let's assume you spend $50,000 per year on ALL of your online advertising. What if you could spend just 1% of that budget and potentially increase the visibility, clickability, and conversions of all your online ads? Enter MarketingSherpa's 2008 Online Advertising Handbook & Benchmarks. (affiliate) I've just finished reading this great guide from MarketingSherpa and it's a valuable companion to The Landing Page Handbook we reviewed back in January The handbook's 200+ pages are packed with a wide selection of industry stats, best practices, and tactical information to help increase the effectiveness of your online advertising. Here's an outline of the handbook's chapters: I know what you're thinking. You're thinking this post was just put together without anyone actually reading the guide. Well, while you were stuck in traffic this holiday weekend, I sat down and read it, cover-to-cover. Here are some of the handbook's lessons that jumped out at me. Industry statistics Ad strategies Ad tactics It's not all stats and strategies, the 2008 Online Advertising Handbook also includes in-depth advice on how best to design, source, and place your ads. Even if your annual ad budget is just $5,000 you might want to consider the handbook anyway–you probably need to squeeze every penny out of your budget. If you're spending $500K or $5m, then you definitely need to buy this guide. And, with MarketingShepa offering a 100% satisfaction guarantee, you can't go wrong! What's next from MarketingSherpa? I can't wait to get my hands on the 2009 Business Technlogy Marketing Benchmark Guide! ** Earn 35% commission on all payments, when you become a Trackur.com affiliate! **
How much do you spend on online advertising each year? $5,000? $50,000? $500,000? Or perhaps $5 million?
How to Do it As an Internet Marketer
by Nathalie Fiset Why blogging? As a novice in internet marketing, you might want to use several tools in building your internet home-based business. To start off, blogging is a great way to earn money. It’s considered as one of the most popular ways in which you can increase traffic in your website. A blog is simple to create and maintain. Another advantage of blogging is that it allows your visitors to add their comments, so that gains you something that may help you develop your blog that most people would enjoy reading and find your articles helpful. Furthermore, there are still a lot of ways in which you use your blog to earn more money. Writing keyword-rich articles A blog is useless without content. To get the most out of your content, writing and posting keyword-rich articles is the best way to do it. Because you are an internet marketer, you can provide readers helpful information about what your business is all about or you may affiliate programs to all your readers, subscribers, and customers. This method gains you position as an expert in that certain area. What is more, these keyword-rich articles help increase your ranking among search engines and provide you the opportunity of increasing traffic to you site. By using heavy keywords, make sure that readers who search keywords in any search engine will immediately find your articles. Adding a batch of fresh articles on regular basis also helps in expanding your internet marketing business. Adding affiliate links Another way of improving your rank in search engines is to include affiliate links on your blog. If your blog contains useful, unique, and original articles, it will definitely be linked to by other people’s blogs. More links would mean more exposure to more people. Using Google AdSense Google AdSense is another way of expanding your online profits in your blog. After you registered for a Google AdSense account, you will immediately notice the appearance of advertisements on your site. When any of the readers click any of them, you earn a small commission. Despite the amount you could only get out of doing Google AdSense, it’s basically one way of increasing profits in your business. Promoting your products, services and affiliate programs Through your blog, you can also promote your products, services and/or affiliate programs. With blogging, you get to be in full control of introducing what you offer to your customers and prospects in a way that they will be interested to try. Because blogging allows people to post their comments on your blog, their interest in what you offer may also attract more prospects upon trying any of what you are offering or selling. The regular interaction between you and the prospects and customers will also increase the traffic of your site. Lastly, more sales will be generated assuming that those prospects who make enquiries about the products and services you offer are purchased and tried. Through your blog, promoting your affiliate programs is another way of earning additional online income. You may post keyword-rich articles about your affiliate programs, write reviews on the different affiliate products you are marketing, and of course, you can add more affiliate links. When your readers find your articles useful, they will be inclined to click on the affiliate links you posted, thereby, generating more sales. With all the things you could do on your blog, do try to remember that you use blogging to drive traffic to your website. Regular increase in traffic means more sales to be generated and a chance to greatly succeed on your internet marketing business.
A successful internet marketer knows precisely the techniques of marketing anything available on the Internet. From teleseminars to niche websites to outsourcing, you name all these techniques and an internet marketer would definitely tell you that he/she has been using or previously used them. Internet marketers are generally dubbed as the elites of the world of Internet. True, there are a lot of people who wish to be internet marketers but didn’t have the right skills to become one. If you would like to become an internet marketer, basically you need to learn how internet marketing works and know what are the available ways you can apply to earn a decent income.
Sprint Nextel to form $14.55B wireless company - Clearwire
By DAVID TWIDDY,
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have resurrected their plan to offer high-speed mobile Internet service with the help of some deep-pocketed supporters.
The two companies announced Wednesday they will combine their wireless broadband units to create a $14.55 billion communications company, to be called Clearwire, that will continue developing a mobile network based on WiMax technology.
WiMax is similar to the WiFi service found in coffee shops, airports and many homes but more powerful — and able to cover whole cities, in some cases. It promises faster speeds than the latest cellular networks for movies, games and other data services.
"The agreement enables us to get to market faster and reach a broader audience than we could have if we went alone," Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel's chief executive officer, told analysts during a conference call Wednesday.
A similar partnership fell through last November. This time, however, the duo is getting help from a group of outside investors, including Intel Corp., Google Inc., Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks, who will kick in $3.2 billion for the new company.
Clearwire will also receive an investment from Trilogy Equity Partners, led by U.S. wireless industry veteran John Stanton.
Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint Nextel will be majority owner with a 51 percent equity stake. Existing shareholders in Clearwire Corp., a Kirkland, Wash.-based startup founded by cellular pioneer Craig McCaw, will receive a combined stake of about 27 percent. And the investment group will have a 22 percent stake.
Wall Street's reaction was mixed Wednesday, grateful that Sprint Nextel Corp. will be able to focus on its struggling wireless service but worried the deal may have too many moving parts to be successful.
"If new Clearwire manages to avoid the massive channel conflicts it will have with its strategic partners and executes well — both big challenges — it has the potential to create significant competition for incumbent wireless and wireline providers," Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Tim Horan wrote in a research note. "However, it is not entirely clear that this is their strategy."
Shares for Clearwire and Sprint initially surged on the news Wednesday, but Clearwire stock ended down 24 cents at $16.22 while Sprint's fell 3 cents to $9.16.
The new company plans to make its service available to 120 million to 140 million people in the U.S. by the end of 2010, although company officials acknowledged they'll need to raise or borrow up to $2.3 billion more to make that happen. Alternatively, they said they could shrink the size of the network.
For Sprint, which began testing WiMax earlier this year in three markets, the deal eliminates an operational distraction and allows management to return to salvaging its troubled wireless business. It also could quiet critics who consider WiMax experimental and expensive — one estimate had Sprint paying more than $5 billion to rollout the service.
Clearwire already has 400,000 subscribers for its WiMax-like technology. It gets new capital, infrastructure and broadband spectrum out of the deal, plus further validation of its technology.
"We strongly believe that the new Clearwire will be in the best position to succeed in the 4G race," said Clearwire Chief Executive Benjamin Wolff, who will also lead the new company.
Clearwire will sell WiMax services back to Sprint and the cable partners through a "mobile virtual network operator," or MVNO, business model. The cable companies and Clearwire will also receive current-generation wireless service, called 3G, from Sprint Nextel through a separate agreement.
Cable companies Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House want to bundle wireless services with their regular services to slow customer defections to telephone companies that are now offering video services.
A similar partnership of five cable companies and Sprint, called Pivot, collapsed earlier this year. But Hesse said the Clearwire model would do better as it gives the cable partners greater control over branding and rolling out services to the market.
Intel will be able to sell WiMax-enabled computer chips for a wide range of consumer products while Google will help develop future software applications.
Rivals such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless have eschewed WiMax, opting instead for upgrades to their current wireless broadband networks and for a future technology called Long Term Evolution. But Hesse said WiMax is available now and should give the new company a two-year head start in the so-called "fourth-generation," or 4G, telecommunications market.
Analysts with Deutsche Bank Securities were skeptical, however, warning that while Clearwire's network would be an option for up to 140 million people by 2010, its competitors already reach 230 million potential subscribers.
The deal, which has been approved by the boards of all companies involved, must be approved by Clearwire shareholders and regulatory agencies, but is expected to close during the fourth quarter. The company will apply for a Nasdaq listing under the ticker "CLWR" — the current symbol for Clearwire.
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Associated Press Business Writer Michelle Chapman in New York contributed to this story.
Google looking golden again after challenging stretch
SAN FRANCISCO - It's hard to believe Google Inc. actually looked vulnerable just two months ago. The Internet search leader's stock had plummeted 45 percent from its peak. And its two biggest rivals, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., appeared poised to combine forces and launch a double-barreled attack.
But on the eve of Google's annual shareholders meeting Thursday, the company looks stronger than ever. Its stock is hot again and Microsoft has scrapped its plans to buy Yahoo, with Google playing the spoiler's role.
"Google is winning again. What a surprise," said Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis. "If you want to invest in the Internet space, where else do you want to be but Google?"
More investors have been coming to that conclusion since last month, when Google's stellar first-quarter results cast aside concerns that the drooping U.S. economy would depress the online advertising spending that generates most of the company's profit.
Google shares have surged 29 percent since the first-quarter report, regaining a little more than half of the $100 billion in shareholder wealth that evaporated as the stock plunged from an all-time high of $747 last November to a 52-week low of $412 in mid-March. The shares finished Wednesday at $579, down $7.36.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and Yahoo are again trying to figure out how to lessen Google's dominance of Internet search and advertising.
Microsoft hoped to throw Google for a loop by buying Yahoo for $47.5 billion. Unnerved by the threat, Google worked behind the scenes with Yahoo to thwart Microsoft's unsolicited takeover attempt.
The counterattack now has Yahoo considering a deal that would allow Google to sell some of the ads displayed alongside the search results on Yahoo's Web site. The alliance, which has already been tested in a two-week trial, will likely hinge on whether the two companies can persuade antitrust regulators the partnership wouldn't undermine competition in the ad market.
Even if a Google-Yahoo pact isn't consummated, the threat of it helped drive Microsoft away from Yahoo for now. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer cited Yahoo's negotiations with Google as one of the major reasons why the Redmond, Wash.-based company decided to abandon its takeover attempt.
Yahoo is considering the Google deal because it believes its rival's superior ad-serving technology will boost its profits. But by acknowledging the shortcomings of its own ad system, Yahoo could end up driving even more business to Google even if their partnership doesn't pan out.
"Google is still in the driver's seat either way," said analyst Martin Pyykkonen of Global Crown Capital.
Perhaps Google's only glaring weakness is its dependence on those ubiquitous ad links that appear alongside search results and other content on thousands of Web sites. They have generated virtually all of the $42 billion in revenue that has poured into the company's coffers since 2003, even though Google has invested billions to build software applications for businesses and an array of other products.
Google wants to sell more visual advertising through its two biggest acquisitions — video-sharing site YouTube and DoubleClick, which specializes in the Internet's equivalent of billboards.
The DoubleClick deal, completed for $3.2 billion in March, represents the first time that Google will have to absorb hundreds of new employees into its work force. The acquisition also prompted Google to make the first mass layoffs in its nearly 10-year history. At least 300 of DoubleClick's 1,500 workers are expected to lose their jobs, and the number could rise in the months ahead.
Google also has been losing some of its top talent to rising Internet star Facebook Inc., which runs an online hangout with about 70 million users worldwide.
Sheryl Sandberg, formerly Google's vice president of global online sales, became Facebook's chief operating officer in March. This week Elliot Schrage, Google's head of communications, announced he is taking a similar job at Facebook. Google also has seen a couple of top engineers move to Facebook.
But Google's challenges are outweighed by its opportunities.
Besides developing more ad avenues on the Internet, Google is extending its reach into television, radio and mobile phones. In its latest push into the mobile market, Google on Wednesday disclosed a $400 million investment into a new high-speed network being developed by Clearwire and Sprint Nextel.
Google's success and bold ambitions figure to make its shareholder event a congenial affair, much like the three previous meetings that the Mountain View-based company has held since going public in August 2004.
Meanwhile, Yahoo is girding for what's likely to be the most contentious meeting in its 12-year history as public company. The meeting, scheduled July 3, will provide a forum for Yahoo's angry shareholders to excoriate — and possibly oust — the company's board for its handling of the Microsoft bid.
"If I were an executive," Pyykkonen said, "I would much rather be presenting at Google's annual meeting than Yahoo's meeting."
