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May 28, 2009

PR Case Study: Gawker Plays the Ad Press Like a Fiddle

There's paid media, there's earned media, and there's burned media. A controversial HBO campaign now running on Gawker Media sites somehow wrangled all three.

Here's what happened in case you missed it: Gawker executed a custom sponsorship for the HBO series True Blood that involved a phony vampire blog that was passed off as a newly acquired site in the Gawker portfolio. That sleight of hand pulled the wool over the not-very-discerning eyes of New York tech blog Business Insider. ClickZ avoided initial coverage in part because it's unseemly to dwell on the embarrassing mistakes of another publisher -- hey, everyone's entitled to a mistake -- and in part because it's a somewhat ham-fisted execution on Gawker's part.

But the ensuing coverage -- by Mediapost, Adweek, AgencySpy and others -- have transformed it into a case study on the PR potential of micro-scandals. And Gawker has shown repeatedly that it can milk such scandals for all they're worth. (Update: per Brian's comment below, I should say Adweek ran a straight story relative to the many others who led with the scandal.)

To fill in the details, in recent weeks HBO and Gawker laid the groundwork for a supposedly vampire-written blog called BloodCopy. The site was unveiled over the weekend and presented jokingly as a recently acquired member of the Gawker family. Gawker provided the architecture and wrote the blog, which has been syndicated to other Gawker sites in the form of sponsored posts. At first, these were not always clearly labeled as ads. Campfire was the creative agency behind the campaign.

Two days after BI ran its straight-faced story on the vampire site, Gawker editor Gabriel Snyder objected, writing, "Gawker Media has been taken to the media criticism woodshed over this one. What's advertising should be called advertising and what's edit should be called edit. It hurts both to blur the distinction." Gladly he noted an earlier post trumpeting the "acquisition" of BloodCopy had been deleted.

However Snyder's victory rang hollow when BloodCopy's supposedly objectionable post was later reinstated -- proving who really wears the pants in the Gawker family (VP Sales Chris Batty). As the week wore on a number of trade rags weighed in, generating valuable publicity for Gawker -- never mind HBO.

Reactions from Gawker's management were mixed. Nick Denton issued an ambiguous mea culpa, retweeting media writer Rachel Sklar's comment, "The news is that Gawker Ad leveraged (+ undermined the credibility of) Gawker Editorial to promote an ad campaign."

Meanwhile Chris Batty defended the strategy, telling the Nieman Journalism Lab, "If we're around in three or four years, the majority of our advertising revenue will be in sponsored posts like this."

Hyperbole or not, Batty's message to advertisers -- undeniably favorable to Gawker's sales efforts -- is this: We'll go the extra mile for you, editorial priggishness be damned. And if we cross a line with our readers, we'll back off.

And what's wrong with that, really? It's certainly worked for Gawker in the past. Recall that in 2007 Gawker sold a site takeover to Evian, which plastered the whole site in pink. Editor Choire Sicha complained then too, and Denton apologized.

Does Gawker engineer these little outrages? I don't think so. Does it cultivate them? You decide.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

October 17, 2008

Digital Remainders: Viral Videos, YouTube Search Ads, Huge Spam Ring Busted

It’s been a busy week in digital marketing land. In addition to the big stories we've covered, here are a few you may have missed:

Agencies dote on their viral videos, but can't agree on metrics. Seventy percent of agency execs plan to increase budgets for viral, according to a survey conducted by Feed Company. But about equal numbers said their videos were a success if viewed 100,000 times, 250,000 times or 500,000 times. For those who doubt those budget increases, remember that in the scope of a large media buy, these projects cost peanuts.

YouTube is experimenting with sponsored placements in its search results. However marketers should be wary of assertions that the site operates the "second largest" search presence, ahead of Yahoo, as has been reported. Truth is, many of those queries are better thought of as navigation than search.

World's largest spam ring busted. A network of unsolicited e-mailers peddling prescription drugs and "herbal male-enhancement" remedies was the biggest in the world, according to Spamhaus. The FTC coordinated with New Zealand authorities on the crackdown.

Blog search pioneer Technorati bought an ad network. AdEngage, a network for independent sites, will be combined with Technorati's four-month-old media network. The idea is to develop a self-serve ad network spanning blogs and other social media sites. The platform now exists only in "private alpha" mode.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 19, 2008

Taking Offline, Online Marketing on the Road

Lori Raimondo, VP of marketing for New York City's Times Square Alliance, will make a cross-country road trip to promote a cause.

This weekend, I ran into Lori in a San Francisco restaurant a day or two before she was about to begin the Key to the Cure Road Trip, an initiative sponsored by Saks Fifth Avenue to fight women's cancers. She'll be driving in style, too, traveling in a white Mercedes-Benz.

In a blog, Lori will chronicle her trip and write inspirational profiles of the cancer survivors she meets. The journey includes in-person visits in 10 cities, such as Chicago and Atlanta, where Saks Fifth Avenue has stores.

After her mother died of breast cancer two years ago, Lori took a similar trip -- traveling from her parents' home in San Diego to New York City -- to raise money for breast cancer awareness.

In the Key to the Cure, Saks Fifth Avenue will donate a percentage of sales from a weekend to local and national women's cancer centers. Plus, Karl Lagerfeld designed a shirt with the campaign's logo, as seen in this image.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 30, 2008

Paper Tells Its Story Online

Miamisburg, Ohio-based paper supplier NewPage wants paper buyers to think locally, and has set up a simple Web site to get them to do so. The destination, at Paper Tells a Story, will use a blog, whitepapers and other tools to argue that paper produced in Asia carries environmental risks.

Rick Willett, president and COO of NewPage, put it this way in a statement:

…The goal of the 'Story' campaign is to get people thinking about the journey of a single sheet of paper, where the journey begins, and the sustainability and environmental practices of its manufacturer. We feel it's the responsibility of NewPage to dramatically raise awareness of the potential hidden risks associated with some Asian imports.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 22, 2008

FM Green Lights a Green Network

Federated Media has set up a new mini-network in the green publishing category. Its new Green Federation launches with four sites (Inhabitat.com, Giga Omni Media earth2tech.com, Next New Media's ViroPOP.com and GM-VOLT.com), with subjects ranging from design to green tech to video. Ads on those properties today are mostly generic display executions for consumer and telco brands. FM's mission will be to bring environmentally-themed advertisers and products into the fold.

The below chart from Compete shouldn't be considered highly accurate, but it may give a rough indication of audience size at FM's top three green sites. Below that is a chart showing FM's top Green Federation site, Inhabitat.com, compared to category leader TreeHugger.com, which is owned by Discovery Communications.

Other FM Federations include Technology, Business & Marketing, Media & Entertainment, Video Gaming. Recently it entered a partnership with BabyCenter to co-sell inventory on a Parenting network.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 7, 2008

Quote of the Day: Jeff Lanctot

"The most effective agencies must live squarely at the intersection of marketing and technology. They should be sprinting to that intersection. Not just digital agencies, but all agencies. As all media becomes digital, any agency that doesn’t view itself as a technology company should commence reflecting fondly on the good ol’ days. The road ahead is likely to be significantly less fulfilling."

-Jeff Lanctot, SVP of Avenue A | Razorfish Media, writing in his blog.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 30, 2008

A New Journey for Gawker Travel Blog

Curbed Network, an urban real estate blog,
takes possession of Gawker Media's Gridskipper travel blog tomorrow.

On the phone with Curbed president Lockhart Steele today, he mentioned Gridskipper will go into "quasi-hibernation" until it relaunches before Memorial Day. (Steele is Gawker's former managing editor, while Gawker's Nick Denton has a stake in Curbed.)

Count on Gridskipper, billed as "the urban travel guide," to pare back its coverage of smaller cities such as Austin, TX. "I have nothing at all against Austin," Steele said. But while he was at Gawker, Gridskipper had focused on the "best stuff from the most important cities."

Last month, Gawker Media shed three of its 15 titles including Gridskipper, Wonkette, and Idolator. Wonkette was sold to Buzznet, while Wonkette was spun off to its managing editor.

Challenge is, can each of these site's new owners do a better job at attracting revenue and readers than Gawker?

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Twitter, Tiny but Tweeting Away

This in from Hitwise: Twitter, a social network/micro-blog, has seen traffic climb 60 percent over the past month.

Hitwise puts Twitter's size into perspective. Even with all its growth and buzz, Twitter's still tiny. Hitwise stats show Twitter is No. 439 among all social networks and forums, and No. 4309 among all categories of Web sites.

Still, Twitter's potential impact on brands should not be overlooked as Pete Blackshaw points out in his ClickZ column, "Customer Service Meets 'Lord of the Twitters' ".

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 27, 2008

The Top 25 Most Valuable Blogs

24/7 Wall St., a Web site that publishes financial news, took at stab at identifying the 25 most valuable blogs.

Defining value, of course, is not an easy proposition when examining private businesses. While putting a value on each blog, 24/7 built its estimates on several factors, including page views, ad revenues, and operating expenses. Keep in mind, estimating ad revenue can be dicey depending on how advertising deals, including sponsorships and graphic ads, are negotiated.

Hacking away appears to be paying off for Nick Denton. His Gawker properties, including Gawker, ValleyWag, and Gizmodo, topped 24/7 Wall St.'s list. Valued at $150 million, the Gawker blogs bring in an estimated $11 million in annual revenue and growing. That estimate assumes Gawker has 30 million unique visitors, these visitors view 1.5 page views each month, and the sites collect on average a per page CPM value of $20, according to 24/7 Wall St.

Rounding up the top five: MacRumors, Huffington Post, PerezHilton, and TechCrunch.

24/7, which examined unique visitors and page views, said its analysis is based on the estimated advertising revenue as well as income from related businesses such as conferences. The analysis omitted some blogs such as those affiliated with larger media companies because it's tough to break out traffic.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 14, 2008

Best Buy Targeted by Lawsuit, Blog Wrath

Hell hath no fury like a blog launched against your brand -- particularly when it merits major media coverage.

That's what big box electronics retailer Best Buy is learning. Raelyn Campbell is enraged the store lost her laptop after she'd brought it in for repairs. She's suing Best Buy for $54 million for exposing her to identity theft after months of getting the runaround regarding her computer's whereabouts.

Campbell is venting her rage -- and detailing her version of the story -- in her Best Buy vs. Consumer Protection Blog.

Hello, long tail. No matter which way the lawsuit goes, it's going to live on in search results for a long, long, long time.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

January 17, 2008

Target to Blogger: Shoot the Messenger?

Target, on its Web site, says its values include: "Connecting business and community, affordability and great design."

The retailer's definition of community, however, doesn't include bloggers, such as the one who writes about (negative) marketing and media influences on youth.

Amy Jussel, founder of the online forum Shaping Youth, took aim, so to speak, at a Target billboard in New York's Times Square. The image shows a woman with splayed arms and legs, lying on a red and white bullseye.

Jussel, on her blog, said she contacted Target's corporate office for an explanation.

Target's response? "We are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets. This practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest," Jussel related on her blog.

Shaping Youth may be a non-traditional media outlet, but it has demonstrated the power of one person's words now that the conflict has gotten the attention of Gawker.com and other sites.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 9, 2008

Gawker Media's Experiment in Ad Network Abstinence

Gawker Media may be known for slinging mud and dishing dirt, but the publisher keeps a clean nose with the ads it allows on its 15 blogs.

Last week I was poking around IO9.com, Gawker's just-launched sci-fi blog, and noticed a bunch of non-ads had usurped the site's traditional banner placements. These were arty-looking photographs labeled simply "Gawker Artists." Click through and you get a long list of Gawker-published artists and their works. Very unGawkerlike.

Curious, I pinged Gawker sales honcho Chris Batty, who told me the program began when the company decided to throw off ad networks a while back.

"Due to these inefficiencies in the internet spot market, we had a fair amount of inventory that went unfilled," Batty wrote back. "I thought that giving the promotional space away to artists would be a nice thing for artists (and for readers) and that's just what we've been doing since."

Batty said Gawker makes no revenue directly from the program, but added, "We feel there absolutely is value in not wasting our readers' attention on cheap, ugly advertisements... and maybe some good karma too."

Not only that, but I wouldn't be surprised if Gawker eventually sees an additional benefit by re-sensitizing jaded readers to some of the ad space on its properties.

More recently Batty set up an exhibitor program where other sites can display galleries showing the work of Gawker artists. Batty said most exhibitors are small-time site operators who want to support artists while prettying up their sites a bit.

But he added, "I would welcome other high quality publishers' participation in the program for the purpose of better engaging their readers, helping artists and maybe even themselves in the process -- by draining the network swamp and getting hard to work on creating online marketing experiences valuable enough to cover the cost of original content creation."

Have you or any publishers you know overthrown network ads, partially or entirely? If so, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 3, 2007

Was Ad Shyness a Factor in Six Apart Sale of LiveJournal?

Six Apart has sold blogging and community platform LiveJournal to SUP, a Russian concern that already runs LiveJournal's Russian version and has several online ad-related businesses, including an agency and an ad network.

Let's hope for SUP's sake the company's comfort with digital marketing won't alienate LJ's largely anti-advertising user base.

Six Apart acquired LiveJournal in 2005, only to discover many of its users don't really dig on the whole monetization thing. Partly to cope with that reality, the company tried making its marketing incursions more oblique, offering ad-free paid accounts and sponsored communities. Its first such effort promoted the Michel Gondry flick Science of Sleep.

The official line from Six Apart is that it wants to focus on its in-house products, including MovableType, TypePad and Vox, and that may well be the case. But I wouldn't be surprised if the ad sensitivity of those millions of users was a factor as well. SUP opened a San Francisco presence to run its new U.S.-based holding, and announced it will set up a user advisory board "to oversee the community’s interests." So the company appears well aware of the touchiness of its new blogging constituents and eager to put anxious minds at ease.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 6, 2007

Try New Movable Type 4, Now With 30 Percent Less Brand Control!

Business and brand bloggers, are you fed up with RUN OF THE MILL transparency? Champing at the bit to surrender EVEN MORE CONTROL of your brand to your EVER MORE Empowered customers? Then surf (don't direct navigate!) directly to SixApart's Web site and download the new and improved Movable Type 4 (Beta) today! The new version of the MT blogging platform has a bunch of 2.0 features bound to set your conversational marketing dendrites all a-tingle, including:

The ability to grant readers "member status" on the site! (No more you versus them, it's all US now!)

The chance to let your audience post about your brand, right alongside your so-called official bloggers!

Act today and get an "optional functionality pack" with further community features scheduled for release later this year!

Remember, transparency is like alcohol. You build up a tolerance over time. To get that same buzz, you must let your consumers say EVER MORE SCARY things about your products and services with an ever-larger megaphone. Why wait? Install today! (link)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 11, 2007

Blind Item Guessing Game

Question: Which small ad network with wide reach among blogs is rumored to have been acquired by Google in recent weeks? ClickZ has heard from a reliable source that the companies completed the deal around the time of Google's pact to buy DoubleClick, but delayed announcing it because of widespread alarm about the data ownership implications of that monster deal. Since this match-up raises some similar questions, they're reportedly waiting for the GoogleClick buzz to die down before announcing it.

Post your guesses in the comments or e-mail them in.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Participate in the Blog Reader Project

The Blog Reader Project is conducting a survey of blog readership, media consumption and demographics of visitors participating blogs. ClickZ is participating and would like you, our readers, to please take our blog reader survey!

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 4, 2007

Does New ReviewMe Model Cheapen Original Intent?

When ReviewMe came on board last year, the blog review service aimed to appeal to high-traffic and perhaps higher-minded bloggers, the types who were panning competitor PayPerPost for not requiring disclosure of ad relationships by bloggers. At launch, ReviewMe allowed advertisers to choose which bloggers they wanted to post reviews of their goods and services. Once they settled on a wish list, ReviewMe would put the call out to the chosen bloggers, who had 48 hours to accept or reject the offer and another 48 hours to post a review of at least 200 words. Minimum charge per post was $40.

The company continues to offer that original service; however, it just unveiled a new option allowing advertisers to create a campaign opportunity and let any blogger in the system agree to write a review. Those reviews start at $10. This system is a lot closer to PayPerPost's.

It's an interesting turn, considering ReviewMe's original offering aims to raise the value of the blog review service and the blogger himself in the eyes of the advertiser. In part because it will let in bloggers who might not have been worthy of using ReviewMe before, I'd expect some may argue the new model somewhat cheapens the original promise. Still, the decision was most likely necessary for ReviewMe to grow its business.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 25, 2007

Technorati Thinking Widget-Driven Blog Ads?

Technorati already offers bloggers an array of widgets. They mostly are blog-content related, such as listing top searches, link counts, and tags. Now, the company seems to be considering introducing widgets that display ads.

Or so you'd gather from a survey I just received (as a consumer -- not a journalist) from Technorati.

Coincidentally, I had a long chat last night with Technorati co-founder Peter Hirschberg. He didn't breathe a word about anything widget-related.

Is the project still hush-hush? Peter did indicate new products and initiatives are in the pipeline, and has promised he'll be ready to discuss at least some of them at our Advertising in Social Media event on May 24.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 8, 2007

PayPerPost to Serve Eggs at Big Conference

Much to the dismay of blogging purists everywhere, one of the most well-known and respected bloggers around, Robert Scoble of Scobleizer fame will be keynoting an event hosted by none other than PayPerPost. If the world does not come to an end before June 1, the two-day conference, deemed "PostieCon '07," will feature presentations, group discussions and networking opportunities galore.

The theme of the Orlando event is "You're a Rock Star," referencing PayPerPost's promotional Web "reality show" (which I was filmed for actually, and never checked to see if I made the cut). Apparently, according to the conference site, the intention is to "emphasize the goal of helping bloggers create better, more well-known and more profitable web sites."

Man, isn't it bad enough chicks like Britney Spears wear shirts that say, "Rock Star" on 'em? Now everybody with a blog who gets paid to write about advertisers is one? Hendrix is in great company….

It'll be interesting to hear what Scoble says during his keynote. Ya never know what he might say. But, if his presence ain't enough to get you out to the land of Disney, surely the fact that attendees will be provided "Breakfast (with eggs)" oughtta do it.

I wouldn't be surprised if they're sponsored, too.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 7, 2007

Ads on Coulter's Blog Spawn Anti-Brand Ire

Ann Coulter's blog was down for hours and hours today, likely the result of an attack. Calling presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot" didn't go down too terribly well in many circles. Newspapers have dropped her column like a hot potato, and advertisers, including Verizon, Sallie Mae, and NetBank, hastened to abandon her blog.

Yet network ads are still running on her site. Once I finally reached it today (after trying intermittently for seven hours), Commission Junction was serving ads for major brands including Yahoo, Circuit City, and USA Today.

This sort of negative brand association will doubtless spawn discussion of the dangers of advertising on blogs and other forms of CGM. But Coulter, like her or not (if you're capable of pushing her contemptible comment aside for a moment), is a big gun.

Agency media buyers and ad networks work hard to further their clients' goals, but this sort of thing can, and obviously does, happen -- and no one can anticipate it. Advertisers really can't opt-out of sites like this one before the fact.

But what contingency plans are in place to prevent incidents like this one from occurring, or at least to stem the damage once something like this happens? A reader wrote in today, "Does Yahoo support extremist political messages like this? Is Yahoo prejudiced against gays?"

It's time ad networks developed a crisis-management plan, but defining the parameters won't be easy. Should they automatically pull ads from sites that generate too much negative controversy? Reach out to advertisers (or their agencies) offering an opt-out? After all, advertisers re likely unaware they're even associated with sites espousing high-profile, incendiary hate.

Definitely food for thought, although even on that topic Coulter and I differ, as usual. When I finally hit her homepage today, the headline (dated Feb. 28) was "LET THEM EAT TOFU!"

How on earth did she know what I was having for lunch at that precise moment?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 22, 2007

Bloglines Founder Launches B2B Resource for Smallest Start-ups

Mark Fletcher, who founded Bloglines, the preferred feed reader of four out of five ClickZ reporters, has launched an online resource for start-ups and the entrepreneurs behind them. No ads yet, but Startupping.com would appear to hit a sweet spot for B2B marketers, judging from a recent Jupiter Research finding that owners of the tiniest businesses are extremely heavy Web users.

The site has forums, blogs, a wiki-driven start-up guide and special features, such as a "best decision/worst mistake" feature on the homepage right now with commentary from notorious Web entrepreneurs.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 31, 2007

Do Blogs Mix with Mass?

Last week it was Time Warner staffers. This week, it's blogs getting the AOL axe .

AdJab just e-mailed friends with a last goodbye. A slew of the Weblogs Inc. properties AOL acquired from Jason Calacanis in October 2005 are already, or rumored to be soon, on the chopping block. Calacanis even issued a plea, of sorts (complete with a stats chart), to save PVRWire.

Jason's gone from AOL, just as competitor Nick Denton, recently let his Gawker Media syndication partnership with Yahoo lapse barely seven months into the deal.

Ultra vertical content and mass media -- not such cosy bedfellows, it would appear.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 2, 2007

Two Years After Launching Brand Blogs, Vespa Forgets Them

Nearly two years ago, Vespa parent Piaggo USA and its PR firm CooperKatz began recruiting writers for two blogs singing the praises of its scooters. One was conceived as an "urban lifestyle" blog, the other was about "life's journey."

Today, both sites have been abandoned. The last of their remaining writers, Crystal Waters of Vespaway, walked away from the project in November. Her final post offers a simple apology to the community, along with an explanation that the company failed to respond to several of her queries about the site's future.

The amazing thing here is Waters' clear concern for her audience, a concern Vespa, which initiated the project, apparently doesn't share. Meanwhile, the company is still promoting the blogs on its site. Yikes.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 18, 2006

Time's POTY: What "You" Means for You

Hey, congratulations. Time Magazine just made you Person of the Year. That's "you" the video blogger, "you" the open source programmer, and yes, "you" the digital marketer.

Some have derided Time's treatment as condescending. Many media and tech bloggers seemed to take a certain arch pleasure in it. For seasoned interactive marketers it just reaffirms what's been patently obvious since 2002 or thereabouts: that amateur, enthusiast and community driven media badly need to be figured out.

The answer so far has essentially been to sell all CGM as remnant inventory, through ad networks, with a few premium placements on the side for "featured" and filtered amateur content. That's not good enough. Marketers and site owners should take this mainstream moment for citizen's media as a mandate to redouble their efforts to make the ad experience around CGM work well, for content creators, their audiences and advertisers alike.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 13, 2006

Sony Flogs Itself

Another day, another fake blog. This one's from Sony, for the PSP, and it's god-awful. Zipatoni is reportedly the agency behind the putrescent site, which calls itself "All I want for xmas is a PSP." After taking a persistent reaming in the comments the blog's creators posted a mea culpa of sorts, and an oddly flippant one at that:

Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn't a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP. - Sony Computer Entertainment America

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BlogKits Launches: A Blogger-Only Affiliate Network

Jim Kukral and Forge Corporation have officially launched BlogKits, an affiliate network targeted specifically to bloggers. BlogKits is positioning itself as an AdSense alternative (See its AdSense Challenge) for sites delivering under 100 uniques a day. The bet is that these little guys will do better with a cost-per-action model than by joining a big contextual ad network. Blogs have certainly proven great affiliate partners for many retailers (Audible's relationship with ipodlounge.com is a textbook example), but I'm a little skeptical this can scale. Those with loyal niche audiences will likely see benefit. Those without? Well, time will tell.

In any case, it's certainly worth keeping an eye on, as Jim is an influential voice in the affiliate space and the number of ad networks defining themselves in contrast to AdSense just keeps on growing.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 14, 2006

Nick Denton Finds a New Nemesis

Nick Denton understands better than anyone the traffic value of a little nasty. So it's good news for Gawker Media's site stats, as well as for the tech industry's gossip mongers, that he's returned to the keyboard – this time to helm Silcon Valley gossip rag ValleyWag.

His first assault is on John Battelle's FM Publishing. Denton says Fark.com, pioneering news and humor aggregator, has bailed on the branded network in favor of a sweeter deal with Maxim. We're also told Digg is about to jump ship, which if true would deal a credibility blow to Battelle, in whose cap Digg is the second biggest feather (the first being flagship property BoingBoing).

Battelle responds to the charge here and lets his irritation show. It's certainly a tad gauche for Denton to kick off with this item, since Battelle's high-touch ad network is Denton's most direct competitor. But it's also in character, since Gawker's style has always derived from tabloids -- and who slings competitive mud better than The Post and Daily News? Their rivalry is crude and unprofessional, but they get away with it because it's fun. The Denton v. Calacanis years were always a good time for reporters. Before AOL acquired Weblogs Inc., the two blasted each other on a weekly basis. Calacanis would assert Denton's network is 90 percent porn, and Denton would say Calacanis's sites are, and I quote, "as memorable as Burger King franchises." (There's similar promise in the current rivalry between Ze Frank and RocketBoom's Drew Baron, but that's another story for another time.)

In the short term, Denton's likely to generate more heat from advertisers by moving into the editor's seat. He used to tell me ValleyWag and Fleshbot had always worked against his business, and he worries that big advertisers shy of his crass properties will suddenly yank their spend out of brand adjacency concerns or anger at something published on Gawker. As editor AND publisher, invoking the church/state clause won't be as easy for Denton as it once was.

update: Exhibit B
update 2: Exhibit C

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 17, 2006

FM Takes a Swing at Sports Content

FM Publishing, the blog network for today's modern discriminating advertiser, struck a deal to distribute ads to SportsBlog Nation, a network of sports blogs with a focus on baseball. It's the first site in a new sports network FM plans to launch next year, the seventh such "federation" the company has launched. Others include technology, parenting and automotive site groups. SB has been around for two-and-a-half years and reports seven million monthly uniques across dozens of sites.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 3, 2006

Help Make Corporate Blogging a Less Mushy Prospect

Forrester's Charlene Li is working to develop a framework for measuring the ROI of corporate blogging, and she needs your help. If you're a medium- to large-sized business with a corporate blogging effort, you can get a free copy of an upcoming report on the topic and a mention in the document simply by sharing your (optionally-anonymized) experience.

You'll be doing a good deed. It's time to move past the "You can't afford not to blog" exhortations.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 27, 2006

The New Press Release: Blog Post with an E-mail Follow-up

A moment-ago straw poll among ClickZ reporters confirmed that several of us are seeing a rise in a new PR tactic: publicists sending us e-mail about their clients' blog posts.

"Good Morning," said one such missive today. "Please note that [client name redacted] has posted a new entry on his blog regarding [subject matter redacted]. You can read his post at [URL redacted]. Thanks, [name redacted]

Luckily, the above e-mail pointed to a fairly interesting and relevant post. But given how easy it is to fire off a two-line e-mail, I'm betting the recent flurry of such alerts becomes something of an epidemic.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 21, 2006

Unlikely to be Banned In Boston

Boston's Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley is leaping into the blogosphere.

According to reports, O'Malley will file items at least once daily during a 10-day trip to Rome that begins today. If all goes well, the blog will be permanent. A spokesperson has said whether or not comments will be permitted is still undecided.

So far, no posts yet. And no AdSense ads, either.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 18, 2006

Glam.com's Rising Fortunes

Fashion e-commerce and blogging network Glam.com has entered comScore's top ten ranked women's sites and surpassed many long-term incumbents in the fashion and beauty category, including Vogue's Style.com, iVillage Beauty & Style, InStyle.com and Elle.com. Glam's sites had 2.3 million uniques in July, up from 1.4 million in June and 463,000 in May, according to comScore, and it's global unique users measure 5.3 million.

Four months ago Glam.com entered a deal with Cosmopolitan in which the Hearst magazine would represent some of its graphical advertising. Blogs in the glam network when it launched last year included BagCrazy.blogspot.com, Coquette.blogs.com, SheFinds.com/blog, PopGadget.net, InMyBag.blogspot.com, FashionTribes.typepad.com and TiaWilliams.net/blog.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 15, 2006

LonelyGirl15 Cashes Out

A follow-up to yesterday's thoughts on Revver: Looks like LonelyGirl15, who's just-peaked celebrity will go down as the media's first big crush on video blogging, is migrating to Revver for hosting. It's hard to know exactly what that means, since her (their?) gig is certainly up -- at least as far as the "real v. fake" debate goes. Maybe she and her creators hope to continue with the story, illusions of authenticity be damned. Or maybe she'll fess up directly to her viewers, and keep vlogging in a different way.

Update: Looks like she *did* just fess up. And now her v-log has apparently morphed into a "hit Internet soap opera." Oh my.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 8, 2006

Notes on the ClickZ Track at SES

It was a long, crowded, fruitful day at ClickZ's track on broader advertising and marketing issues on this, the first day of Search Engine Strategies in San Jose. Herewith, a few notable quotes and impressions.

At the session on video advertising, AKQA President Tom Bedecarré showed what amounted to his shop's interactive video reel. Waitamminit. Interactive shops now have reels?

IPG's emerging media labs' Brian Monahan shared recent research conducted on who creates video CGM and posts it on the Web. 86 percent are young men; 72 percent are under 25; most spend less than an hour creating the submission and a third post more than a few times per month.

Hans Peter Brøndmo discussed open source marketing and exhorted the audience to "learn how to hate Google."

Gary Stein on the "clique": "Don't think of MySpace as a group of 300 million users. Think of it as 75 million groups of four people."

Ian Schafer showed a video created by a band for their song "Die Hard." The song plays over -- you guessed it -- scenes from 20th Century Fox's feature film, "Die Hard." Unlicensed, of course. And here's the punchline: one of his account executives plays in the band. Oh, and Fox is a client. They don't know about the video, but betcha they will soon.

Later, in discussion about all the copyright fallout surrounding YouTube, someone accused marketing executives at TV networks and film studios surreptitiously posting videos, then praying legal would stumble over them. PR is born.

TerraPass' Adam Stein wowed the audience by explain how his $0 marketing budget, together with some judicious blogging and e-mailing, led to coverage in both "The New York Times" and "The Los Angeles Times," resulting in a deal with Ford.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 19, 2006

The end of the Gawker/Yahoo Experiment

Gawker Media honcho Nick Denton says the Yahoo syndication deal signed in November is lapsing. Why? Not enough traffic, a mismatch in audiences, and maybe, just maybe, Gawker site Valleywag's constant harping on Yahoo exec Lloyd Braun.

Coincidentally, Denton says the bottom-of-post Google AdSense text links, which the company has been testing on Gizmodo, are performing well enough to integrate further across the network.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 17, 2006

Business Blog Directory

Minneapolis-based agency TMA E-Marketing has launched the iBlog Business Directory of business and corporate blogs.

The human-edited directory is divided into 122 business categories. There's are no fees associated with submitting or listing eligible blogs.

While the directory's in no way comprehensive, it's not a terrible way to check up on who's blogging in a given industry. No ads on the site yet, but TMA says new features are soon to be announced.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Feedburner Buys Blogbeat

In a move that has implications for corporate bloggers, blog publishers and blog advertisers, RSS feed management company FeedBurner will today announce the purchase of Blogbeat, a blog measurement firm. The companies aren't disclosing the financial terms of the deal. FeedBurner plans to integrate the Blogbeat analytics platform into its own free feed measurement system by the fourth quarter of 2006. Next year, the combined company will begin to offer fee-based services.

Interesting to see FeedBurner, which has played exclusively in the feed space up until now, get into blog metrics. It makes sense in some ways, in that the same marketing person is likely to have responsibility for feeds and the blog. However, you'd think most larger publishers would already have blog analytics as part of their overall Web analytics platform.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 6, 2006

The Congdon Affair

Some personal media brands build slowly and steadily, both in terms of audience and ad revenue, and eventually, after years of toil, wake up to find they're legitimate businesses. Others rise rapidly and then, owing to money or interpersonal tensions, explode gloriously in shards of broken glass. Such is the case with Rocketboom, whose anchorwoman and production head have parted ways in a mutual huff.

The very public falling out has gotten attention in the blogosphere disproportionate to its significance in the digital media landscape -- at least in terms of traffic and audience. But all the chatter is not totally without merit. I've never been a huge fan of Amanda Congdon, the site's public face, but she's clearly notable for being the first video blog star in history.

The split seems to have been precipitated by Congdon's desire to move to L.A. and find sidework. This fact, combined with the fact she's now living with her parents while looking for a new gig, give us the only possible salient insight for ClickZ's audience: Video blogging, evidently, still can't bring down the ad revenue.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 15, 2006

Everything That Can Be Bloggable Will Be Bloggable

And another we-launched-a-blog release crosses the wires....

Scoial media site imeem has hooked up with Virgin Records to create "the first ever concert tour video blog for viewing on the Internet." The blog follows We Are Scientists' summer concert tour.

"The unblogged life is scarcely worth living -- a blunted, petty little thing, that much we know," Chris Cain, the band's bass player, said in a statement, "Let us live life to the hilt, I say! Let us blog this tour, and blog it daily!"

Amen to that.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 1, 2006

The Further Adventures of Pud

Philip "Pud" Kaplan, former steward of FuckedCompany.com, is stepping down as CEO of blog ad marketplace AdBrite to make room for a "hardcore business guy."

CNET had a story on it today painting Kaplan as a partying bungler sneered out of the room by the company's board. That's off-base he says, and I'd have to agree given that he remains chairman and will continue with the company in a product management role.

He told me in an email today, "I’m not going anywhere. AdBrite had huge growth over the past six months and I wanted a hardcore business guy with experience & success to work here."

Taking over as CEO is Iggy Fanlo, former president of Shopping.com.

I wrote a feature last year comparing Kaplan with John Battelle, who runs a very different blog ad network. The two men have oddly parallel histories with digital media. They're like inverted reflections of one another.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 16, 2006

Power to the People (and Bloggers, Conference Attendees, etc.)

Syndicate finally did it. Power strips!

For all the events, conferences, pow-wows and boondoggles out there working to promote liveblogging and coverage, there's always something missing. Even if there is free Wi-Fi.

Thanks, Syndicate, for making it easy on our batteries.

In other conference happenings, Richard Edelman just finished speaking about PR and blogs. "CMOs want to know GRPs. Its what agencies have been feeding them for years...The ad guys are terrified by this. They should be here, but they're not."

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 10, 2006

Joystiq E3 Coverage Fails to Garner Sponsor, Calacanis Not Happy

Jason Calacanis has just used to his blog to chew out his sales team:

Wow! Amazing coverage of E3 team Joystiq!!! (with the assist from team Engadget) resulted in over 1M page views yesterday. Huge...

If only we had E3 sponsors... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Team AMN/WIN Sales: Next year sell this thing out!!! We missed a huge revenue opportunity.

Perhaps feeling a tad regretful, he then explains:

[ Note: As a publisher I'd rather have the quality without the sales, than the sales without the quality.... but we gotta get both lined up for next year. Frankly, we've got so much on our plates it's hard for our sales team to keep up--so I'm just busting on my already overworked group. High class problem to have. :-) ]

Blogger transparency taken to a new extreme!

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 8, 2006

Automakers' Latest Use of Online Ads: For Lobbying

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group whose members include Ford, GM, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota and VW, is heading online to find lawmakers and policy influencers this legislative session. Besides the efforts detailed in NYTimes.com (reg. req.) today, the group is also taking to blogs.

The message: don't regulate us; we're selling plenty of alternative fuel vehicles already. The media: a Web site at discoveralternatives.org and ads on Powerline Blog, Andrew Sullivan, Red State, Daily Kos, Wonkette, Political Animal and Talking Points Memo. The agency: Mindshare Interactive Campaigns out of D.C.

The effort will continue to run throughout the legislative session with more elements rolling out over time, Charles Territo, director of communications for the Alliance, told me.

We've seen GM use online to push its alternative fuel message in the past. Interesting to see the whole industry adopt the medium -- and blogs -- to reach such a specific audience. When is ExxonMobile going to try to improve its image by using the Web?

Posted by Pamela Parker at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 3, 2006

One More Reason to Listen

If you're responsible for a brand, a Web site, a campaign or a business of any kind, you know you should be listening, don't you?

Listening goes well beyond reputation monitoring and it's time that fact was noted. In an era of blogging and splogging, listening is an excellent way (in fact, on of the few ways, although there are others) to protect and to keep track of your content.

If you're a publisher, a blogger or anyone else who creates original content and posts it to the Web, you should immediately set up a Technorati search for all your domains and key words and phrases that are unique to your site, brand or product. The names of products or executives are a good place to start. (You can do this on the search engines, too, but Technorati's feed function is fantastic.) Subscribe to the feeds for those searches. You may be surprised at what you learn.

Not only will you know who's talking about you and what they're saying, if you create original content you'll know who's using that content and how. This morning I uncovered (yet another) "business blog" created entirely of ClickZ content.

Is dealing with this stuff a pain in the butt? You bet. But wouldn't you rather know than not know who's saying what about you -- not to mention who's stealing your ideas and your property?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 27, 2006

AOL's Financial Blog Network

AOL's Weblogs Inc. has launched its first blog network, BloggingStocks.com, since it joined the company. The network consists of eight separate blogs -- which are aggregated on the homepage -- covering eight companies popular among investors: Apple Computer, General Electric, Microsoft, eBay, Google, Wal-Mart Stores, Yahoo! and Time Warner. The blogs' content will be integrated into AOL Money & Finance.

Interesting initiative that sheds light into how Weblogs Inc. will be integrated into AOL.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 12, 2006

Starwood "Lobbying" Loyalists

Starwood Hotels and Resorts has launched a lifestyle-oriented blog at TheLobby.com, the WSJ reports (subscription). The effort, put together by NYC agency Electric Artists, is sprinkled with travel topics such as luggage, clothing, and, of course, profiles of Starwood hotels. But lifestyle entries -- including an astounding amount of iPod mentions -- abound. (This makes a lot of sense if my iPod usage during travel is any indication.)

Efforts like this seem very well-intentioned but they face an uphill battle. Why should I go to Starwood for my lifestyle media, when I can turn to so many other sources? Not sure what their promotion or distribution strategy (syndication?) is, but I'd imagine they could have a tough time drawing a regular audience. Then again, if costs are low enough, the "hip factor" of simply having a blog may be enough to win them points in consumers' minds.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 10, 2006

YPN Blog

Though the Yahoo! Publisher Network is still in beta, it's now got a blog. "We wanted a new forum to interact with our publishers and create a two way dialogue. What better way to do than through our very own blog," a Yahoo! spokesperson e-mailed me to say.

The company expects to post on the latest product news, as well as in-depth how-tos, publisher interviews and industry trends.

Google's counterpart is its Inside AdSense blog.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 7, 2006

Feedster Enters Asia-Pac Through Japan

RSS feed search engine and ad network Feedster has partnered with Japanese conglomerate Mitsui to launch in Japan. Feedster will provide the back-end infrastructure, host the search engine, and provide templates for the Japanese site to mirror the look and feel of the U.S. version, while Mitsui will bring to bear its "well oiled marketing machine," Chris Redlitz, Feedster's president, told ClickZ News.

Mitsui invested in Feedster back in September. Japan is the first of what Redlitz expects to be many Asian markets Feedster will enter, as those markets for RSS services mature. China presents a bigger opportunity by sheer numbers, but also carries a barrier to entry for a small company like Feedster, he said.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 13, 2006

Blogathon to a Safer Internet

Last week the European Commission held a worldwide "Safer Internet Day" to draw attention to any potential dangers of using the web. To commemorate the day, Insafe, the EU's network for safer Internet use, hosted a global blogathon to raise awareness of legal, ethical and safety issues on the Web. Did anyone notice?

Posted by Enid Burns at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 31, 2006

Bloggers have options, but where's the money?

Google's looking to improve it's standing with bloggers by offering up some AdSense tips for bloggers. The Inside AdSense blog shares tips for choosing ad size and placement, targeting and customizing ads.

In addition to competing for publishers with the "old-school" blog ad networks (did I just call blog ad networks old-school?) like BlogAds and Pheedo, Google is also running up against Yahoo!, with its growing and soon-to-leave-beta Yahoo! Publishers Network, and MSN, at least on its MSN Spaces sites for now, but likely in a broader implementation in the spring when AdCenter launches.

In addition, there are the smaller competitors like Kanoodle, Miva and ValueClick, and even more competition coming from behavioral targeting providers like Tacoda, Revenue Science, and 24/7 Real Media.

So you'd think, with all of these options, that bloggers are all making money. Only they're not.

Anyone care to share their thoughts about what's missing in the equation?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 30, 2006

About/NBC Blog

Another sign the pace of change in digital media has hit ludicrous speed: a "we’re blogging" announcement seems quaint.

Under a cross-promotional deal, NBCOlympics.com will link to About pages, and About will promote the NBC site to its users. Both parties will publish a blog written by About’s James Martin.

In other news, my mother has started a blog, and she’ll be linking to a few of my posts here. We’re getting approval on the press release now.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 26, 2006

Coming: MSN Spaces Upgrade, With PPC Ads

Post updated with new information.

Rumors are flying that Microsoft will soon unveil a big revamp of MSN Spaces, and the changes include letting bloggers run contextual ads courtesy of Kanoodle and perhaps Amazon.

One can't help but wonder why Microsoft wouldn't broker those ads itself, via adCenter, since the company has admitted to having a contextual bun, a la AdSense, in the oven. Maybe that's coming later.

UPDATE: Microsoft shared some official details via its Spaces blog. The Amazon tie-in involves making it easy for bloggers to join its affiliate program and get paid for referrals. The Amazon deal is available to users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, France and Japan. The Kanoodle ad links are limited to U.S. and U.K. bloggers.

Feature adds include juicing up photo uploads, new themes and an Xbox "recent games played" module. The post also mentions the platform will soon launch in Latin America, South Africa, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Comments on the post reflect a mixture of elation with the enhancements and frustration with post-upgrade bugs.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 3, 2006

Not You're Average Blogger

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) takes place this week and likely many bloggers will be in attendance, though one blogger happens to be a GPS device. Garmin created a blog "authored" by its nüvi 350.

The blog is a great photo-op for the device. To coincide with the tradeshow, Garmin is giving away one nüvi 350 for each day of the show, that's four devices.

I have to say that Garmin missed an opportunity here, but has a chance to redeem itself if it continues the blog after CES. Entries should have GPS coordinates since that's the way the device thinks. Maybe the little guy will take a journey across the country and turn things into a travelblog.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 30, 2005

Fortune Interactive Offers Reputation Management

It's certainly not the first of its kind, but given that Fortune Interactive's CEO is noted search marketer and blogger Andy Beal, it's worth noting that the firm has launched a reputation monitoring service.

Fortune's offering joins those of several other specialty firms, as well as PR firms with similar practices.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blog 'Empire' Indispensibles

Love this transparency. Nick Denton shares his startup kit, a collection of cheap & free tools he uses to keep the Gawker machine running.

Nothing about advertising here, but I know he's used AdSense, Burst!, BlogAds and AdBrite. You can add those to his list as well.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! Adds RSS to Mail Beta

Yahoo! announced today that RSS feeds will be integrated into its new (and very Outlook-y) version of Mail. Sure enough, a new a new "All Feeds" icon appeared below my mail folders overnight.

Feeds will pick up Yahoo! Alerts, blogs, news...and, of course, offers from brands and merchants, provided they're offering RSS and have successfully gotten customers to opt-in.

This could be a giant leap towards eradicating delivery problems -- eventually. There are hurdles along the way, including getting Mail out of beta and into consumer hands; merchants getting with the RSS program, and last but not least, getting customers comfortable with an easy feed sign up process.

Yahoo! took one small step toward that goal today.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 28, 2005

Nokia's Blog Strategy for the N90

Nokia has launched a "blogger relations" blog aimed at getting out info about its new N90 phone, which offers advanced photography options (including high-quality video).

From the site:

What's Here
In the Press Room you will have access to the much of the same material, press releases, news accounts and photos that are also available about the Nokia Nseries N90 on the Nokia.com web site. But we;ve made it easier placing it here, all in one place just for you. You will also find the original media relations files in PDF format and Photo files on the N90 CD contained in your Blogger Relations package.

Talk With Nokia
Do you want to talk with a Nokia spokesperson for a story or blog post? If you do, your Nokia Blogger Relations Team is here to help. Just send us an email and we'll get set up the interview.

If the experience of one Jonathan Greene is typical, the company appears to also be sending out the phones to bloggers to test, then using the official N90 blog to link to their entries about the device. Interesting approach.

[Via Micro Persuasion]

Posted by Pamela Parker at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 22, 2005

Back Into Pajamas

They wore the corporate name for a little over a week, but newly launched blog and news network Open Source Media (OSM) has slipped back into its pajamas.

They provide a bunch of reasons for doing so on the site which appear valid. But the elephant looms in the room. Just do a Google search for "open source media" and you'll see what I mean. If a newly launched online company doesn't appear in SERPs, does it really exist?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 17, 2005

More Bloggers Switch

Apple's market share has risen a percentage point this year, from 3.3 to 4.3 percent of the PC market share.

The rise is attributed to the "halo effect" of the companies burgeoning iPod sales. But A-list bloggers are also publicly making the switch, first Jeff Jarvis, and now Dave Weinberger.

While this likely doesn't account for all Apple sales, these e-fluentials surely deserve some credit for increasing the ranks of the Apple faithfull.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 16, 2005

Midweek Blog Potables

Audience fragmentation is a myth. Vin Crosbie tears it up.

"Write your name in all your clothes." Everything Organic needs to know about viral it learned while preparing the kids for summer camp.

Also from Organic: AJAX or Flash – is it just semantics?

The buzz continues on Dungeons & Dragons' move to the Web. The original RPG brand joins the online pack. Could be a great comeback story or a tower of suckitude.

Pheedo's handling of a complaint: The company catches flack, responds and is forgiven (mostly). A blogosphere PR case study in action.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 9, 2005

Denton's cynicism

Like his bloggers, Nick Denton is popular for his cynicism. Before his ad:tech panel yesterday, he told me there's nothing he's very excited about in online advertising. And during the session, he said blog advertising shouldn't be undertaken for purposes of community buzz, but for simple demographics. He said one-off deals like Nike's "Art of Speed," which Gawker did two years ago, aren't really worth the effort. And he said his approach to selling ads is more conservative than ever.

"I'm skeptical about the ability of advertising to influence word of mouth," he said. "The real reason for advertising on weblogs is to reach an audience that's younger, richer, more influential. They should be bought for the demographics rather than the word of mouth. If the marketer wants to influence word of mouth through weblogs, it's better for them to use PR."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 28, 2005

How Much Is Your Blog Worth?

Ever wonder about the dollar value of your blog? Dane Carlson built a caluculator on Technorati's API to ostensibly figure out the worth of your blog, based on Tristan Louis' recent research.

This blog is valueless, according to the tool.

Oh, well.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 24, 2005

AdAge Cynically Leverages Blogosphere

Combine dubious research (comprised of admitted "best-guess extrapolation"), a couple of expert quotes, and the word "blog" in the headline.

What do you get? Plenty of pick-up in the blogosphere, and likely, plenty of traffic to a say-nothing bit AdAge.com "research."

Oh, what the heck. I'll link to it, too.

I'll allow bloggers are an egocentric bunch. Probably most blog about blogging as well as their topic of choice. However I'd rather see reputable news outlets think twice about their content -- and their reputations -- before throwing this particular brand of bone into the blogosphere.

My cynicism begins with the story's lead: "Blog this."

AdAge's study is a classic example of "lies, damn lies and statistics." It's light on sources or methodology, but lightening fast at leaping to alarmist conclusions. You'd think the American work force had stopped playing computer solitaire, surfing eBay, checking online personals, programming their cell phones or taking long lunches. From this bit of reportage-lite, you'd think blogs were the root cause of a lack of productivity in the U.S. workforce.

Surely AdAge can come up with a more respectable way to build traffic to its site. Perhaps by letting its print edition paid subscribers in at no extra cost?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 18, 2005

ANA Blogs Silent

If you were listening solely to the Association of National Advertisers' (ANA) blogs you'd think nothing of interest had happened since mid-September. One was last updated Sept. 14, the other Sept. 22. The blogs, penned by ANA head Bob Liodice and government relations guru Dan Jaffe, launched to great public fanfare (subscription) last year, as part of PR firm CooperKatz' blog practice (which is headed by super-blogger Steve Rubel). When I surfed over there yesterday, to get the organization's take on the FCC regulations that will affect the Web sites of children's broadcasters, all was silent. C'mon guys... let's keep that conversation going.

To be fair, I should mention the ANA also launched a blog specific to its annual conference that was updated more recently... on October 9.

UPDATE: Well, that was fast. Let no one say CooperKatz and the ANA aren't listening to blogs.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Weinberger on blogging for business

David Weinberger, a fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center, is telling the crowd at the BlogOn social media summit what blogs are not. They're not inherently journalism, he points out, but there is an intersection between the blogosphere and the "journosphere," as he calls it.

The way to find that intersection, if you're a company looking to start a blog, involves four steps:
1. Listen. See what's being said about your company already.
2. Audit. See what people in your company are blogging about, and what blogs they read.
3. Engage. Create a plan to engage your customers.
4. Give up. Plan to give up control.

Even if a company follows that plan, Weinberger expects most companies to make two mistakes:
1. Thinking they know more than their customers.
2. Insisting on being incredibly boring.

"Blogging looks like a risk they don't have to take. In that case, they should just not take it," he said. "Entering the conversation as a fallible human being raises the possibility of connecting with a market in new and deep ways."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 7, 2005

RSS By Any Other Name...

Maybe it's because Bloglines has, in a very short time, become almost part of my DNA, but I'm not cottoning to Google's just-launched Reader.

It's the interface -- all clicking, no scrolling. Lots and lots and lots of clicking. If you subscribe to as many feeds as I do, it kind of makes RSS into work.

Interesting name, though, and interesting to watch the big guns groping to rename RSS to this utterly simple technology to a mass audience. Yahoo! doesn't really call it anything. You just edit "modules" on the My Yahoo! page.

I hear MSN is gunning for "Subscriptions" as a more consumer-friendly moniker. I have my doubts. Aren't subscriptions usually something you pay for -- or is that old school think? Not according to a few people I've had this discussion with. The other thing about that word is the implication you have to give up something: a name or an address. That might intimidate.

And "Reader"? The Web is a text-based medium. You read e-mail on Google, you read search results, heck, you read a lot of stuff. That name doesn't grab me, either.

All in all, I don't think RSS is really such a scary acronym. Do you? Got a better term? Reply in the comment section, please.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 22, 2005

NORML and CGM

Some brands and causes are made for consumer generated media. Via AdRants comes word that The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws will host a video blogging contest that will award $5,000 to the best entry. Right on. Just so long as they limit what camcorder effects are permissible.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 1, 2005

WashingtonPost.com Gives Bloggers Link-Love

WashingtonPost.com has teamed up with Technorati to add links alongside news stories on the WashingtonPost.com site to blogs that link to that story.

For example, in today's editorial, "The Great Flood of '05" (reg. reqd.), there's a box that reads "Who's Blogging?" with links to a few blogs that refer to the story.

It seems like this accomplishes a few things, from an advertiser's perspective:
1. Adds value for readers, so they'll keep coming back. Obviously, that's good for WaPo advertisers.
2. It gives bloggers a reason to link to WaPo to have the chance to get a WaPo link. That's potentially good for the blog's advertisers, and for WaPo advertisers, who'll see additional traffic from the bloggers' sites.
3. It positions WaPo as a blogger-friendly media source, potentially bringing in more bloggers and blog readers, a group which studies have found tends to spend more time and money online. Again, that's good for WaPo advertisers.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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