Advertisers wary of blogs

[Tags: interactivepr, pr]. From http://www.investors.com/breakingnews.asp?journalid=26650404&brk=1

"Advertisers wary of blogs

"Blogads.com, a service that matches independently published Web logs with advertisers, reports it distributed 1,685 ads last month. That's a huge increase from the 28 in September 2002, according to Henry Copeland, the firm's founder.

"Such big advertisers as Audi and Nike (NKE) have experimented with marketing through blogs. John Cate, vice president and national media director for Carat Interactive, an online ad agency, told The Wall Street Journal that advertisers willing are most comfortable spending their money through blog networks, "with known publishers." Two of the biggest are Gawker Media, which publishes 11 blogs, and Weblogs Inc., whose stable includes 76 publications."

Political campaigning

[Tags: interactivepr, pr]. Some thoughts from Bill Thompson. Sample quote:
"Whenever you join a new mailing list or discussion group, it’s good netiquette to refrain from posting for a few days until you get a sense of the group dynamics and what is appropriate. ‘Lurking’ like this can avoid embarrassment or even exclusion in future.

"It’s a practice that the political parties have too often failed to take to heart, and it’s one of the reasons why online campaigning in the UK has so often been amateurish, inappropriate or simply irritating."

Writing for Search Engines

[Tags: interactivepr, pr]. Book review of Successful Search Engine Copywriting, where "Heather Lloyd-Martin offers a comprehensive guide to creating search-friendly web pages that also satisfy the information needs of human users."

O-Journalism: More on the email newsletter

O-Journalism: More on the email newsletter

Blog promotion site

[Tags: interactivepr, pr]. ProBlogger - which is all about making money from your blog - has a useful section specifically on promoting your blog that's well worth visiting if you're looking to use a blog to promote anything, and need to promote the blog in the first place...

...Like, for example, a Swedish University's attempts to attract students through its blog.

More reports - and a new search advertising service

[Tags: interactivepr, pr]. Some ad-related headlines from journalism.co.uk:

• Search engine marketing will generate €1.4 billion of spending in Europe this year, according to a report on DMAsia.com. The UK has Europe's largest online advertising market - expected to generate more than €1 billion by 2010.

• Microsoft has unveiled its new search advertising service 'MSN adCenter' [sic!]

• Yet another report confirms internet advertising is on the up: this time as the fastest-growing ad medium.

Example of online campaigning

[Tags: interactivepr, pr]. To quote:

"Look at this. It's a very effective news aggregator site that also lists all of the interested bloggers who want to save Schiavo. A Save Schiavo web hub.

http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/aggregator.php?schiavo=1

It's also very low-tech, low-cost, seemingly automated, and it gives offering to a gigantic nexus of like-minded bloggers. What's missing from it of course is the actionability... there's no shared discussion about what steps visitors can take, or a schedule of planned events, etc. Even without that side of it, it's still very effective and efficient."

O-Journalism: Free media storage - or free video and audio

O-Journalism: Free media storage - or free video and audio: "Online media site Ourmedia has launched to embarrassing success. They 'provide free storage and free bandwidth for your videos, audio files, photos, text or software', but perhaps more importantly, 'A condition of posting material is that contributors must share their work. Reworking or remixing content is permitted including the use of 'snippets' of copyrighted work, although 'infringement and illegal misappropriation' are not be allowed.' The site even has RSS feeds updating on new content. [source: journalism.co.uk]

It looks like a particularly useful site on two fronts: firstly, as a place for bloggers and webspace-starved web designers to host - and showcase - images, audio and video; and secondly, as a place to find copyright-free materials."

Submitting Your Site to Yahoo and DMOZ Directories

[Tags: interactivepr, pr]. Useful article by the Search Engine Journal about elements to consider when submitting your site for listing. Some interesting notes:

"I find it useful to submit a slightly different description of my client’s sites for each directory submission. That way, I can gauge which descriptions are more effective in terms of encouraging people to click and also which directories are providing my clients with the most traffic. Many directories feed their database results to other engines and directories, so if I have a description unique to each directory and I see that description pop up on other search sites, I know it is the result of that original directory submission and immediately recognize the value of that original submission."

And:

"Rules of Submission

"1) Do it once: Despite the hype, there is NEVER a need to resubmit to a search engine or directory unless your site is dropped entirely (which is a very rare occurrence).

"2) Do it properly: Be very thorough when submitting, especially to directories. Take the time to research and locate the most appropriate category for your site.

"3) Be brief: Don’t waffle on about your site in the description field. Get to the point and describe your site in a short sentence or two.

"4) Be accurate: Don’t try to trick potential visitors by using vague or misleading descriptions about your products or services.

"5) Be relevant: There is a fine line to tread between relevance and keyword optimization when creating your site descriptions for submissions. Try not to cross it by using descriptions over-stuffed with keywords.

"6) Be humble: “Best Web Site in the World!!!!” is not going to convince anyone and may earn you the wrath of search engine editors.

"7) Be patient: Search engines and directories can take up to 6 months to index and list your site. Re-submitting won’t help things and could result in your site being shoved to the bottom of the review pile."

Threadwatch - a site worth watching

[Tags: interactivepr, pr, flash]. Threadwatch looks particularly interesting for online marketing: it's "a group blog, or forum if you prefer, focusing on Marketing and Related Technologies - News and discussion for those that make their living on the WWW". Worth joining.

Ryanair wins website ads case

[Tags: interactivepr, pr, flash]. Article worth reading about what happens when you omit the 'small print' in online ads...

Useful online PR blog

[Tags: interactivepr, pr, flash]. Thanks to Simon Williams for pointing me to Greedy Girl, a blog with a specific focus on the use of new technology for advertising, particularly blogs. Worth subscribing to. So I have.