Chris Pirillo » Advertising

Unraveling the Mysteries Surrounding Community

Chris — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:06:00 +0000

Unraveling the Mysteries Surrounding Community is a post from Chris Pirillo

After watching my What is Community presentation, Seth sent a long and very well thought-out email to me. He voiced his agreement with many of the things I had spoken about, and told me I had inspired him to start delving deeper into life online and to try and unravel what he feels are the mysteries in relation to communities. Seth produces webinars, and has been working hard on building a community of his own. He has heart – and is passionate about what he’s doing. For him, it’s truly about helping people, and not about fame or money. Seth has several questions about how to help his community grow. Instead of writing an email back to him, I decided to post his questions here – for my community to answer. This allows Seth to gain several different perspectives. It will also hopefully help others who may have some of the same concerns and questions to learn for themselves.

Following is part of what Seth wrote to me. What I’m asking of you is to read what he has written, and let him know in a comment here what your answers and perspectives are. By helping him, you are even potentially helping yourself – and who knows how many others. Let’s show Seth what an amazing community we have here!

You talked about building a community and mentioned that the blog is just a tool, and I get that. I have been building a community for some time (it’s a little slower than I would like it to be), and your video on community really made me think. I wonder if you could talk in a little more detail about how you would recommend I go about getting more people into my community. Do I go out on other similar blogs and start posting comments with the hope that my words will generate the interest that will lead people to want to visit my blogs?
I have profiles on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and even MySpace. I realize now that I need to focus my efforts on getting to know people who come into the common areas of my Venn diagram. My Facebook membership is mostly comprised of people who know me directly on a personal level. I am just starting to get some interest via others on Facebook who have emailed me, asking for more information on the webinars. On Twitter, I have at times gone out and just randomly started following people, which I realize will get me nowhere. However, what is a better way to go about finding people who may cross into a community area that I would share?
Do you recommend having different blogs for different interests? Right now, I have a main blog, a QuickBooks blog, and an Excel blog. I also have my own personal blog, as well as another personal one that represents a part of my personal life that I normally keep separate. Lately, though, they all seem to keep crossing paths so to speak, without my having even tried to make them do so.
For SEO reasons, I am inclined to have several of these various blogs pointing back to my “money” site. Is this the best strategy? How do I even begin to generate revenue? Is that through advertising? I am asking that because I am interested in learning more about the web business model. Being in Accounting, there aren’t a whole lot of resources online to use as a model. Most Accountants aren’t using the web to build their business. I’m hoping to be a pioneer of sorts in that regard.

Well, folks, what do you say? How do you suggest Seth go about making his community into what he envisions it to be, and then making it grow into more than he could have imagined? I’m just as interested in hearing all of your thoughts and ideas as Seth is.

WidgetBucks

Chris — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:11:32 +0000

WidgetBucks is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I recently attended the WTIA Fast Pitch Forum & Technology Showcase. The conference featured two dozen of the of the hottest technology companies in Washington presenting their business in a competition for “Best In Show”. WidgetBucks was one of the presenters. WidgetBucks is a vertical shopping ad network that helps publishers and bloggers optimize their earnings.

WidgetBucks features pay-per-click shopping widgets that help their customers make money fast. They instantly display the most popular products based on buying trends of 100 million shoppers. Thus they are highly engaging, which means instant dollars for the customers!

If you own a website and are tired of trying to figure out what the best advertising method is for you… look no further. The program offered by WidgetBucks is simple to use, and is going to make you money fast.

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Have You Called an Internet Advertising Phoul on Phorm?

Chris — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:28:18 +0000

Have You Called an Internet Advertising Phoul on Phorm? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I don’t mind advertisers, so long as they are advertising something I would care about. I notice Marketing campaigns all the time. Overall, they don’t annoy me. I know people treat advertising differently than they treat other things in life. It’s a necessary evil. People are usually happy when they get a good deal. That’s why I have been actively posting coupons for awhile now, and have even set up a Coupon Search Engine for all of you to use.

Some people don’t like advertising at all, due to the way it’s being done. SupaFly wrote to me the other day to talk to me about Phorm. According to him, the three main ISPs in England have partnered with Phorm. Phorm is a type of advertiser that looks at what you are doing online, and will then send you targeted ads. There has been a lot of public outcry about this, surrounding privacy concerns.

I don’t know if this is necessarily invading privacy, any more than Gmail’s advertising is. It’s likely a benign form of watching patterns, and not targeting you specifically. Think of it as targeting your generic behaviors. I don’t agree that this is really the way to go. If the website you’re visiting isn’t selling or showing ads… then there shouldn’t be any embedded into it by a third party.

It’s a fine line when you’re talking about advertisements, specifically related to the Internet. If the ISP itself is doing this… I don’t think that’s quite right. All the ISP should be doing is providing you access to Websites, who could choose or not to provide ads. If people are paying to access the Internet, and ads are getting served against them and their privacy is being invaded… it’s just not cool.

I really wanted to throw this out to everyone in England who has to deal with this. Give me your thoughts… give me the skinny and the 411. How do you feel about this? Now that Phorm has been around for awhile, do you just deal with it or are you still fighting against it?

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Is Online Radio Killing Traditional Radio Advertising?

Chris — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:05:14 +0000

Is Online Radio Killing Traditional Radio Advertising? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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The differences between traditional radio and Internet radio are pretty vast. Yes, they are both audio. Everything else is merely the mechanism and limitations of the delivery. With a traditional radio, you can flip between bands and frequencies. You hope to pick up some kind of signal with your antenna that may be within range. With Internet radio… your Internet connection is your antenna. You have no limitations on what you can find.

When we talk about radio, we are talking about some kind of audio, usually live. Online radio is kind of the future of radio. Some argue that Satellite radio is the future, but I disagree. As more and more cars have the ability to connect to the Internet, they will start utilizing Internet radio. I received an email recently from Brian, who asked about more information on Online radio advertising. He had to do a research paper.

What I do here with my live video feed isn’t exactly radio. However, since there is audio and it’s being streamed live… there are similarities. When I have dealt with sponsors in the past, not only have I been transparent about those sponsors. I’ve also used certain hooks that traditional radio has. For instance, if you want a domain name, you want to go to GoDaddy. However, if you want to save 10%, you’ll use the code Chris or Chris1 or Chris2 or even Chris3. Same thing with GoToMeeting. When you do these things, that lets my sponsors know that you found out about them through me. They then know that I am connecting with my audience, and the money they spent to advertise with me was worth it.

Online advertising honestly isn’t that much different than traditional. The only thing that is different is the delivery method. It’s still audio… in some cases it’s more than audio. The audience will be larger with Internet radio, actually. What’s compelling about radio is that it’s live. You need to understand that with Internet radio, you are no longer limited by your antenna. You are only limited by your creativity and talent. When you match that talent with sponsors, you’re going to be happy, with far less overhead. The onus will be on you to draw in and retain an audience to listen to or watch your content.

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Public Relations (PR) and the Blogosphere

Chris — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:31:03 +0000

Public Relations (PR) and the Blogosphere is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I don’t mind PR agents, really. There are some – and their approaches – that I DO mind. There’s a fine line that a lot of PR people don’t realize is there. I’m now being asked by a journalist to give my thoughts about PR and their direct role within the Blogging the community. The question, specifically is “Is it reasonable for PRs to target the Blogging community?”.

A blog in itself isn’t a “community”. There are subsets of types of blogs and genres. They themselves are communities. The bottom line is that I am not a journalist. I’m a columnist, yes. I’m a blogger. I’m a video caster. I help other people blog. I don’t know how you’d classify me. The one thing I am is that I”m not a media agency. I’m just someone who enjoys Technology.

I think it’s reasonable for PR people to contact bloggers, yes… with these five things in mind.

Be transparent, and expect transparency in return. Don’t email us pretending you’re someone you’re not. Be up front, and honest about what you’re after. You’ll have a much better shot at getting us on your side or promoting your product(s) and services.
Don’t ask for links. It’s rude to just ask us to give you a link. If I’m interested, I’ll talk about it, and link to it. But for you to just send me a message and ask me to “embed this link”… is just not cool.
Be proactive with review links or products. The only way to really get me to talk about your item(s) is to put something in my hand. Give me something to review. Send me coupons or savings I can pass along to my community.
Know who they are, and why they matter. Don’t just send out some generic email. Make sure you put something into your approach that shows you really DO read my blog, don’t just state it.
Keep it short and sweet. No. Press. Releases. Scan… delete. Software, if you don’t offer me a review code, then it’s deleted. If it’s hardware without a review sample… delete. Maybe you should post your press releases on Twitter.

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Microsoft: Give me a Million Dollars to market Windows Vista for you

Chris — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:39:42 +0000

Microsoft: Give me a Million Dollars to market Windows Vista for you is a post from Chris Pirillo

No, seriously. I’ll do it. One million. That’s a drop in the bucket – 1/500th of what you’re planning on spending.

It’s a crazy idea. It’s insane.

You’ve got your work cut out for you with a mindnumbingly lackluster launch – and the remainder of your media blitz needs to be coherent. You need to begin illustrating Vista’s biggest strengths and benefits:

The new Start Menu can help you find things faster
Fast USB sticks can speed up your system instantly
Program-independent volume control will keep your sounds in check
The Windows Explorer exposes tons of file metadata
Parental controls will keep Mom and Dad happy
Checking for updates and problem solutions has never been easier
Guided Help takes interactive learning to the next level
Both wired and wireless network management are smarter
There’s an infinitely more stable video driver model in place
Hardware-accelerated eye candy on the desktop is awesome

It’s not just about selling a new operating system, though! You have to let people know where they can find help during this transitional period – when their software and/or hardware might not work like it used to work in XP. If you don’t address those issues head-on, Windows will start bleeding mindshare like never before.

C’mon. If you accept my proposal, I bet I’ll get more press for you than theiap.org did – and I’m guessing you spent more than a mil on that alone. Moreover, I’m guessing that some Macs were used for production. Does your marketing team know Windows intimately – do they know how Vista is relevant for the average user?

And if you don’t bite, maybe an OEM will…

StumbleUpon: Real or Fake?

Chris — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:16:26 +0000

StumbleUpon: Real or Fake? is a post from Chris Pirillo

We received an email this morning from Brooke Tessman, Director of Advertising Sales for StumbleUpon.com. At first, I thought it was a “normal” sales call. Then, I started to think about what she was saying:

StumbleUpon offers a unique opportunity to reach the targeted audience you’re searching for. Discover great websites, videos, pictures and more-all according to your interests. Send your website or video directly to people who want to see your content. StumbleUpon shows your website or video directly to interested web surfers who have already expressed a strong interest in similar content.
Target the exact audience you want. Target visitors by category, location, age, and gender. Get valuable feedback from real people. See how many people rated your content “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down”. Interested in learning more about StumbleUpon advertising opportunities?

What I’m interested in learning more about is… do StumbleUpon users realize they may be stumbling upon paid placements?

The Politics of Security

Chris — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 01:00:58 +0000

The Politics of Security is a post from Chris Pirillo

Online Security is important. Flickr users in China, Iran, and Iraq feel the same way I do – though Microsoft employees in Lebanon and Israel don’t (since they’re all on the Mac). An Online Search for the keyword yeilds few results, so perhaps we’re in need of more Education – or more Firefox Advertising from the Bush Administration?

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from GoDaddy includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter code CP2 at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order.

Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.