TOOL TO 'VOICE-ENABLE' YOUR SITE OR BLOG

Here's a cool new web-based app...Turn your Blog into a Podcast and download to your I-Pod and listen to your favorite Blog rather than reading it. Online publishers are starting to use a service from Odiogo.com that will enable users to listen to their favorite Blogs rather than reading them...can you say "Multitasking?" As a matter of fact, I just integrated this service into my blog, you will now see a "Listen Now" button at the top of each blog posting...just click and listen.

A 'WHOPPER' SEO MISTAKE BY BURGER KING

Have you seen the Burger King "Whopper Virgin" campaign online or on T.V.? They are directing consumers to the url www.WhopperVirgins.com, but neglected to get the non-plural version of the domain, which Google Trends shows gets half the searches as its plural counter part. A 'Whopper' of a mistake! Read the entire article in Ad Age.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Social media is all the rage right now, and, just like anything, you want to put together a strategy before you jump right in and throw marketing resources at it. My buddy and social media guru, Jason Baer, has written a great article, "The 7 Must-Haves" for your social media strategy.

THIS IS A GREAT SERVICE...CREATE A MAGAZINE WITH YOUR RSS FEEDS

This is a very cool idea/service in which you can create a magazine layout of your favorite RSS feeds. You select the feeds and how often you want the system to generate a PDF magazine file for you...daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Tabbloid

There is a motivating factor behind the service...it's by HP, so I'm thinking they want you to print this RSS magazine. This is the type of out-of-box thinking that companies need to do to generate more demand for their products. Just think how much more ink and paper HP can sell by creating a product/service like this? It's a Purple Cow idea if I've ever seen one.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT...

When it comes to your marketing, think about this... "When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

A WHOLE NEW LEVEL IN TRYVERTISING

In China, Sampleplaza is a new showroom featuring brand-new products not yet available to the Chinese mainstream. Consumers are invited to visit Sampleplaza as often as they want and test out a diverse range of products, from exercise equipment to pantyhose, cosmetics to high-tech, drinks, BBQ sauce, soup and snacks.

In addition to trying out samples in the showroom, members are allowed to take home up to 5 items per visit as well. Either way, they need only fill out an online survey—a maximum of 10 questions per product—for each sample that they test. Products are listed online, so consumers can see what's available.

As I've noted before, tryvertising is very popular with today's ad-immune consumers, many of whom will gladly pay to be among the first to test something new and who will continue the spread the concept to others.

Website: www.sampleplaza.cn/eng

INTERESTING NEW PRESENTATION TOOL / APP

Here is a web-based presentation app that seems pretty versatile and useful. http://www.sliderocket.com/

GOOGLE MOBILE APP FOR I-PHONE IS PRETTY COOL!

Check out this Google YouTube video on their Mobile app for the I-Phone, it's pretty cool!

TOP 10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE TRAFFIC

I have put together a top-10 list of things you can do to improve your website traffic at least 3 fold. If you'd like the list, send me an e-mail and I'll be happy to forward. Mike@ShubicMarketing.com

FREE MARKETING WORKSHOP (PHOENIX PUBLIC LIBRARY)

The Fast Forward Marketing Braintrust is putting on a FREE Marketing workshop, called "Marketers For Food," on December 8th, 2008 at the Phoenix Public library in downtown Phoenix. Admission is FREE with a five can food donation to help the hungry this holiday season. Event is sponsored by St. Mary's Food Bank and the Fast Forward Marketing Braintrust, a group of highly experienced freelance marketers. Check out www.MarketersForFood.com for more information.

TOP 50 MARKETING BLOGS

For those of you who can't get enough marketing info...check out the top 50 marketing blogs.

CREATIVE P/R IDEA...STUNT

A group of freelance marketers (Fast Forward Marketing Braintrust) get together to help feed the hungry this holiday season, while at the same time helping small business owners with a free marketing workshop. www.MarketersForFood.com. Check out the YouTube video below...

SOME BIG NAMES ON THE WEB COULD BE IN TROUBLE

According to CNET, the web is not immune to our nation's economic woes...some huge names on the web could be in trouble...including MySpace, Second Life and Pandora just to name a few. Read the entire article and see some of the other big names at CNET.com

DO YOU MAINTAIN MULTIPLE IM ACCOUNTS?

If you're like me, you have multiple IM accounts to maintain, i.e. AIM, Yahoo Messenger, SKYPE, Window's Messenger, etc. Cool company called MeeBo.com has a method to consolidate...plus some other benefits. For the techies out there, here is a good interview with the founders of MeeBo.

LONG URL'S CAN BE SUCH A PAIN!

Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have them break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? If you are a consummate Twitter or Texter, then you may already be familiar with TinyURL, but if not, you may find this to be an invaluable tool/service. All you have to do is go to TinyURL and paste in your extremely long url (web address) and it will convert it into a "Tiny Url" in which you can easily manage for myriad uses.

A NEW BROWSER...BY GUESS WHO...

If you guessed Google, you'd be correct. Looks like Google will be launching a new browser called, "Chrome" to compete with Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera and others. If it comes from Google, you can probably expect a coolness factor as well as being clean and fast...oh, and I think it will be Open Source. Look for an official announcement from Google tomorrow.

THIS IS A COOL, OR SHOULD I SAY "CUIL" NEW SEARCH ENGINE

There are new search engines popping up all over the place...some have real potential as they serve vertical or niche needs...such as images. Here is a pretty "cool" new search engine that indexes and displays differently than most. Cuil.com

NOW THIS IS A GOOD COMMERCIAL

Here is the non-blinkng world record TV commercial...funny!

A FAIRLY NEW MARKETING TERM YOU MAY NOT BE FAMILAR WITH...

Ever get a nice bottle of Aveda shampoo in your hotel room, or perhaps a tube of Aquafresh in your overseas flight kit? Well, that's...TRYVERTISING!

PREDICTION BETTING...COULD BE GOOD RESEARCH TOOL

This is a pretty interesting topic...you can bet (or buy shares) on predictions...for example, who will be the next President, or American Idol winner? You can predict and bet on just about anything. When McCain's campaign was nearly out of money, his share price dropped to below 5 cents, now it's 37 cents. Had you purchased 1000 shares of McCain at 5 cents and sold at it's current price, you would have made $320 profit for a $50 investment. Not a bad ROI!

So, how does this relate to marketing? Well, there are so many people using InTrade and betting great sums of money, that the site has become a VERY accurate predictor. This information can be very useful for marketers. Check out the recent 20/20 segment on InTrade.

NO MORE RIDICULOUS 411 CHARGES!

I talk about Google a lot, mainly because they Rock! You might want to consider programing 1-800-GOOG-411 into your cell phone. Check out the video http://www.google.com/goog411/

GOOGLE HAS YET ANOTHER COOL NEW APP

Google came out with another cool app yesterday called, "Insights." Google Insights enables you to search any search term in any market to see traffic patterns. You can read an article in the NY Times on it, or go directly to Google Insights.

ELECTRONIC PROTECTION FROM THE ELEMENTS

A couple years ago I was charging my cell phone which was plugged-in near the kitchen sink—as I was removing it from the charger, Murphy’s Law decided to intervene. You see, as I was removing the phone from the charger, some how I fumbled the phone and it went flying into the air. As if it were in slow motion I tried to catch it, but to no avail as it fell into a near empty sink...that was except for a lone glass full of water. $300 down the drain!

Today however there seems to be an interesting new product that could have prevented such a catastrophe, albeit it’s a bit expensive. Take a look at this CNET video on a spray product that can protect any electronic gadget…even laptops.

HAVE YOUR IDEA HEARD...

Pitching the next great idea to prospective business partners, investors, service providers and fellow entrepreneurs just got easier with Vator.tv—a new venture that combines online video and networking. Based on the proverbial elevator pitch—the notion that you should be able to sum up a new business venture in the few minutes it takes to ride an elevator—Vator.tv is an online marketplace for new ideas. “Anyone, across all industries, at any stage, can share ideas, products, services and businesses with the rest of the world, mainly through video.”

To learn more, watch this interview from Beet.tv

MAGAZINE COVER FLASHES…LITERALLY

When you compare the print industry with say, the web, or even TV and radio, not much has changed. The Web is not only a medium, but also a technology, therefore it’s ever-changing. Even TV and radio have evolved over the past decade. Print on the other hand, as a medium, has not changed in more than 150 years.

In celebration of its 75^th year in business, Esquire magazine is trying something new—a flashy cover…literally! They worked with an engineer to develop a super thin battery with lights that will flash, “The 21^st Century Begins Now.”

Check out the full article on the NY Times site.

Video Wrap?

You've all probably heard of cars being wrapped with large graphics, but have you heard of a building wrapped in video? Wild new stuff coming down from Obscura Digital, A S.F. based digital marketing company that can do some amazing things. Check out this interview video segment from News.com

New Domain Extensions on the Horizon

Have an extra $150,000 lying around? If so, you can have your own personalized domain extension…you know, the part after the dot in a web address. ICANN, the governing body for all things Internet had a public meeting in Paris last month where they approved the new guidelines that will pave the way for the creation of hundreds, if not thousands of new domain extensions. Various registrars will probably be buying these extensions with the hopes that you and I will be interested in buying “info.web,” or “info.blog,” or “info.news.”

While some domain extensions like dot biz and dot info have tried make an impact, dot com has continued to prevailed as the most coveted domain extension. However, this new foray may just give web developers and marketers an interesting outlet.

If you’d like to learn more, there is a good radio interview from a Tucows representative, just click here, then click on the play button.

"Image Search" is the next BIG thing...

Web based images have always been a challenge for web developers from an online marketing perspective as they reveal little data for the spider bots to gather information from. Well, this is all about to change thanks to Google and other search engines developing image processing technologies...in other words, "image searches" are being revolutionized. 'Search' as we know it is about to change...drastically.

Imagine this...the new search engine spider bots will be able to analyze the pixels in an image and tell you not only what or whom the image is of, but exactly where and when it was taken. This is some powerful stuff. Click here to watch a video from RJ Pittman a product management director.

BIG News in Search Engine Marketing

There is no question Adobe (previously MacroMedia) Flash can do some amazing things. Flash is the very essence of "rich media," and has always had that "coolness" factor. However, from an online marketing perspective, Flash and other rich media apps like AJAX have mostly been invisible to the search engine spider bots—thus websites coded in RIAs (Rich Interactive Application) have had a difficult time generating any search engine traffic, let alone even getting indexed by the major search engines. That all seems to be changing according to an article from News.com. Click here to read.

And, the fastest browser is...

What is the fastest browser in the world? According to Zimbra, Safari is, though it didn't beat out Firefox by much. Both Safari and Firefox were roughly twice as fast as Microsoft's IE 7.

Of course, Zimbra was testing for how these browsers perform with the Zimbra Web application. Your surfing may vary--I'd actually like to see a wide range of tests for different sites and applications to really see if Safari is fastest.

The bottom line is great code. Great developers write code that ports well to diverse platforms.

Acrobat much more than a PDF, now it's ONLINE

Adobe unveiled an online community Monday with a word processor; file storage and sharing; and deep tie-ins to a newly Flash-enabled Acrobat 9. Users can store files on Acrobat.com and join each other in virtual meeting rooms to share identical document views in real time. The site also can host data from forms created in Acrobat software.

Click here to read the entire article on News.com

If you use a cell phone, you'll want to see this! Google's Android demo...

Google is just the bomb! I’ve been reading about Android for some time now, but to see a demo puts the power of it into perspective. If you’re not familiar, “Android” is Google’s foray into the mobile OS/browsing market. Some notable features include a really interesting and unique signature unlocking tool, a very cool compass and an overall ease-of-use that resembles the IPhone.

If you have, or are looking at getting a smart phone, you have to check out this demo… Android preview.

If it wasn't already evident...it's now Offical, online shopping is HUGE!

According to a recent whitepaper by The Nielsen Company, online shopping across the globe rose more than 40 percent in the last two years. In other words, 85% of the online population is purchasing using the click of a mouse rather than walking the halls of a mall.

Can you guess the country with the most online shoppers? If you guessed the U.S., you’d be wrong; it’s Korea, followed by Germany, then Japan. The U.S. is tenth on the list. The biggest influencer for consumers when shopping online, just like offline, is Word Of Mouth (or Trust). However, a close second is search engines.

The bottom line…if you want your business to be successful, you have to have a professional, well designed website that incorporates the following…trustworthiness, ease of use, optimized for search engines, worthy information and fast loading. And, of course, you have to market the site through myriad efforts, i.e. Search engine marketing (SEO, PPC and referral links).

If you’d like more information on search engine optimization, I’ve created a document that simply outlines and explains the process, click here.

My Top TV Commercials/Campaign spots of late...

If you watch TV, once in a while you'll see a good commercial, but how often do you see a campaign where you can't wait to see what they come up with next? Two companies of late really stand out to me as creating not only cool and edgy TV spots, but outstanding and effective campaigns!

First you have Apple with it's PC/MAC campaign...not only are they funny, but they REALLY get PC users thinking about switching...probably for the first time ever. Here are several PC/MAC spots, some you may have missed the first time around.

Second, is the Mitsubishi campaign of late...the spots are very cool, edgy and often integrate great music. Clearly they are going after a younger audience, and it must be working. Check out these two spots...First....Second


Please let me know if some spots or campains that you think kick butt.

A Falling Dollar can be good for Business

Anxiety about the dollar continues to spread. The falling greenback is often seen as a sign of an impending recession or the fall of the United States from global leadership. However, the measure of a nation's wealth is the goods and services it produces, not the relative standing of its currency.
The lower value of the dollar makes American exports (including travel to the U.S.) more competitive. American businesses could see a real boom in its ability to sell tractors, food and other products abroad at favorable prices, especially with the rapid growth in most of Asia.

The American economy certainty has its share of problems of late, but it's possible that the low value of the dollar might prove more a benefit than an impediment.

This is a "glass half full, food-for-thought" topic brought to you by, Your Marketing Coach.

Online Security: Gone Phishing, but not for Fish

According to CBS news, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the nation. The FBI’s Internet Fraud division has seen a steady increase in complaints that involve some form of unsolicited e-mails directing consumers to phony “customer service” type websites—this is called "Spoofing," or "phishing."

One way to combat your security risks is by creating, many, and more complex passwords. The challenge however, is how to remember them all. I recently discovered a new online software application called, PassPack, which enables you to manage and store all of your passwords safely and securely. The product is still in the beta stage, but worth checking out.

What does the DoubleClick deal with Google mean?

Google just completed its acquisition of DoubleClick today...what does it mean? Well, Yahoo will probably find that it will face even more pressure to find a buyout partner for one. The DoubleClick deal will allow Google an entry into the display advertising arena and will transform it into a full service ad company with both display and search. This will further weaken Yahoo's ability to remain independent and further solidify Googles' dominance.

Let me know what you think?

Top 50 U.S. Website Properties

Ever wonder what some of the most popular websites on the Internet are? Take a few guesses as to the top twenty. It's not hard to guess Yahoo and Google as the top two, but would you have ever thought that Ask.com would be number 10, or Craig's List at number 25? How about Gorilla nation at 23, has anyone ever heard of that web property? If you'd like to read an article and see a top-50 chart on the most popular web properties for January 2008, check out the ClickZ article. I should mention these are web properties and not necessarily websites. For example, Fox Media is ranked number 5 on this list and that is because they own MySpace.com, etc.

How HUGE is online video?

According to comScore Video Metrix, there were 10 billion (yes "B") videos viewed in the month of December. And, that's just in the U.S. Google of course lead the way with their ever popular YouTube property with 3.3 billion viewed. To read the entire story, click here.

A Single Page Website...is it possible?

Ever get frustrated by the lengthy drill-down process when searching for information or a product on a website? Those days may be numbered…in the future; entire websites might be within a single page. How may you ask? FLASH by Adobe (formally Macromedia) has gotten so powerful that it has allowed developers to create packaged code that can do some amazing things. Check out what Allurent is doing by visiting their product demos.

Google this, Google That...Android

Rumors had been flying for months about Google's plans for mobile marketing, and now that it's here, it's clear that Google has greater ambitions than simply building a new phone. Instead, the company is looking to transform the mobile industry by making it easy to develop new applications that can be pushed out to hundreds of handset models on dozens of carrier networks using free, open-source technology. Read the entire story on News.Com

What’s hot in Marketing for ‘08?

Reported by Ad-ology, according to a recent survey of the Marketing Networks Executive Organization, the hottest marketing trends for ’08 include…

• Getting back to marketing basics, which includes customer satisfaction, retention, brand loyalty and ROI ranked highest.
• SEO (search engine optimization) was a close second.
• The trendiest topic discussed was “green marketing.”
• The hottest demographic to target this year is Baby Boomers, with Gen X and Hispanics in respective order.

How great is "Sliced Bread?" Just ask Seth Godin

I have read many marketing books in my career and one of my favorites is, "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin. I have to say, one of the greatest things since sliced bread, is YouTube…check out this very informative speech by Seth on Sliced Bread. This video should actually give you some really good insight into the new age of marketing as he gives some great examples of what companies have done right, and what they've done wrong...it's "remarkable."

Super Bowl Winners and Losers

Fans were certainly winners in this years Super Bowl...what a game it was! Even at $2.7m per spot, advertisers were winners with a record 98m viewers. There were however some losers with regards to effective ads. While generating 2m visitors to their site, GoDaddy's ad was a bit of a disappointment. CareerBuilder also scored really low with their spots. Anheuser-Bush on the other hand won top honors for the tenth year in a row. AdAge has a great overview of all the Super Bowl ads, what was hot, what was not!

What were some of your favorite spots?

What does a Microsoft, Yahoo deal mean?

Yahoo of 2008 reminds me of AOL ten years ago…both were HUGE dominating and storied companies in the height of their glory…however something happened. For AOL, they seemed to neglect the writing on the wall (the onset and expansion of the World Wide Web and broadband internet access) and failed to diversify…a bit like the music industry. Fast forward to 2008 and you have a similar story with Yahoo. You could argue that Yahoo was one of the contributing factors to the demise of AOL ten years earlier. Today, with the rise of competition in the space and the dominance of Google, Yahoo finds themselves in need of a makeover—to some degree Microsoft also finds themselves in a similar position as they have continued to be outdone by Google. A merger between Microsoft and Yahoo could be just what the two companies need to take on Google, the company to beat in the early part of the 21st Century.

Let me know what you think. post a comment.

To read a complete overview of this subject, check out the story on News.com, CLICK HERE.

Are Super Bowl ads worth $2.7 mil a pop?

According to Advertising Age, in 1967 the first Super Bowl ads cost a mere $42,000. Today they are nearly $3 million! Worth it? Well, if you consider that in some cases the ads are more of a draw than the game itself, and that you can leverage the exposure of the ad via a P/R campaign, then it could very well be worth the price of admission...just ask the folks at GoDaddy. GoDaddy was jus a small but rising company a few years back when they leveraged the farm to purchase a single spot for $2.3m. Now, GoDaddy is the largest domain registrar in the world with a host of products, and could be the next big IPO...that is if Google doesn't buy them first.

What to do during an economic slow down

I have a client who is in the construction industry and he recently told me that he just lost one of his biggest customers, about 40% of his business. Given this circumstance he wanted to pull back on some of the marketing projects we were working on. This knee-jerk reaction is not uncommon; often business owners feel the need to cut costs in slumping times and one of the first things that seems to be dispensable is advertising and marketing; however nothing could be farther from the truth. Cutting overhead expenditures is a good thing, but if you’re in business for the long haul, you actually want to increase your marketing efforts during the slow times. CLICK HERE to read the full article.

The Buzz on custom SEARCH

This is an older post from a previous blog, so it's not so new, but if you're not familar it could be useful info.

Have you heard about Google's latest offering? Customized Search...the site search tool affords the ability to create a vertical search engine specific to its subject matter. What's not to love? Google's offering lets users tap dozens, even hundreds, of sites to build a specialized engine that will search those sites alone. This verticalized concept isn't entirely new. In the late 90s when I worked for a browser company called "NeoPlanet" I was tasked to create our first verticalized browser for content specific topics/industries that had a core interest group. The browser was called "MediaPort" and was targeted to the Advertising/Media industry. The channels, or otherwise known as "favorites" was populated with content/links having to do with just the Ad/Media industry.

Thoughts or questions, please post a comment.