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Meet Me in Austin at SXSW Interactive

March 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

interactive_icon I’m headed to Austin today and I am typing this post from the airplane trip on the way.  It seems to be a good way to get a post up and I am using Windows Live Writer which allows me to post numerous articles and blog posts from my desktop.  I can draft a number of posts and later when I find wifi or Internet access I can upload them to the blog for posting.  Us professional bloggers can use all the help we can and I recommend that you give it a try.

While in Austin I will be trying to meet as many people as possible.  I have a few appointments set up and I have a few parties on the schedule.  Luckily, I have been asked to be a wingman for Rick Calvert at Blog World Expo which I am looking forward to as much as the trip.  I’m going to be representing Twitterlights while I am at Barcamp as they are a sponsor.  If you have any questions about the application or you want a quick tour, please feel free to stop by and ask me how it works.  I’ll also be helping my friends at Lijit, by connecting them with some of my friends and helping show off their cool Lijit wijit and hopefully get a few of you to download the application and see how it works.  I’ll bet I even have a few stickers to give away too.  I am also helping out a long time client with his company’s new ad feed that they are introducing to everyone from Hostway.  They are hoping to show off their new launch.  Finally, I may even drop in have a meeting with my friends at Photrade as I understand they will be there looking to show off their new photo sharing site.  As it turns out this cool convention where everyone is there to party is turning out to be a lot of work for me.  I suppose this makes up for last year as I got nothing done and spent far too much time at the bar.

If you are going to be at the SXSW Interactive conference, please look me up.  I’ll be the one hard at work, and still having fun.  This after all us the ultimate social networking you can do.  If you want to be introduced to any of the people I’ll be their with, by all means come on up and buy me a drink, or dinner, or just give me the cash…well that’s not a requirement.  Hope to see you all there!

Filed Under: Client Sites, Conferences/Trade Shows, Services

Technorati Changing The Way It Does Business

February 29, 2008 By 1 Comment

richardjalichandra Technorati has been an icon of the blogosphere since Dave Sifry began the company to track blogs and provide bloggers with statistics and search.  It was the first thing people downloaded to their blogs, and the first part of setting up a blog.  They seem to have lost that celebrity status.  There are so many companies that have been cracking away at that Technorati keystone that it appears they may crumble.  I have been waiting to hear some news from the Technorati camp and it appears that news is bubbling up as reported by TechCrunch.

When I talked with Richard Jalinchandra in Las Vegas at the Blog World Expo in November, he mentioned then that Technorati was in for some changes and that he wanted to lead the company back to its glory days.  He couldn’t talk then about what he was doing but it seems that the cool stuff I expected and the things the head of marketing, Aaron Krane,  talked about on my Social Mediapshere radio show would make them a shining star again.  I didnt expect them to enter the advertising arena.

Tris an I questioned them on why they were not indexing search results past six months and it looks like they may be rethinking that with adding an advertising component to their search.  Arrington states:

Technorati will certainly be competing head to head with FM, although sources say they’ll focus on the long tail of the market as well (FM only takes larger sites). The network will be a self-serve exchange for bloggers (and other publishers) as well as advertisers. Ad units will include both display and text ads, and will allow units to be charged on both a CPM and CPC basis. (emphasis added)

I was hoping that Technorati would be adding some features that would be more than just another way for bloggers to add a revenue component to their blogs.  I want to see them return to an application I would run to five times a day because they offered a way to see stats and a something that was cool to experience as I did back in the day.

This is part of the reason I have hooked my wagon to the folks at Lijit*.  I certainly see that they have ideas to make their “wijit” something that is a first add-on to a blog.  I am not sensing that Technorati has that coolness factor in mind.  I certainly understand that after raising $20M in funding you might want to start thinking of making money and perhaps they will change the way they run their business and we have only seen the beginning of their new glory days.  It appears Richard is doing his job of CEO and is running the company in the best interest of those investors, but I for one want to see them do some things they used to do, only better.  Don’t make it about the page views make it about the blogger and a company that every blogger loves to use.

[photo via Brian Solis]

*Lijit is a client and I do some evangelism for them.

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Metrics, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Blogging News, Blogonomics, Business Blogging, Marketing, Mediasphere Radio, Social Media

Startup Companies Making Money From Free

February 20, 2008 By 2 Comments

I have been thinking about the comment left on my post about Blog Talk Radio and their attempt at monetizing their application.  Then I read today over at HipMojo the article about why companies that are basing themselves on ad revenue will fail.  It helped me formulate my own opinion about how companies in the tech world are struggling with making money.  It is a dance that seems hard to learn.

The game plan seems to be along these syllogistic lines.

  • Come up with an application that fills a need.
  • Develop the application.
  • Launch it and see if it scales, get user feedback and adjust its use accordingly.
  • Begin to build your user base until you reach some determined tipping point number. (This is probably the most difficult step in the overall business plan.)

These are the initial outlines I have seen.  During this period you may have an angel investment or a small first round to get to the tipping point number.  The next step is where it gets tricky.  Now that we are at our initial goal, how do we make it profitable?

Companies have built the trust and admiration of their users by providing a great application that is free and useful.  The users are making it an integral part of their lives.  The company has developed and gathered this large community.  They must leverage that into real money.  As I see it, they have but two choices, advertise or begin charging for the service they once before gave away for free.  A blend of these two would be a third choice.

Advertisers want eyeballs and reach.  The users are what they seek, and the more the better.  It’s all about the page views and the numbers generated from people.  Fewer users, the less they pay for your real estate.  Increasing page views and users increases revenue.  This is a hard fact as CEO’s try to guide the company to profitability.  If an application has 100,000 users it is worth more to an advertiser than 10,000 users.  Companies sell to advertisers and tell them, “We have 100,000 users at X amount of page views.”  The media buyers line up for those numbers.  Problem is, companies such as Blog Talk Radio have to sell based on those numbers, but then they must get the customer or users to get behind the plan. If they ask the users permission perhaps they only have 50,000 of the 100,000 users that will allow ads.  Now their property is worth 50% less to advertisers, and they don’t make money at that level.

Their second choice.  They begin charging the users for using the service.  Or as I indicated above the third choice, charging those that elect not to have advertising on the application a premium. The third choice allowing both opt in and opt out income.  This is risky as you may chase off users that were really sold on the application that was free, but not so warm to paying a fee for the service, or having advertisements show up on a usually clean page. 

It’s a chess match played by advertisers and CEO’s and ultimately users.  How can they all be happy?  I’m not sure that is entirely possible but their must be a compromise somewhere.  Companies are struggling to be profitable, advertisers are cutting their spend to increase their return on their own investment, and meanwhile, the user holds the power of being part of the community and whether the user wants to sell their eyeballs.

I have been touting 2008 as “The Year of The User.”  Companies have been building their user base.  The power the users hold with their attention and their eyeballs and presence make the other parties to the dance want to court them.  I’m not sure the answer, but I think ultimately it will raise the cost of advertising, and may force a new metric not based upon the number of eyeballs and page views.  Who flinches first has not been determined.

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Metrics, Blog Revenue, Blogonomics, Marketing, Media, Mediasphere Radio, Partnerships, Services, Social Media

Blog Talk Radio Learns Monetization and Forces Endorsements

February 15, 2008 By 2 Comments

btrlogo I am a really big fan of Blog Talk Radio and have met Alan Levy, John Havens, Lisa Padilla, their newest addition, Kris Smith, and have spoken to others in their organization.  They are a bunch of great people.  They have a super application that is easy to use, is free for its users, and overall they have allowed me to have a radio/podcast show where I otherwise would not have had the ability or technology.  I can use something I am familiar with using, my computer and my phone.  I have done numerous shows on Social Mediasphere Radio and on Blog World Expo Radio and have praised them at every step.

This is why it will be difficult for me to shell out some harsh criticism now.  It is more than a small matter to me.  The have moved to their next level of “monetization” of their application.  After all, companies must make money and this is new territory still and companies are working hard to figure ways to get into the black.  I know first hand of companies that are making this a priority for 2008.  There has yet to be a surefire way for people to do this besides the obvious, advertising.  Blog Talk Radio is no different.

I received this email from Frank Neill, Director of Advertising, today that indicates that they are moving into this next phase of monetizing their application.

Dear Host,

Thank you for being such an important part of  BlogTalkRadio. BlogTalkRadio just recently passed 52,000 shows since we launched the company in the fall of 2006. We have created a community of thousands of hosts and millions of listeners. And, through the RevShare program, we are all in this together!

Obviously I am not the only one that loves the program and their system.

In January 2008, we launched a RevShare program where our hosts have an opportunity to participate in the revenues earned from advertisers. If you have not yet joined our RevShare program, you can do so by completing the RevShare form located at [link omitted].

I am always happy to earn money from my efforts and if a company is using my content and my participation to earn that revenue, I think it is actually only fair that they offer me a piece of the pie.  But this is where the email turns south for me.

RevShare hosts will earn 35% of all revenue for advertising from their shows, and they can earn 50% of revenue from their sponsors that they bring to BlogTalkRadio. With our RevShare program in place, participating hosts will earn money for downloads and page impressions they generate. Keep in mind that BlogTalkRadio will serve ads on your show even if you have not opted in to the RevShare program. [emphasis added]

Big scratching noise across the LP for that last sentence.  If I’m to understand that paragraph, I can opt in to be paid for my content on Blog Talk Radio and they cay earn money and I can earn money, but if I don’t opt in to the rev share, they are going to put ads on my content whether I like it or not.  Huh?  What if I don’t endorse the product that is being advertised on my content?  Perhaps I have a religious, political, or moral reasons I don’t want to have a certain company using my content for their gain.  The tone behind it is one that is difficult to swallow as well.  “We’ll do it whether you like it or not.”  I know that was not the company intent.  A conversation with John Havens confirms it was in no way the company’s position.

The email goes on to say how they will be paying out for the revenue earned, and then talks about some ads already in place for “Run In Network” ads that run on all shows.  Examples given are “LifeLock, AccuQuote, Rosetta Stone and Internet Speedway.”

What if I don’t want Internet Speedway showing up on my content.  What happens if I am a direct competitor of theirs?  I have no control over their being splashed across my Social Mediasphere show?  I don’t endorse or approve of their business, but I am now forced to accept that forced endorsement?

To me as a business owner it is unacceptable.  Would I pay for ads not to appear on my shows or would I pay for a “pro” account” to control my own ads?  I probably would given the benefits I am receiving, but to put an add on my show that I do not endorse or don’t want is madness.  John made mention that this may be an offering that will later be put into place.  Yes, growing pains are just that, painful.

I have spoken to John Havens at Blog Talk Radio for comment about this and as always he is the very professional and asked that I speak directly to Frank Neill the advertising director. I will certainly post a follow up to that conversation.  I’m also about to scour the terms of service as it may reveal something I have missed.  I guess I don’t often rant about things here so this is new ground for me, but I guess I should ask, “Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?”  How about suggestions for the team at Blog Talk Radio?

UPDATE:  If anyone had any doubts about how cool the team is at BTR, check out their response from Frank Neill in the comments here.  I also want to reprimand myself for forgetting to change the title here after I spoke the first time to John Havens.  I changed the content but forgot the title.  I wont change it now but I think more appropriate title should be more like “Blog Talk Radio Enters Monetization and Learns How Hard It Can Be To Make A Buck.”  My hat is off to them as they give away the cow and try to sell the milk to their users.  I think a new post is now forming as well.  Are we too used to getting things for free?

Filed Under: Advertising, Blogonomics, Marketing, Media, Mediasphere Radio, Social Media

A New Fox In The Yahoo Hen House

February 13, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Silicon Alley Insider is discussing the fact that Fox News Corp. is trying to make a back door deal with Yahoo. In the words of my friend Dave Taylor, “so what?”  Apparently, Yahoo will do anything not to fall into the hands of Microsoft or do they actually realize this is inevitable and they are trying to make Microsoft hurt a little when they raise the stakes.

Mike Arrington goes into a little more detail about what the deal may entail as it relates to what money or assets would trade hands or at least be a part of the deal.

According to our source, the deal structure would spin off Fox Interactive Media (the primary asset is MySpace, but IGN, Scout Media, Photobucket, Fox Sports, AmericanIdol.com, Flektor, Ksolo; plus investments in Hulu, Simply Hired and Snocap are also assets of FIM) into Yahoo, along with a big cash injection from News Corp. and an unnamed private equity fund. The total investment would be valued at around $15 billion.

I’m really failing to see what the benefits are to the shareholders of Yahoo.  They after all are the decision makers here.  Besides a big dose of cash what are the shareholders really gaining as it values their stock?  MySpace may be a nice carrot, but not something Yahoo really needs.  I doubt Myspace has the momentum to pull Yahoo from its current slide.

My thought is that this is a deal that is really just going to make Microsoft really hurt when they write that check.  Yahoo wants a competing offer to make sure that Microsoft must raise its own offer.  I think that Yahoo sees the writing on the wall but is doing what they can to make sure they go out in blaze of glory.  Of course at this point with all of those 1,000 employees now looking outside Yahoo for jobs, glory is a relative term.

Filed Under: Blogonomics, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Partnerships, Social Media

We Live In A Google World

February 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I have been preaching to people as long as I remember that “We live in a Google World.  I happened upon a post today by Owen Thomas (no I’m not a Valleywag reader, I thank Techmeme) about Google and its global market share.  He refers to a chart done by Efficient Frontier Insights showing the market share of the search engines across the globe.

globalsem

Obviously as the chart shows, Google is enjoying the lion share of search marketing.  Some say it is because they are more targeted with their technology.  Others say it is because they have more advertisers and more publishers.  I think it is because they do search better than any other company.  It will be interesting to see if Microsoft is able to capture a little more piece of the pie and if they can put a dent in the market share owned by Google.  When I hear that Yahoo is thinking of outsourcing  its search to Google, it does not give me much confidence that Microsoft is getting the best in search from Yahoo, and obviously its search engine at MSN is not making much of a race of search in its own right.

UPDATE:  For a deeper analysis check out HipMojo.com

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Blogonomics, Findability, Marketing, Media, Partnerships, Search Engine Optimization

New York Times Must Adapt or Die?

February 3, 2008 By 2 Comments

As I looked over some of my feeds in my RSS reader today I cam across a piece written by Marc Andreessen about the deathwatch of the New York Times.  His sarcasm in the piece makes it a fun read in spite of the message.  His take as I read it is that unless changes are made in the way they are doing business, they will soon be out of business.  I tend to agree with Mark Evans piece that the New York Times must change the way they do business or perhaps the deathwatch will be a credible idea.  We have already experienced the death of a newspaper after 126 years in business. 

As traditional advertising takes a turn in its direction, older traditional media will have to adapt to go where the money is and change their business models to keep revenues that they are losing to online media.

Filed Under: Advertising, Blogonomics, Marketing, Media

We Are Here, We Are Blogging, We Are Evolving, We Are One By One Media

November 14, 2007 By 2 Comments

Many of you have come by here and wanted to know what is going on in the world of One By One Media, and why we have been dormant.  There are many reasons( you know what they say about excuses), but the biggest of which is we are terribly busy, and suffice it to say that in this case, blogging here seems to have taken a back burner priority.  Those darn clients and customers can be so demanding!

We were recently out in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center attending, exhibiting and speaking at the Blog World and New Media Expo last week, and I for one am trying to get my feet under me again from what turned out to be a smashing success for us here at One By One Media and for Bloggers For Hire.  I am working on a recap post with photos and all kinds of information and I will be posting that shortly.  I was so glad to get to meet many people in our blogging industry, (yes we are now our own industry) and actually meet in the flesh those that I feel I have known as colleagues and friends online for a long time.  We are about to launch a new look and feel at One By One Media, so stay tuned for more of that soon.  For now, we are trying to get back into gear and up to speed.

Filed Under: Announcements, Blog Consulting, Bloggers For Hire, Conferences/Trade Shows, Marketing, Services, Social Media, The Site

The New Era of Social Media: The Growth Stage and Education

September 2, 2007 By 1 Comment

On the same vein as my lost post regarding a blogging hiccup or what I see as a new era of business blogging, we are now at a crossroad of corporate advertising, marketing and PR online.  There are many forward thinking companies that are early adopters, and especially in the technical world where technology is seen as a tool to harness if you want to succeed.  So where are we in the adoption of social media as it relates to the rest of the companies and corporations?  We are at a new beginning, the stage of educating the rest of the world. Those companies that didn’t get it, the ones that want to see what the early adopters did and what worked and what didn’t.

800px-ProductLifeCycle We have seen it in our own business model here at One By One Media and Bloggers For Hire.  We really didn’t have to sell real hard to get companies that were contacting us about business blogging and hiring bloggers.  They wanted to adopt the technology and they wanted to make it a part of their online presence.  They were already sold on the idea.  All I or any other social media consultant had to do was implement the tools necessary for the company to join in the social media world.  We had the good life then, and our sales were self fulfilling prophecies.  Now we are in the education stage of the rest of the world.  These companies and corporations are not yet sold on the idea of social media.  In fact, I think it was stated best in a post and thread at the newly canceled Blog Business Summit.

Steve Broback wrote:

Like the Lambada, I don?t believe my original, 1990?s era event model is nearly as viable as it used to be, and certainly not so for the BBS. The BBS really never attracted the huge numbers of marketing and PR types that clearly *needed* to learn this stuff. I tried very hard with the Chicago event to attract that demographic and our efforts washed up on shore like a dead fish.

In addition, we emailed, snail mailed, and telephoned 250 CTOs and CIOs and invited them to come and learn how Wikis and blogs can enable internal knowledge sharing. They were terrified, and only 3 signed up. A couple even said they were ?too busy? with their current efforts to reign in email overload to take the time to attend(!) (emphasis added)

This was a very astute thought and a comment by Kevin Hillstrom about the event:

In the posts of the past two days, one can see that you feel hurt by spending so much time and effort to evangelize something you believe in, only to have to make tough choices that may, on the surface, appear contrary to what you?ve evangelized over a period of several years.

It will probably be hard, but try to not blame people who ?don?t get it?. It is just as likely that people failed to do a good job of educating folks as it is that people ?don?t get it?. You?ll never know which of those two issues is the right one.

Teresa mentioned that companies that don?t get this are ?sunk?. They aren?t. They are simply missing an opportunity to improve the performance of their business.

When the conversation turns to picking on the ones who you are trying to evangelize, you make it that much harder to be successful in the long term.

Don?t feel bad about having to cancel something you so strongly believed in. Spend your efforts moving forward, showing folks that they can benefit by doing what you?re suggesting, and that what you?re suggesting is evolving and changing every day.

I sent two folks to your conference last year. One of those folks made a difference in her organization, armed with the knowledge she gained. Know that your efforts do help others who have an interest in your subject matter.

Kevin’s comment is spot on in my opinion.  We will need to show the examples of the past early adopters.  We need to take those examples and show the rest of the corporate world how the companies used the tool and how it benefited them and provide hard numbers for those companies to see for a return on their investment. As mentioned, Teresa stating that companies not adopting this social media tool are not sunk, but if companies want to differentiate themselves from their competitors, they can, if not, they are missing the opportunity.  I think we agree on the fact that if a company misses out on enough opportunities, sooner than later they will eventually sink  and die.  It will be up to them if they sink or swim, but it is up to us as social media consultants to throw them a life raft if needed.

So where do we go from here?  Now is truly the call for social media consultants to become evangelists. It’s time to stop preaching to the choir and truly find followers that want to succeed in business using social media tools.  Now is when we have the tough sell.  The easy sell is a thing of the past.  Pull in your numbers, get those examples ready, and show what you have done, and what you can do in the future.  It’s not going to be the easy contract that you get now, but one that you truly earn.

Filed Under: Advertising, Announcements, Blog Consulting, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Companies Needing Blogs, Conferences/Trade Shows, Corporate Blogs, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Services, Social Media

Join One By One Media in Chicago at the Blog Business Summit 07

August 21, 2007 By 1 Comment

BBSChicagoSponsor One By One Media is once again a proud sponsor of the Blog Business Summit in Chicago, September 17-19, 2007.  We were a sponsor last year in Seattle and it proved to be some of the best marketing money I have ever spent.  Money is tight in every small company, but if you plan to attend any social media type conference this year, this one is the one you should choose to attend.  If you are a large company, you better attend so as to compete with the smaller businesses wanting a piece of your social media pie.

This conference is the premiere event for all things business blogging.  Each time I have attended I have learned new things about business blogging, have met new friends, and have made important contacts that were important to my business.  The parties are fun, the hallway discussions are invaluable and they usually have some great food and provide excellent facilities.  This year is their first year in the middle of the country and not on the West coast so I know it will open up some opportunities for the east coasters and southern attendees to get a taste of the fun. 

If you want to attend, and would like to get a discount, of course who wouldn’t want a discount, then all you need to do is enter in a simple code when signing up for the event.  One By One Media has been given a special discount code you can use.  When registering just use P65CHI and you get an immediate savings of $100.00.  Can’t beat it!  If you decide to use this code to sign up for the conference, I will personally give you a free gift!  In order to find out how cool that gift is, you need to sign up and use the code!

Filed Under: Advertising, Announcements, Blog Consulting, Blog Tips, Bloggers For Hire, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Conferences/Trade Shows, Marketing, Social Media
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