It seems things at Facebook are getting a little bit scary, and Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook is now personally asking people to click advertising on Facebook to help their revenue. At a speech at Harvard, she is reported (according to Reuters) to have begged:

 Sandberg, who visited her alma mater with her parents and two children, only once made reference to the IPO in her speech. After urging the graduates to use Facebook to stay in touch, she said: “We’re public now, so could you please click on an ad or two while you’re there.”

While we’re pretty sure that this is a joke on her part, is does seem more than slightly relevant. Facebook has been universally bashed this last week, after a less than stellar IPO and worse, continued questions about their advertising models.

More and more studies are showing that Facebook ads aren’t really that effective and that their horrible customer service is turning off brands left and right.

According to the LA Times:

A lot of the major brands have taken a step back this year in terms of reassessing their (Facebook) spending,” said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at online ad metrics firm EMarketer Inc. “They spent a lot last year and may be taking a second look at the value of it this year.” That reality may have spooked big investors, who stayed away from buying shares when Facebook began trading May 18. The fallout from its troubled start as a public company has drawn investor lawsuits, regulatory scrutiny and calls for congressional hearings.

Only about 1 in 1,000 Web readers clicks on the average display ad. On Facebook, that number is closer to 1 in 2,000, according to Webtrends. Even ads sent by unsolicited postal mail generate a response rate that is many times higher, according to published industry numbers.

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The success of your blog depends on a number of factors. Getting all of them right takes time and effort. Gone are the days when you could just put up a blog and have readers eat out of your hand. Today the blogosphere is much more competitive. And making a mark has become a lot more difficult.

But still, there are blogs that have managed to pull it off. They not only got the traffic, but also managed to build a strong brand. In short, they knew exactly what it takes to create a popular blog from scratch.

So what’s their secret?

There’s no real secret when it comes creating a wildly popular blog. However, there are a few things that can improve your chances. And help you take your blog to the next level. Ready?

Let’s go:

#1: Understand that there’s No Silver Bullet

If there’s one thing that can make your blogging journey even harder, then it has to be the never ending search for the magic pill. The pill that doesn’t exist.

In the beginning, it’s all about putting in your brain sweat and getting high on caffeine. Focusing on your goals and keep pushing without expecting much. That’s how you keep your expectations low and hopes high.

The moment you accept that there is no silver bullet, your blogging journey becomes a lot more easier.

#2: Be Flexible with Your Planning

A good blog is worth reading. If you want your blog to become popular, you can’t just follow a rigid plan and see growth. You have to be flexible enough to change your course as you move forward.

You have to become a good hacker. You have to learn from the other blogs around you. You have to be ready to do whatever it takes to find success. The more easy it is to alter your plans, the better results you will get in the long run.

#3: Find Your Blogging Voice

One of the worst mistakes you can make as a blogger is to sound like Darth Vader – dry with no personality.

People that subscribe to your blog and read it are the ones who are going to spread the word about it. And they want to see your personality shine through it. So give your blog a voice, and make sure it’s yours.

If you try to create a blogging persona that is not you, your audience will have a hard time getting comfortable reading your stuff. And that ultimately becomes the hurdle in your mission to make your blog popular.

If you’re good at creating actionable content, do that instead of trying to sound all dramatic. The clearer you are about your blogging voice, the easier it will be for you to connect with your readers.

#4: Have a Clear Vision

How your blog shapes up and what kind of popularity it achieves starts with your own clarity. If you’re not clear about your blogging goals and what you want to achieve out of it, no amount of marketing can help you grow.

Having a clear vision allows you to make better decisions in more than one area. It helps you get your content creation and marketing in sync. And lets you create a strong balance that makes it easy for you to take your blog to the next level.

Do you have any tips to share on creating a popular blog? Please feel free to share them below in the comments section.

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The FTC announced today it was launching a lawsuit against Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney for Deceptive Advertising. After a several week investigation they concluded that some statements made by Romney’s campaign constituted false and deceptive advertising practices, and more importantly, were fraudulent as they did not provide proof or actual studies to back up the claims.

Wait is this true? Of course not!

The FTC is not investigating Romney for deceptive advertising anymore than they require diet companies to prove absolutely without a doubt that their claims are true.

Oh, you say? Diet companies are required to prove their claims, but Presidential Candidates can spout any bull-crap they want?

Let’s not forget: Mitt Romney is a politician, and a damn good one. He was the Governor of Massachusettes, the most liberal state in the Union, and supported many, many liberal ideas from gun-control, to gay rights, to heavy taxes on the rich. Now running as President, he claiming he never supported those things, and is taking a different stance in order to try to win the race. Let’s at least be honest here: he’s lying to win the Whitehouse, but so do most people running for office.

So why isn’t he being charged by the FTC, along with dozens of politicians a week for deceptive advertising? They are clearly breaking the law, since the law prohibits deceptive advertising, right?

I’m not saying let’s actually go after Mitt Romney and other politicians but instead asking that we honestly examine why exactly the FTC is going after affiliate marketing companies and not Governor Mittens.

What about what large brands say about themselves, shouldn’t they be sued by the FTC?

Campbell’s claims their soups were “MMmm MMMmmm Good.” I personally think that they are basically “Umm..umm.. crap?” Have they proved that their soups were really good, or that most consumers think they are good? Doubtful. 9 out 10 people who eat Campbell’s soup probably agree with me.

I’m not even sure ANYTHING from McDonalds should quality as food. I’m not really sure what is in a Chicken Nugget, but I know its not Chicken.

Turns out also, Nutella isn’t really good for you either. Really, you mean that a spreadable mix of fat and chocolate isn’t exactly the best thing to feed your kid? Did anyone REALLY think that it was good for them?

Clorox Wipes claim that they are “Tough Cleaning in a Thick Wipe.” It’s on their case; I know because there is one sitting on my desk right now. Is it really, “Tough Cleaning?” Can you prove its tough, and what is that compared to? Is it tougher than a MMA fighter with a case of towels and a blowtorch? Also, the scent claims to be “Lemon Fresh.” Really? Smells like formaldehyde to me.

As much as I would like to see McDonalds sued for claiming they actually serve food, I’m more looking to see the FTC start acting fair.

Seriously guys, I think by now the general public should know that Acai berries do nothing more than give you a bad case of diarrhea (and thus, in theory weight loss?) and that working from home stuffing envelopes will only give you a nasty paper cut.

There comes a time where people need to grow up and stop believing everything they read.

That is what this comes down to: is the FTC going to far in “protecting” consumers from things that should be obvious? Are Americans really so dumb that they cannot make decisions for themselves and should the government be there to ensure to be their mommy? What point is it too ridiculous? I understand that the guys at the FTC are doing their job, and I completely support their work… still shouldn’t we expect more from the general public?

What’s your opinion? Are we really that dumb as a society?

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If you’re a webmaster or blogger that has been hit by Google’s Penguin update, then you should continue reading.

The Penguin Update was launched by the big G to take care of websites that had been clogging its results with spammy pages. Most of the websites caught by the update were guilty of artificially inflating their rankings by using shady tactics that violate Google’s guidelines.

If you are impacted by this update, you obviously want to know how you can recover from it. Even if you haven’t been hit by it, you should take proper measures to safeguard your site from the dreaded Penguin’s peck.

Here are a few tips on making sure your website nurse itself back up and recover from the impact of the update:

#1: De-optimize Your Site: Over-optimization is something you should stay away from. Because Google is keen on penalizing sites that have done too much SEO.

#2: Indulge in Quality Link Building: This one goes without saying – you have to start getting more high quality links to your website. No second thoughts on that. It’s one of the best ways to send a green signal towards Google.

#3: Go for Natural Anchor Text: No matter how hard you try to fake it, Google somehow figures out that you’re not natural. Using the same anchor text for every other incoming link to your site is not a good idea. You should try to keep it as natural as you can.

#4: Say Bye-Bye to Links in Blogrolls: Removing links from blogrolls is a step that you should take right away. Why? Because even though these links are technically not spammy, they might get you penalized. And you don’t want to take any chances.

#5: Stop Using Exact Match Domain Names: Yes, the exact match domain names used to be hot way to get your website ranked for that particular keyword phrase. But not anymore – it’s much, much harder now to convince the Penguin that your site is not spammy. The solution is to focus on brandable domain names.

#6: Add Google+ Sharing: If you’re trying to make a good impression on Google then you should enable Google+ sharing on your website. It makes your site look more authentic and approachable.

#7: Look Into Problem Areas: Go through your website and see what you can fix. Try to make it as genuine as possible. Remove any bad content or links that look spammy. The more you work on the problem areas, the better.

#8: Create Better Content: Making your site more valuable for your visitors in terms of content is really important post Penguin. It not only makes your site more real and useful, but also attracts natural links from relevant websites, giving you an edge over the competition.

#9: Stop Taking Short Cuts: It’s about time you think long term for your website in terms of ranking. You have to understand that it takes time to reach the top, and you have to put in real efforts to reach there. There’s no magic pill.

How are you coping with the Penguin Update? Do you have any tips to share with us? Do comment below and let us know!

Here’s a great interview on PMI-TV about Google Penguin

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New York Legislators have introduced a new bill, called the Internet Protection Act that would make it illegal to posts anonymously. The purpose of the bill was initially started to prevent cyber-bulling, but also includes attacks against businesses, and “baseless political attacks” when posted anonymously.

According to the author, one James Conte, “With more and more people relying on social media and the Internet to communicate and gather information, it is imperative that the legislature put into place some type of safeguard to prevent people from using the Internet’s cloak of anonymity to bully our children and make false accusations against local businesses and elected officials.”

Notice the part where they added “baseless political attacks” in order to protect themselves.

While at the outset this may not seem like something that affects our industry, it does. Anytime that the right of a person to speak their word, whether its anonymously or not, is restricted, it can be used to intimate advertisers. Much of performance-based marketing relies on viral based marketing about competing products.

Would you like to be in a situation where a company with a lot more money, decides to go after you because you were promoting a competing product without identifying yourself?

Any restriction on free speech is not only unconstitutional, but plain stupid.

On that note, James Conte you are an idiot for proposing this law. And that’s not “baseless” at all.

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It seems that everyone loves to talk about how to get advertising approved on Facebook and how exactly Google Adsense might still work for affiliates. If you look out at all the gurus programs, they seem to spend an unusual amount of time on these two platforms – but ignore one platform that I never hear anyone talk about.

This is the #2 search engine in the world, that has a worth of over $50B depending on its stock price.

That would be Baidu, the Chinese Search Engine that some people think will be worth more than Facebook in the near future.

Yes, you heard me right: the #2 search engine in the world is Baidu, not Yahoo or Bing. They don’t even come close in fact. In China it’s the #1 search engine, dominating the market, and with more Chinese speakers coming on the Internet, it might be pretty damn soon when its the top in the world.

So here comes the kicker: affiliates and marketers are not advertising on Baidu, because frankly, no one is talking about it.

Seriously: you will not find a single guru, marketing course, private forum or anyone telling you how to advertise on the #2 search engine in the world. In theory, it’s a huge untapped market for affiliates to market a variety of products that Chinese speakers both in China and the US would love

So, why aren’t people running on Baidu then? As Mike Bonfils of SEM International Explains:

Baidu’s business model is to sell its advertising via agencies. It isn’t easy to open a direct account. Baidu has hundreds, if not thousands, of “agencies” but many are not what we would expect in the West, most of Baidu’s agencies are merely “resellers” of Baidu’s advertising programs. However, there are many agencies in China who do offer added value services, as do a few overseas companies who usually have subsidiary branches in China.

The good news is that it used to be harder: Baidu used to only have a Chinese model for advertisers, and no English support whatsoever. That’s changed.

Frank Watson Explains in Search Engine Watch:

Dominant Chinese search engine Baidu quietly launched more of its international efforts with the help of a Singapore-based partner and their new website – Baidu International – and a Twitter account to start following people in the search industry.

Now marketers  really interested in Baidu can go to http://is.baidu.com/paidsearch.html and contact them directly and learn about their services. Consider this: almost no one is using Baidu in our industry, so if you are the first one to figure it out, you’re going to find yourself a very, very wealthy affiliate.

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Performance Horizon Group (PHG), a leading provider of performance marketing technology, secured a win for ‘Best New Entrant’ at the 2012 annual Performance Marketing Awards at the Grosvernor House Hotel in London on May 15, 2012.

In its sixth year, the affiliates4u Performance Marketing Awards showcase companies and individuals for their achievements and contributions to the performance marketing industry. The ‘Best New Entrant’ award was open to individuals and companies who entered (or re-entered) the performance marketing sector in the past year and made an immediate and significant industry impact.

This year’s 22 judges, including executives from Yahoo and American Express, recognized PHG as ‘Best New Entrant’ out of five shortlisted companies based on innovation, scalability, market disruption and commercial opportunity size. Judges commented that PHG’s ExactView product had the potential to “overhaul” the industry.

Since PHG launched ExactView, its platform that provides brands with a fully customized white-label solution to manage large partners globally on a performance basis, the company has experienced 20 percent month-over-month revenue growth (1000 percent in 2011) grew its staff to 25 in the U.S. and U.K. and serves 35 brand name clients in 24 countries.

Commenting on PHG’s award, CEO Malcolm Cowley remarked: “Major brands today tell us they require performance marketing technology that offers real-time access to centralized data, scalability, flexibility, reliability and enterprise-level local technical support and payment solutions at a global level.”

Cowley added: “This award reflects our ongoing commitment to position PHG as a company that meets these needs and helps brands through this transitional period to plan for growth and long-term success in performance marketing related channels.”

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Since my last article in November (Content Unlocking Exposed), the content locking industry has seen explosive growth and further recognition by advertisers as a profitable channel to generate leads, and by publishers as a viable option to monetize their premium content. The end result is that both publishers and advertisers have been able to generate increasingly high ROIs in comparison to (or in conjunction with) traditional marketing channels.

Publishers are often asking how to maximize earning potential with content locking. In most cases, they are only looking into the short term and are at times willing to forgo end user satisfaction for more ad revenues. However, I have asserted this many times before and firmly believe that the true earning potential of content locking can be achieved by focusing on:  

 1) Seamless integration

It is imperative that publishers choose the content locking integration that is best suited for their premium content. The right integration will be seamless for the end user and thus decrease bounce rate, increase end user response rate, increase end user satisfaction, and ultimately increase revenues generated. At Adscend Media, we provide the standard overlay content locking tool, a hosted file/link locking tool, and a robust API that allows complete customization for advanced publishers with basic programming knowledge.  After selecting the tool that will best fit your premium content, it is important to make full use of the available customization options to make the content locking integration as seamless as possible with the premium content. It’s important to use customized background images, relevant header text, to optimize other available options, and optionally to select the highest EPC offers that are relevant to your site audience.

Example: An indie artist with a website to share and sell their music could integrate content locking by adding an alternative to their purchase button. The alternative button (which could state something like “Download for Free*” with a disclaimer underneath noting it requires an offer completion and other relevant disclaimers) will load up the Adscend Media robust API customized to have the same look and feel as the website. This will allow the artist to introduce an additional revenue stream without affecting the current revenue streams, and the fans will feel more comfortable exploring the new option if they are interested.

2) Slowly introducing the tool to the audience  

Publishers who are looking to introduce content locking on their websites should introduce the tool slowly to assess the impact it has on their audience. The goal is to be as minimally invasive as possible of the end user experience. This involves assessing your typical users and how they would respond to the content locking tool, including at different integration points. Split testing various integration points is a way to determine what your site audience responds to best. If possible, I always recommend that publishers introduce the tool to the major countries first to assess the performance. Remember, some international countries have no offers, or offers that are not satisfactory for some end users. In those cases, it may be best to introduce the content locking tool to users from specified countries. 

Example: The same indie artist in the first example could explore integrating the content locking tool at different points on the website. In the beginning stages, the tool can be introduced as a promotional pop up to gather and assess user feedback before introducing it as a permanent feature. The tool can be introduced in the major countries first, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. As feedback is received, the indie artist can assess whether to introduce additional countries. After some testing, the indie artist may decide to limit the tool to certain countries where it performs best to ensure user experience in a country with limited offer/survey choices is unaffected.

3) Provide content that creates value for the end user   

Content is vastly different and some content is a better fit for the content locking tool than others. It is very important for publishers to provide the end user valuable content to ensure they keep coming back for more. There is a higher likelihood that users will come back for additional content if the quality of the content provided is high. 


Here is a brief list of ideas/content that may work well with content locking:

-   Mobile apps (both allowing users to download apps for completing a survey & in app monetization)

-  Instructional videos (e.g. specific guitar lessons)

-   Virtual worlds (items/currency)
-   Font site, wallpapers, Windows themes
-   Guitar tabs, bass tabs, sheet music, etc.
-   Music – if you own the rights, you can lock it! Indie bands can offer songs for free and fans can support their artists by downloading. Also makes a good Donate alternative
-   Templates: web, flash, WordPress, forum, etc.
-   File conversion sites (doc/docx, PDF, keep it legit)
-  Graphics: icons, stock photos/images, textures
-   Software downloads or in software monetization
-   Games (online/flash, freeware, items/currency)
-   How-to sites similar to eHow or Instructables
-   Code, plugins (forum, etc.), browser add-ons, royalty free sounds
-   House plans, blueprints, etc
-   Online shopping carts – as ‘payment’ method / free shipping / discounts
-   Free blurays, movie tickets, CDs/iTunes, books/Amazon cards, photo prints
-   Ebooks

Although it is easier for publishers to simply add the content locking tool as-is to their websites, taking an approach that considers the site audience will maximize the earning potential for publishers in the long term. 

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AffiliateTraction is the first affiliate marketing agency to offer affiliate program content oversight for affiliate program management. AffiliateTraction, the multi-national affiliate adverting agency responsible for programs such bebe.com, SKECHERS.com, Forever 21, and Lord & Taylor, has partnered with AdComply to provide internet retailers with a way to ensure affiliates’ content is in compliance with their affiliate program policies. The co-developed, customized and client-level customizable solution enables coupon code and content monitoring and provides software tools for monitoring redirects, errors, or dead links, including proprietary technology developed by AffiliateTraction to correct these issues. The product also reviews affiliates’ website copy for vulgarity, hate speech, drug, and alcohol and tobacco related language and reports any violations, enabling AffiliateTraction to provide a higher quality service and higher quality traffic to its internet retailer clients.

AffiliateTraction has taken content oversight to the next level by integrating the results into their proprietary single-point client dashboard, which offers merchants a single-login access to view all affiliate program sales, traffic statistics, comprehensive and real-time financial savings data, and brand compliance oversight summaries. AffiliateTraction has also built-in technology to manage promotion codes for validity, identifying (previously unidentifiable)affiliates who may continue to promote campaigns past their expiration date or promote coupons they are restricted from using, resulting in dissatisfied customers and lower sales conversions.

AffiliateTraction uses AdComply technology to monitor publishers for violations in ad placement, ad copy and surrounding webpage content, allowing the agency to identify and prevent efforts that may be out of date, harmful to client brand identity, or in violation with affiliate terms. AffiliateTraction chose AdComply after multiple side-by-side tests with other content brand oversight solutions, determining it to be the best solution for their clients, and AdComply has proven that with flexibility, technological growth, and ongoing evolutions in fighting site content brand violations .

CEO of AdComply, Kevin Wolski, touched on this point when discussing the new partnership, “We have been collaborating with AffiliateTraction for close to a year now, developing a specific suite of tools to support AffiliateTraction based on their specifications. Partnering with AffiliateTraction has been a great benefit as we were able to leverage their extensive knowledge and client base as an affiliate marketing agency to develop the best in content brand oversight. An area of growing concern in the affiliate space has been promotion code affiliates and how publishers are using promotion codes and discount offers. The system built for AffiliateTraction monitors these traffic sources to ensure publishers are using up to date and correct codes,” explained Wolski.

AffiliateTraction CEO Greg Shepard stressed the importance of the partnership with AdComply, “AffiliateTraction specializes in brand equity internet retailers. We must be able to ensure all our clients’ brands are protected in all channels at all times and we consistently seek vendors like AdComply to help us achieve this goal. We chose AdComply because they enable transparency into the exact content and placement of our clients’ ads on affiliate sites. Their services have allowed us to provide extreme value to every client because our in-house staff can closely monitor each affiliate program and help clients to save valuable time, money, and brand value.”

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Wrote a nice blog post, think people will like it? Well, that’s obviously the first part, but now you need to market it, drive visitors to it. Here’s a handy InfoGraphic from Divvy that explains 12 steps on marketing your blog post.

As always, click on the InfoGraphic to get a full version, otherwise its not very helpful.

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