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Make a Joyful Noise – The Noughties Are Over

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:43:00 +0000

Those clever guys at Google have done it again. The new search algorithms for Google News offer personalized results. Yeah, the cookies they stick in your PC collect a lot of goodies but pushing up search results based on every individuals profile and history will be quite satisfying.

This will not, however, please everybody. Those who believe Google is a content parasite and plan, once everybody agrees, to force the search giant to pay up have just seen an example of how far ahead Google is. That would be ten steps, around the corner and over the rainbow.

Those on the other side – and that includes most search users – can only say ‘YES!’

By the way, whatever happened to Bing?

Google getting into real estate advertising, merging Google Street with AdWords, won’t please some. Google getting into the mobile phone business and the web browser business is more worrisome. Big and rich as it is, brand extensions are out of season.

Twitter Down

Yep, it was Iranian hackers who took down Twitter last week. Smack. Then it was Facebook ‘adjusting’ their privacy policies.

Social media are games, meant to be games. Some people enjoy playing. Some people take social media seriously. Some people enjoy playing Monopoly but nobody takes it seriously. Anybody who plays Texas Hold ‘Em is serious.

There is a showdown coming.

New Journalism is Here

Actually, journalism hasn’t changed. There’s just less of it. If journalism is giving context to facts and figures, the practice is still with us. Reporting – names, dates and numbers – fills our heads, mostly with random headlines.

The new journalism gives context, in a sense. Headlines aggregated by robots – machine and otherwise – allow one and all to construct context, subtext and pretext as desired. The result is called noise.

Are people better informed? Who can tell?

Smartphone Wars Are Just Starting

Through the miracle of technology, richly aided by venture capital, mobile devices leapt into the hands and pockets of just about everybody. At the beginning of the last decade a mobile phone was, well, just a mobile phone; very convenient, yes? Not for a second has the mobile gizmo business stood still.

Apple’s iPhone blew a hole in a business plan that, by mid-decade, was stagnating in its own success. Not only did the mobile phone become a fashion accessory, they did cool stuff. You’re nobody without a smartphone app.

There’s money at every step in the mobile phone value chain. Handset makers make money. Multiplex owners make money. Developers make money. All this money in the mobile gizmo system causes a Pavolvian response from investment bankers and venture capitalists. Google is hours away from launching its mobile gizmo. Whoopie!!

The Internet Becomes Public Service

That’s the good news and that’s the bad news. About half of all Europeans access the internet at least once a week. The ubiquity is at a point where vital services may only be available on the Web, widely accessible by broad populations.

But the Web performs poorly as a money magnet. Oh, you say? Isn’t the internet lifting money by the bucket-full from newspapers, magazines, television, radio and the rest of old media?

No, not really. Less than 10% of all advertising and communications spending has gone to the Web. The rest remains with the tattered old media.

And, giga-byte for giga-byte, people are spending less for internet access. Major cities are offering free wireless internet access. Hello!!

Some Web pages are still created by humans, once referred to as writers, photographers and graphic artists. Accountants prefer machine and algorithm content. The race to provide vast content as cheaply as inhumanly possible is a race to the bottom.

The Loyalty of Advertising

Advertising people are as loyal as hyenas and laugh just as loud. With easy credit fueling lightheadedness among consumer products clients, the ad people spent it like they’d earned it. Remember all those ads for amazing mortgages, more amazing automobiles and incredibly amazing other stuff?

The advertising people made two convenient discoveries during the noughties. The first was that the cost of internet advertising always moves lower. This benefits the advertising people by pushing down all ad placement costs. Soon it will be zero.

The second major discovery was that corporate communications – that’s PR to the rest of us – is extremely profitable.

Public Broadcasting Reverts to State Broadcasting

Public service broadcasting faced down its crisis of mission at the beginning of the last decade. With money flowing like water, PSBs became popular, dynamic and independent. For politicians that was too popular, too dynamic and far too independent.

Private sector competition was left in the dirt until the EU Competition Commissioner started asking questions about State aid. All of a sudden, politicians began weighing the relative merits of the old system: state broadcasting. And, too, changing laws frequently to accommodate every wish is tedious and torturous. Private sector broadcasting, concessions awarded by regulators appointed by politicians, can generally be trusted to keep controversy to a minimum. Renewals are guaranteed with the appropriate gratuity paid.

Politicians also like being on television and radio. They like it best when inconvenient questions are never asked. The infamous words of former US President Ronald Reagan, “I bought this microphone,” resonate with those needing media that gratefully accommodates.

Europe’s dual public-private broadcasting system yields far more benefit than harm, both to the public and to the media sector broadly. At their best, they are good competitors. Preserving a balanced dual system of broadcasting – with all implications understood – is a challenge worthy of statesmanship. Sadly, that is not rising to the surface.

If you loved the Soviet Union, you’ll love a return to state radio.

Globalization is Dead

A little reported OECD analysis (December 8) recently showed that foreign trade is slumping. Direct foreign investment in mergers and acquisitions, it said, has fallen 60% since 2008 in OECD countries, the world’s 30 most developed, the biggest one-year drop since 1995. Private equity firms and big companies have stopped spending.

M&A activity is a significant economic indicator. Investors spend strategically when same sector opportunities arise. Purely financial investment is often a hedge against unstable economics. When both drop there’s trouble right here in river city.

The €1 billion deal by Mediaset for Prisa, announced Sunday (December 20) is big money – about one-third what was originally expected. It qualifies as a strategic opportunity for Mediaset. The next year will tell if it is worth the trouble.

Signs that attitudes toward global media are souring have been popping up over the course of the last several months. M&A activity in the media sector isn’t just cold, it’s freezing. That’s only one aspect. Ad spending – such as it is – is turning toward local markets. Global brands, some suffering, are concentrating their marketing investments in ‘close-to-home’ and ‘sure-bet’ markets.

The digital dividend and other scams

At the beginning of the now departed decade, the digital dividend was supposed to make everybody happy. There’s no other way to put it because nobody could explain what it was supposed to give us. Ten years later, most in the media sector realize the digital dividend went to somebody else.

Digital television, yet to be completely fulfilled across Europe, was to bring quality, choice, interactivity and – most of all – money. Yes, the number of channels available has nearly tripled in a decade; picture quality is better. Instead of 100 channels and nothing on TV, it’s 500 channels. The major beneficiaries are telecoms and governments; telecoms need spectrum for wireless broadband, governments want license revenue.

Starting out in the last century as a relatively benign experiment in spectrum management, digital radio’s failure is emblematic of the digital dividend. The tail, so to speak, tried to wag the dog. There was no misunderstanding except, perhaps, by the public. Digital radio was a cure for which there was no disease. Radio listeners queried by policy makers’ consultants always talked about wanting more choices. Nobody had any real idea what that meant until the Apple iPod arrived.

By then it was too late.

Can’t Do It

Late in the last century the iconic “Just Do It” ad campaign from Nike sent a fever through the media world. It traveled around the world, fueled by the warm climate of globalized media and Nike’s profit margins. The ad writers’ brilliance found new language for desire, media powered it and people believed.

In the first decade of this century, once the original dot coms were written off, reality took off. The originating hook for Big Brother and its derivatives – an important term during the last decade – was the power of everyman, the not so subtle reality that every person wanted their 15 minutes of fame and people will watch. Whether or not people watched Big Brother is irrelevant; people talked about it.

Well-crafted (and scripted) television comedy and drama has become expensive. Financial advantage was lost on the realization that people watch nearly anything and costly production bore little short-term fruit. High cost content production, whether for newspapers or television channels, is out.

This isn’t exactly news. Reality show Big Brother, which arrived at the beginning of the decade, was designed as cheap content, literally and figuratively. Lots of TV viewers were satisfied. Broadcasters with 168 hours a week of time per channel to fill were also satisfied. Now reality TV programs are considered too expensive by many broadcasters.

Sports is another guaranteed audience draw. To the consternation of some, major sporting events are being pulled behind a pay-wall. Rights fees continue to rise as telecoms enter the bidding. Free-to-air broadcasters, public and private, can’t find the money.

What Happens in America Stays in America

The most dynamic media in the world has been American. And the world rushed to emulate its every appearance. Those days are over.

I write this as news arrives of yet another American media company – Citadel – filing for bankruptcy. It joins the Tribune Company, Clear Channel and other smaller companies crushed by debt and management of questionable competence.American bankruptcy law allows companies to keep operating while “restructuring” obligations.In most of the rest of the world the doors would be slammed shut.

American media invented modern popular media - radio, television and newspapers – and with it the advertising styles to pay for it all. American pop culture, attached firmly to pop media, traveled around the globe in spite of the best efforts of cultural critics. It’s so last century.

American media, by the end of the last century, was noteworthy for its business practice. Modestly profitable enterprises became wildly profitable in the aggressive quest for bigger audiences, pent-up consumer demand from the 1980’s and easy credit fueling a rise in ad spending. Stock traders and investment bankers took note, believing the tide would always rise, and threw even more money into the system. Multi-millionaires were made, the American dream.

In Europe, more than the rest of the world, American media and the millions it made for owners and operators was an object of deep admiration or deep fear. While American media companies only occasionally tested European ownership, American consultants flooded in. American productions continue to dominate European TV channels. American style ad selling has become the norm. Most every newspaper, radio station and TV channel shows, to a greater or lesser degree, the influence of American media.

Several European countries passed laws to limit foreign – code for American – investors in the media and other “strategic sectors.” Those opening their media sector to outside investment wanted American money, accepted a certain amount of knowledge transfer and hoped they wouldn’t stay too long. The media sector became simply another part of foreign trade.

But American media changed. Financial innovation (think Enron and WorldCom) replaced innovative audience building. Now American media is one of the fastest shrinking sectors in its economy. Two-fifths of journalists jobs have been lost since the beginning of the century. DJs have left the radio stations. Whole newspapers have disappeared. Don’t blame the advertising people.

It Will Be Smaller

No matter how we slice it, the media sector will be smaller. Simple economics has its way of dictating far more than producers, politicians or, even, consumers. Nobody will be pleased.

Consumers, more than ever, will drive media sector restructuring. We have scant understanding – time being critical – of the effect of social media, greater access to broadband internet, fewer television programs being produced, advertising shifting more to direct response, less interest from investors, not to forget generally lower expectations. Innovation, historically, has carried the day. Nobody knew they wanted an iPhone until one arrived.

Still, there will be ‘big media,’ mostly distribution companies. Investment will, if not pour, at least remain steady for key holders of the payment gates. This includes ISPs as well as cable and satellite distributors. They are, of course, one in the same.

The media sectors’ size will be determined by the cost of that content – whatever it is – and the relative value consumers place on it. Mr. Murdoch is, of course, correct when he says that stuff is expensive and for it to be produced somebody has to pay for it. All my snarky, insidious comments about Rupert Murdoch over the last few years notwithstanding, he’s one of the few trying to take a stand for the value of content.

Being smaller – hopefully more agile – could give the media sector a burst of energy. And facing the challenges we know will take energy. Facing those just over the horizon will take more. But media people have met these before. It’s a remarkable skill.

Social media can help you help those in need

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Giving to those less fortunate used to mean a donation of time or money, but with social media there are so many new ways to support your favorite charity.

Get the word out for a charity you care about in a blog post, a tweet or by sending out a message to your Facebook friends. Making people aware and getting them involved is a great service for the cause you support. Your donation can be multiplied by your number of followers.

When you see random acts of kindness, tweet it: The teenager who gives up their seat for an elderly person, a colleague who bought lunch for a homeless man. When you do something that makes someone smile, share that and how it made you feel. When people hear the benefits of doing good, they may learn from your example.

Buy gifts for your friends and family that help to support a good cause and spread the word. One example isstore.MadeBySurvivors.com a site that sells handicrafts made by survivors of human trafficking.

Partner with local businesses to organize a tweetup to raise money for the cause you care about. Seth Schneider, owner of Learning Express, a toy store in Boca Raton andWellington , started talking on Twitter with Ian Esplin ofmypbc.com about doing a tweetup to benefit the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program. Tonya Scholz of Boca Raton and Dana Lawrence of Jupiter, heard the Twitter talk and decided to join the effort representing the Association for Women in Communications South Florida Chapter. Together they raised about $2,000 worth of toys. That's 150 to 200 toys.

Even "if we had only received a few toys, I would think it was worth our time. Each toy could make a child, who wouldn't otherwise have one, happy," said Schneider.

Start or join an existing charity group on Meetup.com a social media site where you can find or start a charity or fundraising meet-up group near you. At meetup.com/South-Florida-Fundraisers I found a Broward County environmental group and a group in Hollywood called Operation Christmas Child project that sends gifts to poor, orphaned and abused children around the world.

Follow your favorite charities on your social networks. This will increase the size of their network so when the charities tweet or post information about a campaign or a cause, they know they'll have an audience. Consider retweeting that post on Twitter or posting it on Facebook.

Social media doesn't replace the act of donating money or time, but it does give you many more opportunities to help those in need.

Blogging News from Digg(dot)com – 33th Edition

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Work From Home Job Opportunities Can Change Your Life
There are many work from home job opportunities, both offline and online, that can provide a decent income for anyone choosing to work from the home. Some of these jobs include freelance writing, data entry, blogging, crafting, and ad clicking.

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Pay Per Click Advertising Doomed to be Abused by Paid for Clicking Services?

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:41:00 +0000

Many companies rely on Pay-Per-Click advertising services to advertise their website. Pay-per-click, also known as “PPC,” is a form of advertising which charges the client only if someone actually clicks on the ad and goes to the website. Therefore, beyond the initial setup costs, there is no charge to the persons who wishes to advertise unless people actually visit the website and see what is being offered. Additionally, because PPC is easy to run and easy to make widespread, most advertising services offer it for very low cost, as much as a penny or less per click.

There is one flaw in Pay Per Click, and that is what is known as a clicking service. Because the person who is hosting the ads receives a small sum of money each time someone clicks on an ad, it takes many thousands of clicks for them to earn even a little money. Unscrupulous persons may hire a clicking service or install clicking software which will then click on the ad over and over and over again. This fools the service offering the ad into thinking that someone is visiting the site paying for the ad many times, and it thus charges the person who owns the ad for all those thousands of clicks and gives the money to the unscrupulous host. These clicking services can thus cost an advertiser and their client thousands of dollars per month, and yet offer the client no additional page views or potential customers.

Most companies are working to combat this, but because of the relatively anonymous nature of web browsing, it is somewhat difficult. One way companies combat this is to only charge (and thus pay out) when a unique IP address clicks on the website. However, many persons contend that this unfairly deprives legitimate hosts of their profits, since if everyone in a single network (i.e. a single house or business) clicks on the same ad, it’s still only recorded as one click, even though multiple clicks are involved. Additionally, many advanced clicking services mask their true IPs and may make it appear as though every click is coming from a different location.

Another way companies work to defeat clicking services is by keeping track of websites and looking for sudden upsurges in clicks, which indicates a clicking service. Again, however, this may merely reflect a sudden upsurge in the popularity of the website, and so it has come under criticism. An advertising services last resort against clicking services is to hunt them down and take them to court, but this is often difficult or impossible because such services are often offered by persons in countries with little or no law enforcement.

Pay per click advertising is thus on the decline, with companies switching to flat-fee services or other alternatives instead. Still, many reputable hosts with a history of avoiding clicking services do go for pay per click ads as a way of offering cheap ad space on their site. It’s just important to check their reputation first.

New Website for Aspiring Internet Entrepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:38:00 +0000

The goal of the site's owner and administrator, Jerry McVictor, is to show people who want to make money online how they can do so effectively and without much trouble.

“Use Twitter, Facebook or other social networking sites to extend the reach of the marketing potential of your business, and draw in more customers. There's no end to the number of things you can do to make money online - with the help of mcvictor.com, you'll be able to tap into some of these methods and make money, regardless of what you're selling or offering”

With the help of this site, people should become aware of the Internet's many opportunities for making money online. According to Jerry Mcvictor, he organized and built the website in order to show people what different business models and strategies that are out there to make money online, or at least figure out which companies on the Internet are legitimate and which ones aren't - that way, they'll have much better luck in their business ventures.

Readers can find out how affiliate marketing works, how to make money with auction sites, how to take advantage of Google AdSense, how to write good sales copy, how to increase traffic to a website, how to discover profitable niche business ideas, even how to achieve top search engine rankings.

"Use Twitter, Facebook or other social networking sites to extend the reach of the marketing potential of your business, and draw in more customers. There's no end to the number of things you can do to make money online - with the help of mcvictor.com, you'll be able to tap into some of these methods and make money, regardless of what you're selling or offering" Mcvictor says.

All kinds of people are trying to make their living on the Internet, sometimes making millions. However, according to Jerry Mcvictor "if you want to separate yourself from the people who try it out but never really make it in online business, you have to work harder and be committed enough to your business model".

Check out http://www.mcvictor.com, and you'll be able to to benefit from Jerry Mcvictor's advice, tools, and ecourses on how to make money online.

If you want to find a different way to make your living, or get some extra money, you can check this new resource out and take advantage of its information.

How To Make $100 A Day From Your Blog?

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:37:00 +0000

How many of you would like to be a full time blogger and make a living out of blogging? What is the amount you want to settle for as a full time blogger? Is $100 per day good enough for you to quit your job and take up blogging as a full time profession? If the answer is yes then read on.

Let us take a closer look at figures. At $100 a day you can earn

$700 weekly

$3,000 monthly

$36,500 yearly

$36,500 may sound like a very big amount and you may get overwhelmed just thinking about it. Some of you might think this is impossible especially when you have started blogging and not made a single dollar till date.

Advice for everyone aspiring to become a full time blogger.

1. Do not be in a hurry and give up your day job.
It is possible to make $100 a day or $36000 a year blogging, but it cannot be done overnight. Although miracles do happen but they are very rare, hence do not set too high expectations. There is no guarantee of success and if it happens, it will take reasonable amount of time to achieve it.

2. Set a goal.
Setting a goal to be a full time blogger is nice, but it is not specific enough. I have mentioned $100 as an example, for others it could be less or perhaps even more. Whatever it could be you need a concrete goal to work towards it and measure your progress towards it.

For me I want to go full time as a blogger when I reach $30,000 a year. This is what I would be earning if I am doing my current job full time. Setting up a definite goal may help you in a number of ways to make it a reality.

3. Breaks your goals into smaller goals which can be achieved easily.
$36,500 may sound like a big amount and believe me it is, especially if you are a new blogger. However, it is much easier to look at the same figure if you can break it down to small ones. For example:

$36,500 a year = $3,000 per month
$36,500 a year = $700 per week
$36,500 a year = $100 per day
$36,500 a year = $4.17 per hour
$36,500 a year = $0.069 per minute

The idea of the above presentation is to make you realize that a bigger goal is achievable if you break it down. Making $100 seems a bit easier than making $36,500 per year. The best way to look at you progress is on a daily basis. In this case our goal is to achieve $100 per day.

What can a blogger do in order to earn $100 a day?

There are many methods to earn money online, let us look at the most commonly used methods.

1. CPC Ads:
Let us assume that we have chosen PPC ads like Adsense and Bidvertiser to monetize our website. Assuming that average revenue per click is 5 cents you need 2000 clicks on your ads in order to make $100 a day. This may seem like a lot to achieve especially for newbloggers.

2. CPM Ads:
These are alternative to CPC ads. Let us assume that we get $2 per CPM for a single ad unit and we display five such ad units on our blog. This equates to an effective CPM of $10 and we need 10,000 daily page impressions in order to make $100.

3. Selling Ad spots yourselves:
You can sell ad spots on your blog directly to advertisers, thus you can save commissions on ad purchases and hence increase your revenue. To make $36,500 a year you need to sell ads worth $3000 per month. If you decide to rent 10 ad spots to advertisers on your blog, thus each advertiser has to pay $300 per moth to advertise on your blog.

4. Low commission Affiliate products.
Let us assume that you are promoting affiliate products from sites like amazon andebay.com and on an average you are earning 50 cents per sale. Thus in order to earn $100, you need to sell 200 products daily.

5. High commission affiliate products.
Let us assume that you are promoting products that fetch you high commission per sale. For example if you earn $10 per sale, then you need to sell only 10 products in order to make $100 per day.

6. Huge commission affiliate products.
There are some products that pay you commission on every sale made by an affiliate. For example promoting products like training courses or getting people to register for Forexaccount can earn you hundreds or thousands in commissions per sale. Let us assume that you make $500 per sale, then you need to sell only 6 of these to make $3,000 per month.

7. Selling your own e-book.
If you are an experienced blogger, then you can perhaps make money by promoting your own products. You can sell your own e-book from your blog. If you set the price of your e-book at $25, then you need to sell only four of these to make $100 per day.

8. Write sponsored posts.
This is one of the best ways to make money online. If you have large number of RSSsubscribers and a high page rank blog you can expect to make huge amount by writing sponsored posts on your blog. For example if you earn $ 75 per post, then you need to write 40 sponsored posts to make $3,000 per month.

9. Post jobs on job boards
This is one of the least used but effective methods to make money online. You can start a job board and employers looking to hire people will post jobs. You will get good commissions for every employee hired from your job board.

There are other methods to make money online besides the ones discussed above. It depends on the blogger to choose a model he can use to make profit from blogging.

Some of the figures mentioned above can be difficult to achieve for bloggers. Hence it is recommended to combine some methods in order to reach your goal. The more you diversify your income sources, better are the chances that you can achieve your goal easily and effectively.

Thus you may run 3 blocks of PPC ads on your site, sell your e-book, promote high commission memberships and promote amazon / ebay products. This cannot happen overnight, it is a difficult and time consuming jobs. Breaking your goal into smaller ones definitely helps you keep motivated and helps you understand how to reach your goal.

Do not quit your job until you have achieved your goal and amount earned from blogging is sufficient to justify quitting your full time day job.

A Billion Reasons for Twitter to be Happy

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:09:00 +0000

So it looks like Twitter has entered some rarefied air for sure. According to ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch the micro-blogging juggernaut is moving into an exclusive club by securing a new round of funding ($50 million) based on a valuation of $1 billion (yup, it’s a b). No doubt, this will begin to stir the supporters and detractors alike. Unless we have ridiculously short memories or just think that this time will be different one has to wonder how a company that no one can figure out revenue wise can be valued at that much.

While I am not an analyst I did think about staying at a Holiday Inn Express over the past year so I qualify for jumping into the fray, right? Let’s hear what the RWW folks had to say first though.

While it’s unlikely that Twitter CEO Evan Williams was wearing a Dr. Evil costume when he delivered the news, he had the pleasure of announcing his company’s $1 billion dollar valuation today at an all hands meeting. According to TechCrunch, the company has raised a $50 million dollar funding round and the money will be in the bank shortly. Given the fact that Twitter turned down an offer to be purchased by Facebook earlier in the year, it appears the two are about to tango.

So of course, this conversation wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without bringing Facebook into the mix. Facebook is starting to look almost like IBM compared to Twitter. What with actual revenue generation plans and actually having the audacity to be cash flow positive one begins to wonder if Facebook is going to actually merit its own valuation. As we mentioned yesterday, Master of the Universe, Mark Zuckerberg, has something to say in the Facebook blog.

We’re also succeeding at building Facebook in a sustainable way. Earlier this year, we said we expected to be cash flow positive sometime in 2010, and I’m pleased to share that we achieved this milestone last quarter. This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term.

So is Twitter in for the long term? They certainly still have the buzz going and now there appears to be a a real Facebook faceoff looming for the foreseeable future.

In the past, ReadWriteWeb has looked at Twitter’s platform potential. The service has already been used to create meme trackers, emergency alert services, news feeds and brand monitoring tools. As the infrastructure and search have improved, Twitter has become the go-to site for real time media. But can the company make a Facebook-like leap?

Twitter’s billions

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:08:00 +0000

Twitter seems to have quadrupled in value over the course of just a few months: after raising $35 million at a $250 million valuation earlier this year, it’s now raising another $50 million at a — wait for it — $1 billion valuation. At these kind of levels, one assumes, there must be some idea of how to make money in the future. I also hope the founders are beginning to cash out at this point: or does Twitter really have a burn rate which would make Michael Wolff proud?

There's no such thing as a free lunch at Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:06:00 +0000

It was always going to be a question of when rather than if Twitter started carrying ads.

The news that the microblogging service is ‘‘keeping its options open’’ to advertising comes as no surprise. Its meteoric launch as the social network de nos jours has come at a cost to investors; US$55 million ($63m) and counting, though it has yet to burn through that all. However, it’s clear a heavy hint has been dropped; it’s time to make some money.

Twitter’s terms now say: "Services may include advertisements, which may be targeted to the content or information on the services, queries made through the services, or other information."

The unanswered question is what kind of advertising and how the 45 million people - 700,000 of which are in Australia - will feel about being ‘‘monetised’’.

Twitter founder Founder Biz Stone wrote in his blog in May: ‘‘The idea of taking money to run traditional banner ads on Twitter.com has always been low on our list of interesting ways to generate revenue.’’ Phew. But that was then and this is now.

Twitter always said that 2009 was the year for generating revenue. It is already exploring a number of avenues, namely pulling together tweets by specific groups of people and allowing third parties to sponsor them. Twitter then shares the ad revenue with them. Microsoft sponsored the first effort, ExecTweets, a collection of tweets from executives.

It is also wants to turn all those shopping recommendations or requests for information that proliferate the site into money, possibly by venturing into e-commerce deals.

Then again perhaps Twitter doesn’t know what it wants and is tossing the idea out there in the hope a business model will come back, as Marcio Nery who heads up the social media division of Mitchell Communications Group believes. ‘‘They probably don’t know what model will work. All they know is that they doesn’t want to annoy their users.’’ Let's hope so.

Not that advertising has dented Facebook’s popularity. Tony Thomas CEO of The Population says: ‘‘You are always going to upset the purists but there’s a growing acceptance that you don’t get something for free.’’ It’s hardly a revolutionary model- remember free to air television? And look how well that’s doing.

If Twitter is mad enough to start placing ads in between Tweets and selling off large chunks of ‘‘advertising inventory’’ to companies who want to reach its rusted on audiecne then it can expect a rough reception, as Facebook found earlier this year when it changed its terms and conditions to allow it to wrest ownership of users's personal information even after they were no longer Facebook members. The resultant furore forced Facebook into an embarrassing about turn.

And what about all those risk-averse marketers who bang on endlessly about the level of ‘‘engagement’’ and ‘‘relationships’’ that these sites offer yet are too scared to place their brand in an environment where they no longer have control.

Smart companies are already using Twitter without paying a cent for ‘media’. A recent successful Australian campaign for Levi’sshowed how when the company released hundreds of free pairs of jeans onto the streets and encouraged followers of its Twitter site to bail up those people they suspected were wearing Levi’s. If they were then the person immediately dropped their pants and handed them over.

Hopefully Twitter is smart enough to realise it has a community of users rather than an audience to be 'sold' on to advertisers. Either way we have a few month’s grace before we learn yet another way to avoid ads.

Morning Briefing: Stocks Make Fresh Highs

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:06:00 +0000

As we move toward the open, we find stocks making fresh highs once again, sparked by strength in gold and oil and weakness in the U.S. dollar. I'm watching the 1045 area in the ES contract (red horizontal line) particularly; it represents recent support and is also near the tops of the trading range going back to 9/11 and 9/14.

We're seeing continued strength in emerging market stocks and solid strength among U.S. smallcaps. Both suggest continued risk appetite among traders and money managers. While the rally has been extended by most any short-term measure--eight consecutive days of gains--the market indicators that I post before the open via Twitter (follow here) continue to look strong. These usually weaken prior to any extended pullback; I'm not seeing such weakening at this juncture.

Twitter funding would value it at $1 billion: report

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:04:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter is closing a round of funding which will value the company known for its 140-character stream-of-conscious blogs at $1 billion, technology news site TechCrunch reported on Wednesday.

The company will raise around $50 million, and Chief Executive Evan Williams told employees about the funding round, TechCrunch said, citing multiple unnamed sources.

Twitter and other social networking sites have been hard-pressed to show that they are viable businesses, despite wild popularity, and that they have what it takes to eventually make a successful public offering or private sale.

The Twitter funding news would raise the industry's credibility with investors, as did a Tuesday announcement from Facebook that it was making enough money to cover expenses.

Twitter's Tweets are 140-character dispatches, and the service has become a phenomenon among news junkies, Hollywood watchers -- and many investors.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and Peter Henderson; Editing Bernard Orr)

The Inevitable Showdown Between Twitter And Twitter Apps

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:03:00 +0000

usually think of business competition as occurring betweensubstitutes – products that serve similar functions for the user. Famous substitutes include Coke and Pepsi, and Macs and PCs.

In fact, especially in the technology sector, some of the most brutal competition has occurred between complements. Products are complements when they are more valuable because of the existence of one another – e.g. hotdogs and hotdog buns, PCs and operating systems.

There is inherent tension between complements. If a customer is willing to pay $2 for a hotdog plus bun, the hotdog maker wants buns to be cheaper so he can capture more of the $2, or lower the price of the bundle and thereby increase demand. (For a great primer on competition between complements, I highly recommend this Joel Spolsky post. I’ve also been writing about complements, here and here).

Microsoft is famous for destroying companies that offer complementary products, either by bundling complementary apps with Windows (Windows Media Player, MSN Messenger, IE) or aggressively competing head-to-head against the most popular ones (Adobe, Intuit). The surviving 3rd party apps are usually ones that are too small for Microsoft to care about. The best (selfish) economic situation for a platform like Windows is lots of tiny complements that have little pricing power but that make the platform itself more valuable.

One of Google’s main complements is the web browser and desktop operating systems, which is why they built and open sourced the Chrome browser and OS. Google’s other big complement is broadband access – hence their excursions into public Wifi and cellular spectrum.

So what does all of this have to do with Twitter? At some point, significant (non-VC) money will enter the Twitter ecosystem. I have no idea whether this is will be by charging consumers, charging businesses users, search advertising, sponsored tweets, licensing the twitter data feed, data from URL shorteners, or something else. But history suggests that where there is so much user engagement, dollars follow.

For the sake of argument, let’s suppose Twitter’s eventual dominant business model is putting ads by search results. Who gets the revenue when a user is searching on a 3rd party Twitter client? Even if Twitter gets a portion of revenue from ads on 3rd party apps, there will always be an incentive for them to create their own client app, or to “commodotize” the client app by, say, promoting an open source version.

I’m not saying this will happen in the immediate future. First, Twitter and a lot of app makers* have raised a lot of money, so aren’t under (much) pressure yet to generate revenues. Secondly, some of the lucky Twitter apps will get acquired by Twitter. I think this is what many of their investors are hoping for. But those that aren’t so lucky will eventually find their biggest competitor to be Twitter itself, not the substitute product they see themselves as competing against today.

* when I say Twitter apps, I mean any product, website, or service that eventually makes money and depends on Twitter’s API.

Twitter Raising Money At $1 BILLION Valuation!

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:02:00 +0000

Huge: Twitter will raise around $50 million at a $1 billion valuation, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington reports, citing "multiple sources." Twitter CEO Evan Williams reportedly disclosed the round at a recent employee meeting.

Twitter raised $35 million earlier this year, led by Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners.

The company has no material revenue at the moment. But it has huge plans for growth. And when you can raise money at a $1 billion valuation, you do it.

Twitter Closing New Venture Round At $1 Billion Valuation

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:59:00 +0000

Fast growing startup Twitter will soon be joining a select group of startups with private venture round valuations of $1 billion, we’ve heard from multiple sources. CEO Evan Williams disclosed the round to employees at a recent all hands meeting.

The company will raise around $50 million, we’ve heard, although the final amount of the raise is apparently not yet locked down.

Twitter raised $35+ million earlier this year in a round led by Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. That round valued the company at $250 million.

The company has raised a total of around $55 million to date, and sources tell us they have approximately $30 million left in the bank.

Update: A source tells us that New York based Insight Venture Partners is the primary investor in this round.

get widget minimize

Twitter

Website:	twitter.com
Location:	San Francisco, California, United States
Founded:	March 21, 2006
Funding:	$55M

More Tips on Making Money with Google

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:02:00 +0000

I know many people are wondering how to make money online with Google. Some of you may already be familiar with my first article How to Make Money on Google and many may be familiar with my blog Chatter Melody where I display tips on making money online and other various
updates. Many of the tips I stated in my How to Make Money on Google still apply but I have did some research would love to reveal more secrets about Making Money with Google.

Google is a complicated company with many different associations and divisions. Making money with Google can take place free of charge. Google is associated with Blogger . People trying to make money on internet can use Blogger to create a webpage. Blogger is absolutely free of charge. Blogger allows you to create webpage with any content of your choosing. With a webpage through Blogger you can use Google ad sense while also using other third party affiliate advertising. For example if you are writing a blog about sports you can do some third party advertisement for Champions through www.Linkshare.com.

I know you are now saying how I will advertise my new Blog on the internet. Your new blog can be advertised through a number of channels for free. One way to advertise a blog is the same way I am advertising my blog through writing for Associated Content or other writing companies like Associated Content including hyperlinks to my blog Chatter Melody.

Another is through social media such as Twitter, providing updates to hot topics and including a link to your blog will get you some great views. Never underestimate the power of networking, I gotten some of my connection through networking on and offline. Get as many accounts with social media outlet because they are valuable and many of your views will come from social media.

Another is sending press releases. This will get your blog more hits on the search engine. Press releases are free with most companies. Some of the companies will show you how to write a press release. Here are a few place allow you to send out press releases for free.

• PR.com

• PR9.net

• Free Press Release

Here is a directory of different press release companies. Big list of Free Press Release

Hopefully this will provide some help to getting your blog up and visitors to your blog.

How To Make Money With Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Social media is already an important part of the marketing and PR strategy of most small businesses. It has slowly replaced a lot of traditional forms of marketing like phone books, and has supplemented others like newspaper advertising.

One of the leading modes of social media marketing is Twitter. Twitter lets you place your message in front of thousands of prospects in short bytes of 140 characters or less. It has given small businesses a way to reach out thousands of people for free.

Twitter can be effectively used to drive traffic to your small business website, and help increase sales. Like other social media tools, the key to winning with Twitter is numbers. You need a large follower base before you can make your Twitter marketing tick. But once you establish a reasonable follower base, the rewards will be steady, and will increase progressively. It is a virtuous cycle which feeds itself, and very little effort is needed from you; once you set the ball rolling.

Viral Twitter Secret is one such service that helps you build a Twitter base that drives traffic to your site and lets your message go viral. It is an automated tool that spreads your message in a manner that is conducive to it going viral. It will send a tweet specific to your business through your followers Twitter accounts. So, you will see the same tweet getting sent out by a number of users, and your Twitter user name will be in the tweet along with the message that you wanted to send.

This is a very powerful way of spreading out your word through Twitter because it will easily multiply. If your tweet is sent out by a person who has a thousand followers; a thousand people potentially see your tweet, and it is likely, that one of them retweets it. And then all his followers will see the message, and so on.

This service helps you multiply the number of people who can land on your website using Twitter, and increases the odds of your message being seen by hundreds and thereby increases the chances of greater sales and profits.

Twitter is a great marketing tool, but you need effective tools to make it work for you. Without the use of the right Twitter tools, your Twitter marketing strategy may never take off, and you may be stuck with a hundred odd followers.

If you want to learn how to setup a *reliable* $5,000 per month Twitter cash cow as fast as humanly possible! Visit My Viral Tweet now for instructions on how to do this. You can also visit Viral Twitter Secret to get this cash cow technique quickly.

Twitter changes terms of service to allow ads

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:57:00 +0000

Twitter, the popular San Francisco microblogging service that lets you share your thoughts online, as long as you keep them to 140 characters or less, has changed its terms of service to help it make money in the future.

Among the changes, according to a post late Thursday afternoon on Twitter's blog: "We leave the door open for advertising," co-founder Biz Stone wrote. "We'd like to keep our options open."

Twitter, of course, has generated a lot of online buzz, but not a lot of cash. Earlier this week, according to Bloomberg News, Stone said Twitter is planning to start bringing in revenue later this year by offering paid services such as analytics.

Other changes involve rights to users' posts, known as tweets: "Twitter is allowed to 'use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute' your tweets because that's what we do. However, they are your tweets and they belong to you," Stone wrote.

He added that Twitter users authorize the company to make their tweets available to outside software developers that have permission to tap into the company's network, and that "abusive behavior and spam" continues to be forbidden.

Google's Planned Payment Service Will Flop (GOOG)

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:55:00 +0000

Google’s proposal to the Newspaper Association of America yesterday for an online subscription and micropayments solution for premium content sounds promising on the surface.

However, conversations we’ve had on the past with publishers, a recent scan of Google Checkout merchant feedback, and analysis of the potential size of the market suggest it won't amount to much.

Even if online subscriptions and micropayments are embraced, moreover, they will likely only moderately boost newspaper industry revenue. The revenue contribution to Google, meanwhile, will likely be immaterial.

According to the NAA, the Google proposal was accidentally uploaded to their site and was meant to be confidential--so newspapers executives weren't eager to speak with us about it. However, for three reasons, we think Google will fight an uphill battle trying to get newspapers to sign onto the service:

1) newspapers have been and continue to be incredibly slow to form any kind of digital strategy,

2) they likely will be hesitant to share any information with a company that many view as crippling the business, and

3) it's still unclear if there is a viable business model for paid news content online.

A number of other questions/risks remain:

Google Checkout Has Flopped

Google launched the retailing version of its PayPal killer, Checkout, several years ago. Checkout has been a major disappointment, so we question Google’s ability to make a better product for newspapers. Newspapers are also going to need heavy assurances from a company most view as a ruthless competitor that its subscriptions will be handled well.

A scan of various Checkout merchant complaints on a Google chat board reveal a number of problems ranging from mysterious referrals to inferior merchant receipts, and even lost revenue. Here is a comment from one unhappy merchant:

“Why has my google checkout revenue fallen by over 75% in the last 12 months? As we all know the credit crunch has affected all business and we are by no means immune. But our Google Checkout revenue has fall off exponentially in comparison. Why?”

Perhaps the following feedback from another merchant could explain the sudden drop in revenue:

“We have set up a monthly subscription using the HTML API and although everything appears to go through fine when viewing the orders and the initial charge goes through, the recurring payments do not appear to be getting charged. Also when viewing orders older than 1 month (meaning they should have gotten charged), the subscription part of their order is no longer listed. I used the code provided on the subscriptions page as an example to work from so I assume it should work.”

Not charging subscribers for products they sign up for may get some applause from consumers, but the newspapers will be understandably furious if this happens to them. In addition, merchants can’t call anyone directly at Google for help with problems, even those like the above where revenue is immediately lost, but must instead submit comments to a dedicated web page on the Google site. Newspapers will never stand for this, so Google will have to set up a professional support group. This comment from a merchant sums it up well:

“This is the worst support you can get from a company! So sad since it's a big name involved "GOOGLE".  Anyone can hear us? Hello? How can we get your attention? No phone number to call, so support email! Only this "support forum". Are we talking with BOTS here? We are a real business with real clients, real money involved.”

At the end of the day this looks largely like an attempt by Google to make friends with an industry that has publicly referred to it as a parasite in the past for stealing valuable web traffic and ad dollars on top of content originally created by the newspapers.

Revenue From This Service Will Be Minimal For Google, Small For Publishers

Let’s assume that a subscription service is able to attract 10 million subscribers over time and charges them each an annual fee of $50 for access to premium content from all participating newspapers. Assuming Google takes a 20% fee, this would amount to $100 million in revenue for the company, or only 0.5% of its total revenue.

In addition, this wouldn’t be a material boost for the newspaper industry either. The newspaper industry would receive $400 million from the above scenario, or less than 1% of total industry revenue and about 13% of total online revenue.

That 10-million subscriber number is probably aggressive, given it represents 14% of the industry’s current online audience. Looking at a number of scenarios it appears the newspaper industry could boost its revenue by a meager 0.4% to 1.5% depending on subscriber conversion levels (Table Below).

Of course, this analysis doesn’t take into account lost ad revenue (likely nominal) or how newspapers will differentiate premium content from free content without sacrificing the perceived quality of the free content.

Would this also require hiring new journalists to produce the premium content (Consumers may have a tough time digesting the fact that they are suddenly paying for work from an author they were getting for free yesterday)? Most of these questions remain unanswered.

Give Google a break!

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:52:00 +0000

Yes, I said it. Give the kajillion-dollar company a break. This book scanning thing is getting completely out of hand. I want Google to make money. I want them to make lots of it because that means that all of the services I use for free will remain free. It also means that they will have the capital to keep moving forward with bringing millions of books into the digital (and public) domain and advance the technology that will help electronic texts go mainstream.

Ars Technica outlined the US Copyright Office’s major objections to the settlements that Google is seeking through the courts to bring their book scanning project out of litigation. A key quote from the Copyright Office’s brief goes like this:

We realized that the settlement was not really a settlement at all, in as much as settlements resolve acts that have happened in the past and were at issue in the underlying infringement suits. Instead, the so-called settlement would create mechanisms by which Google could continue to scan with impunity, well into the future, and to our great surprise, create yet additional commercial products without the prior consent of rights holders…

I’m no lawyer, but all I can muster out of this is a shrug. Particularly when Google turned around and offered revenue mechanisms to their competitors today based on the scanning work that Google will complete in the coming years. Suddenly, it won’t matter if you have a Kindle, a Sony Reader, or an EPUB-capable smartphone. You’ll be able to access the scanned books from Google and someone (whether authors, Google, or Amazon) will make some money.

Google’s efforts are a win all around for education. Call me a Google fanboy if you must, but anyone making millions of texts available electronically (and potentially providing revenue and publication outlets for my own books in progress) is aces in my book.

Twitter expands rules to allow advertising

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:48:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Twitter, the fast-growing microblogging site now seeking ways to make money, expanded its terms for users on Thursday to allow advertisers to reach the Internet site's more than 45 million monthly visitors.

Twitter, the two-year-old venture capital-backed company that lets people send an unlimited number of 140-character messages, is just now beginning to ramp up efforts to monetize, or gain revenue from, its popular site.

On Thursday, it revised its "terms of service" to specify that it may run ads.

"We leave the door open for advertising. We'd like to keep our options open, as we've said before," founder Biz Stone wrote on Twitter's official blog. blog.twitter.com/

Advertising revenue is the time-honored way for Web sites to generate revenue while remaining free for consumers.

Explosive growth in social networking is attracting interest: worldwide unique visitors to Twitter's site reached 44.5 million in June, up 15-fold year-over-year, according to comScore.

Some analysts are skeptical that advertising will catch on in a meaningful way on social networks, arguing that companies are reluctant to juxtapose their brands with unpredictable, and potentially offensive, user-generated content.

Stone himself has said the company was wary of annoying its growing base of users by pummeling them with ads.

But other analysts point out that users of social networking websites tend to spend a lot of time on those sites, providing an attractive platform for advertisers to promote their brands -- especially if preferences are tracked.

Twitter kept its new clause on advertising open-ended, and stressed it was subject to change.

"The services may include advertisements, which may be targeted to the content or information on the services, queries made through the services, or other information," the terms read. "The types and extent of advertising by Twitter on the services are subject to change."

"In consideration for Twitter granting you access to and use of the services, you agree that Twitter and its third-party providers and partners may place such advertising on the services...."

TwitterCounter Wants To Count Dollars, Too

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:42:00 +0000

TwitterCounter, a fairly basic but popular service that gives users insights on how well they're doing on Twitter with regards to numbers of followers and tweets, is flicking the revenue switch to 'ON'.

A decent amount of Twitter users regularly visit the TwitterCounter website to get statistics based on their account name ¿ Compete pegs the number of monthly uniques at approx. 650,000 ¿ and the team behind the service believes companies and organizations could well be willing to pay them a monthly fee for a premium service with more features and more detailed stats.

In what the company dubbed the Premium Dashboard, paying customers are able to compare and track multiple accounts and obtain stats from over a year's time rather than the maximum of 3 months non-paying visitors get to see. In addition, TwitterCounter 'pro' users gain the ability to export statistics in CSV format and enjoy their graphs in a larger format.

Patrick De Laive from TwitterCounter tells us support for multiple account tracking and comparisons was an oft-requested feature and that the team, which is also behind a 'MyBlogLog for Twitter' service called TwitterRemote and events like The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam, is happy to finally be able to offer it. Not that the self-funded startup wasn't already trying to monetize the web service: they also offer a way for users to gain more followers by 'featuring' them at a per-view rate (e.g. 100,000 views for $289).

Pricing for the Premium Dashboard is based on the number of users you would like to track, starting at $25 per month for 5 users and up to $198 per month for 100 users. Call me crazy, but while pricing may sound steep I can actually see why companies ¿ and particularly their PR and marketing departments ¿ would be willing to cough that up for this type of service.

Let Twitter work out how and if it will make money on their own in the meantime.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out I used to write for The Next Web blog)

Why Did You Start Blogging?

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:24:00 +0000

In the last post on ProBlogger Kevin talked about starting a blog based upon one of your hobbies as a great way to start blogging.

As I mentioned in the introduction to that post - Kevin had really described much of my own motivations for starting my photography blog (and that of many many other successful blogs). While I did see an opportunity for profit in that blog when I started it - my main motivation for kicking it off was to share what I was learning about photography and to see if I could draw others with a similar interest together to learn from one another.

For me I always wanted to see if I could make some money from that blog - but early on it wasn’t the biggest motivation. Over the years as the blog has grown and become more profitable I suspect my motivations have changed a little - I’m still interested in the topic - but it’s certainly more of a focus to make it profitable.

Of course starting a blog on a topic you’re interested in or passionate about is not the only way - many successful bloggers have started blogs with other motivations - including to make money, to grow their profile, to drive traffic to their business etc…. (or some combination of motivations).

Why Did You Start Blogging?

Yesterdays post has got me thinking - why DO people start blogs? Has the motivation changed from a few years back when blogs first began to get popular (when I started 7 years ago most people seemed to be doing it purely for fun and to make connections)?

I’d be interested to hear about your initial motivations to starting a blog? Did you start on a topic you were interested in? Did you start with the idea of making money? Was there some other motivation/s? Also - have your motivations changed since starting your blog?

Interested to hear your thoughts!

How Much Does An iPhone User Spend On Apps? $80

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:23:00 +0000

AppsFire, a service for sharing iPhone Apps with anyone, has conducted a survey of 1,200 users using the AppsFire service to find out key data on iPhone and iPod Touch users. AppsFire released a report taking data on real users and trends based on their usage patterns. The company gathered data on 1,200 users in July and August with respondents from across the globe with a high concentration in the United States (50%), France and Japan.

After looking at the reports, it’s interesting to note that 15,000+ applications have been installed through these 1,200 users. Through the 15,000+ applications overall, each user has about 65 applications installed per device. The average amount of money spent per device is $80, which after thinking about how many iPhone users are there, that’s about $400,000,000+ that Apple has made from paid applications, without taking their 30%. The average price of an iPhone app is $1.56, which seems about right according to AdMob data.

One really interesting note is that only 15,000+ apps are really installed (out of 65,000+) which makes people think about all the failed iPhone apps. AppsFire was co-founded by TechCrunch France founder Ouriel Ohayon and is based in Israel. You’ll find the entire report below.

Red flags fly with Internet offer

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:22:00 +0000

New business alleges you can make money by multi-level marketing the Internet

A new money making opportunity that claims to “Multi-level market the Internet” could be nothing more than a pyramid scheme warns Better Business Bureau. An investigation by BBB shows that iJango – a new self-described multi-level marketing company – is aggressively seeking representatives for a product that has no track record. Consumers are paying hundreds of dollars in upfront fees based on the claim that they can earn money by recruiting others to do the same – a red flag for pyramid schemes.

Multi-level marketing is one form of compensation often employed by direct selling companies, whereby sales agents recruit other sales agents and receive a cut of their sales for products. Pyramid schemes, which are illegal, promise that participants can make money primarily by recruiting people who then pay for the opportunity to recruit more people. The money is then filtered up through the pyramid.

“Millions of people earn honest money by selling products through multi-level marketing; however, some money making opportunities blur the lines between MLM and pyramid schemes,” said Steve Cox, BBB spokesperson. “iJango is making big promises about its money making potential, but based on our investigation, BBB believes the potential to generate revenue may primarily depend on the ability of participants to recruit additional representatives.”

More than 3,400 people nationwide have contacted BBB to check out Austin, TX-based iJango since August 1. iJango is being marketed heavily on Web sites, including YouTube and Twitter, through spam e-mail campaigns and at in-person sales presentations across the country. In-person sales presentations have been held in many cities including Phoenix and Plano, Texas, with people having been contacted by e-mail and encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity.

In the company's promotional materials, iJango is described as an interactive Web site "portal" for customers to access social media and interact with online merchants. iJango claims that their representatives can make money by inviting "friends, family and associates to use iJango...for FREE!" The business claims that this portal tracks individuals' Web traffic and e-commerce, thereby generating commissions payable to iJango based on Web page views and purchases made by the user.

iJango says participants can pay an upfront fee of $50 to join the program, but recommends purchasing a package for $149.95 with a monthly maintenance fee of $19.95. The company further claims that consumers participating in the program will earn income in two ways:

The recruitment of other individuals to purchase the opportunity and the recruitment of registered customers.

Commissions that are generated by Web site traffic and purchases through iJango Web site “portals.”

BBB has recently received complaints concerning the ease of use of the iJango portal, delayed availability of materials and alleged difficulty in canceling membership. The company has responded to some consumers by stating that they have issued, or will issue a refund. iJango has earned a BBB rating of F – and its full "http://www.bbb.org/central-texas/business-reviews/multi-level-selling/ijango-in-austin-tx-90066721"BBB Reliability Report™ is available online.

Cameron Sharpe is one of the co-founders of iJango and has traveled the country presenting the iJango concept. Cameron Sharpe also co-created Ultimate Introductions, a.k.a. Ultimate Singles, a supposedly Christian dating service that generated complaints from customers by charging thousands of dollars and failing to deliver on promises. Ultimate Introductions was sued by another company in 2004 for theft, fraud and unfair competition; as part of the settlement it was required to go out of business.

BBB recommends consumers exercise extreme caution when evaluating any business opportunity and consider the following advice in order to make an informed decision:

Avoid any plan that places primary emphasis on commissions for recruiting additional distributors. It may be an illegal pyramid scheme.

Beware of plans that require purchase of expensive products and marketing materials upfront. These plans may be pyramid schemes in disguise.

Beware of plans that claim to sell miracle products or promise enormous earnings.

Don't pay or sign any contracts in an "opportunity meeting" or any other pressure-filled situation without first taking time to think over the decision. Talk it over with a family member, friend, accountant or lawyer.

Remember that no matter how good a product may be or how solid a multi-level marketing plan appears, an investment of time, as well as dollars, may be needed for your investment to pay off. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

For more information on pyramid schemes and to check the reliability of any business, visit HYPERLINK "http://www.bbb.org/"www.bbb.org.

The celeb hate pages on Facebook and Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (bazooka) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:19:00 +0000

NEW YORK - Some celebrities have hate pages devoted to them on popular social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The New York Post quoted some postings targeting the stars under ‘Why We Hate You” title.

Heather Mills: “Being that Paul McCartney is the most famous living celebrity . . . wouldn’t you think [he] could at least score a broad with two legs?”

Brody Jenner: “No apparent skills other than [a] winning smile, good hair, and scoring chicks. Career high point: recently beat up . . . Joe Francis.”

Madonna: “This broad has more veins popping out of her than [Sylvester] Stallone . . . plus, the worst fake English accent we’ve ever heard.”

Kanye West: “Because you are hands down the most arrogant, least talented, and the most loathsome guy in music. Luckily for Kanye there is a guy named Chris Brown.”

Paris Hilton: “There are so many reason to hate her, it almost isn’t fair. She’s a talentless fame-whore [and] easier to spread than Skippy Smooth . . . just plain vacant.”

Kevin Federline: “10 points for nailing Britney [Spears] in her prime, but you lose the whole game for looking like you ate your kids, for trying to be a white rapper, and for sucking up perfectly good oxygen.”

The Jonas Brothers: “These girly-boys remind us of three other irritating teen queens from the ’90s who had one huge hit, sold millions of records, were wildly famous for about 10 minutes, and then disappeared . . . Remember Hanson?”

Amy Winehouse: “God definitely has a sick and twisted sense of humor, matching that voice with [her] face, mind and body. Watching Amy is like listening to Heidi Montag sing-painful, yet morbidly entertaining. We predict a minimum of two more trips to rehab.”