September 29, 2009

Microsoft Windows 7 House Party: Public Relations Disaster or Video Marketing Triumph?

If you create something so bad that it goes viral, is it a public relations disaster or a video marketing triumph?

That's the question that journalists and bloggers are asking after watching HostingYourParty, which tells you how to host a Microsoft Windows 7 House Party.

Microsoft is putting a Tupperware-style twist on the upcoming Windows 7 rollout -- launching a new initiative to encourage thousands of employees, partners and technology enthusiasts to throw parties in their homes and communities to demonstrate and help spread the word about its new operating system.

People accepted as official launch party hosts will get their own copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, and a chance to win a computer. But unlike the Tupperware model, there will be no literal selling. These parties are more about generating word-of-mouth buzz.

To promote this idea, Microsoft has uploaded a video to YouTube. Some journalists and bloggers think it is a public relations disaster.

Cindy Perman of CNBC writes, "You just knew that once they put the Microsoft geeks in charge of the "party," that it wouldn't be a 10-kegger and before long, we'd all be putting lampshades over our heads."

Ian Douglas, a tech blogger for the Daily Telegraph in London, writes, "I'm beginning to think that no one involved with Microsoft's advertising has ever left the house or spoken to a real person."

And James Lileks of The Bleat writes, "If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool."

Now, you may be tempted to watch this 6-minute, 14-second video yourself -- to jump to your own conclusion. But, I warn you -- only serious geeks like me will watch beyond the first minute.

HostingYourParty

Now, if Microsoft really wanted to show people how to hold a Windows 7 Launch Party, they might have created a remix of the 1950s educational video below about what, in fact, makes a "good" party.

1950 - What Makes a Good Party

Not all of the reaction to Microsoft's Windows 7 House Party has been negative. Some of it can be charitably described as "mixed."

David Meerman Scott of Web Ink Now, asks, "Is this Microsoft Windows 7 House Party thing real? Or is it an incredibly wonderful and clever spoof on a 50s educational video that is so well done as to have fooled most observers who seem to think it is legit?"

Janice L. Brown of The Fussy Marketer also asks, "Hmm, if something goes viral because it's so bad, does that still count as achieving the marketing goals?"

Nevertheless, Lieutenant Columbo, if he were blogging these days, would ask just one more thing: "Why did Microsoft disable ratings and adding comments on HostingYourParty?"

Is this something you'd do if you were hoping for a video marketing triumph?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

June 26, 2009

Amazon Pulls the Plug on NC Associates while Google and Apple Enjoy Sweet State Tax Deals

This morning, Amazon Associates in North Carolina are awakening to some bitter news. As of today, their accounts are officially closed. This is anticipation - yes, anticipation, not the actual passage - of a state budget that includes a provision requiring companies with affiliate programs to pay an internet sales tax.

Just a week ago, Amazon sent a warning to NC affiliates that the accounts would be closed if the bill was passed.

The reasoning behind the provision is that affiliates are considered employees and therefore establish a physical presence in NC, which puts them in the "pay an internet sales tax" column.

But oh, if that was really the case. The General Assembly in NC has negotiated tax deals with big companies to lure them to the state. A few years back, Google was the recipient of such a tax deal when they decided to build a new data center in the western part of the state. Apple recently followed suit with a similar deal from the state. So, I guess those commissions on affiliate sales of 99 cent iTunes songs are safe, since Apple will soon have a physical location.

Since I live in North Carolina, I've been privy to efforts to stop the NC affiliate tax. I've watched people of varying political persuasions petition the General Assembly to stop the tax provision.

I've also seen comments on local sites where citizens say that companies with affiliates should pay taxes because other companies and citizens pay taxes. But that thinking is misguided. Affiliates are required to pay taxes on their earnings. The state of North Carolina essentially wants to raise taxes on affiliate sales with this new provision.

Of course, North Carolina politicians are really just shooting themselves in the foot. Many companies will follow Amazon's lead and simply stop their affiliate programs. Thousands of North Carolinians will lose their incomes and will provide less tax income to the state.

There's also a separate provision to tax downloaded music, books, and software, which affects all online businesses involved in those niches. I wonder if Apple's tax deal exempts them from that?

State politicians North Carolina has until July 1 to pass a state budget, and right now it looks like the affiliate tax will very much be included.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

May 15, 2009

"Why Conversion Optimization is Now a Must-Have!" - Free Webinar 5-19-2009

I have been speaking about improving conversion rates for years in my Search Engine Watch regular column as well as conferences and workshops worldwide. It seems that people are really starting to listen. In these tough economic times you have to do everything possible to improve the efficiency of your online marketing programs.

OnDialog is hosting a free webinar that I will be headlining from 1-2pm EST on Tuesday, May 19th entitled "Why Conversion Optimization is Now a Must-Have!"

The free webinar will cover:

Landing page optimization basics
Real-world case studies
The pros and cons of various landing page testing tools
The emergence of 2nd-generation tools that put marketers in control

For more information visit the webinar page.

Posted by Tim Ash at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 8, 2008

Online Couponing Up 56% During Weak Economy, High Energy Prices

Online couponing is up 56% from last year, likely due to high gas prices and a weak economy, according to Hitwise data reported by CouponCabin.com. The coupon company says it has experienced 35% growth over last summer.

"As consumers become more and more conscious of saving money, they're exploring new ways to cut costs without giving up too much of what they love, which includes shopping," said Scott Kluth, founder and president of CouponCabin.com.

CouponCabin also gave the following tips for online shopping:

Be Safe -- Only Shop at Secure Websites: Secure websites are definable by a yellow padlock in the status bar. By shopping at a secure website, it ensures hackers are unable to obtain any of the shopper's personal information.
Save On Shipping -- Search for Discounted or Free Shipping Coupons: Sites like CouponCabin.com have entire sections dedicated strictly to coupons for discounted or free shipping.
Let The Sales Find You: Register for e-newsletters to stay constantly informed of sales and discounts.
Stack For More Savings: Stacking is an online shopping trick that allows shoppers to use multiple coupons at once, providing extra savings. If there are two promotional code boxes, make sure to use two different coupon codes to maximize savings.
Shop For The Things You Want: Check listings for coupon codes that pertain to specific items you are interested in. Sites like CouponCabin.com have a link for "favorite deals," which allows shoppers to browse by category to view products with discount codes that may peak their interest.

Have you used online couponing? Share your experience in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 23, 2008

SEW Experts: What's In Your Travel Tool Bag? - Part 2

Are we just so mesmerized by the glitz and glam of the coolest, latest and greatest flavor of the day that we've become oblivious to basic principles of marketing? In today's Vertical Search column, "What's In Your Travel Tool Bag? - Part 2," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski urges a return to basics: creating a product that fulfills a specific need, is well positioned against its competition, is priced appropriately, and is promoted within the right context.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 10, 2008

CAPTCHA Systems are Under Attack

For a long time we have come to rely on mechanisms such as CAPTCHA to hold spammers at bay. Should spammers ever succeed in breaking thorugh CAPTCHA a lot of social media web sites and blogs are going to have a big, big problem. Now, Virtual Blight reports that this is on the verge of happening in their post, the Coming CAPTCHA crisis.

The post is written by Richard DeMillo, the Dean of Computer Science at Georgia Tech and former Chief Technology Officer for Hewlett-Packard. In the post, he says:

The value of Web 2.0 sites is based on trust. Users trust that other users are legitimate community members. Posts are from people with opinions, polls reveal what people think, friending requests are from people who want to be your online friend.

According to this post on TMCnet spoke with Russian researchers who claim to have algorithms that can correctly read CAPTCHA screens 30 to 35% of the time. While these tools are currently only in the hand of some high end folks, over time, it is reasonable to expect that they will get more widely disseminated.

When this happens, the flood gates will really let loose, because a 30 to 35% success rate is a gold mine to a spammer. They don't care about the failures, as they happily will take the successes. Spam bots will have open season on all email systems, blogs, and social media sites that are protected by CAPTCHA.

This is a threat to the search marketing community overall, as significant increase in SPAM will make the web a lot less effective as a medium. With these new systems coming online, we could get to a place where 90% of all User Generated Content on social media sites is spam, thereby greatly devaluing the user experience on those sites.

While we are not at the point in time just yet, it seems likely that we will get there in the near future. New security systems need to be put into place before a wave of this stuff truly begins to hit. It's also incumbent upon us to be intolerant of spam in all of its forms. While some of these forms may not seem so bad, the reality of it is that spammers can ruin the web for all of us.

Posted by at 9:00 AM | Permalink

July 23, 2007

Interview with Robert Scoble

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview Robert Scoble. We covered a wide range of topics. Some of the areas covered were: dealing with information overload, what's hot in social media, and as a result, Facebook, whether or not Google can be beaten at the search game, and what Yahoo! and Microsoft should do with their strategies.

One aspect of the discussion emerged from talking about Scobleizer, the blog were Robert regularly publishes his reviews, opinions, and commentaries about what's going on in the world of technology. He reads more than 700 blogs a day to find our what's hot, to help him determine where he should focus his investigative energy. He also monitors services like Twitter for the same reason, but also to get the news (he learned about the recent earthquake in Mexico City from Twitter, and is took 6 more minutes before the news was on the US Geological Survey web site, and over an hour before CNN had the news).

His overall role in our industry fits well into a favorite them of mine - that we live in the attention challenged era. We have access to way too much information, and we have way (way) too little time. It becomes a real challenge to figure out how to deal with it. This is driving a new type of role in our world (not just our industry), the information professional. This was a featured aspect of one of the interviews I did with Gary Price.

Information professionals basically help your sort through the information glut. Traditionally, the information professional had another title: librarian. But now the world is far more complicated, so that role is growing. So the role is broader than ever. Robert is a great example of this new type of information professional. That's what made the discussion about social media and text search so interesting.

Posted by at 10:31 AM | Permalink

July 12, 2007

HowToDoThings.com Offering Writers Opportunities

Web publisher How To Do Things is looking for writers. The company offers a program where people can get themselves published on a regular basis, and share in the revenue generated from those pages over time.

I spoke with a spokesperson from the company, Erik Budde, yesterday, and he tells me they want to rapidly expand the content on the site, and they plan to be aggressive about recruiting new writers. This seems like a great opportunity for writers looking for exposure on a heavily trafficked site.

The site has over 2,500 “How-To” articles on a wide variety of topics. To be accepted, you must complete a short application, pick the categories where you have expertise and start writing. It's a good chance to share your expertise, be recognized as an expert and help others. You can also use your profile page to promote your business or website (including a link). The site has grown tremendously in the past year, but there are still many areas without many articles so there's lot of room to pick good topics.

If you want to be considered for this opportunity, visit this page to get started.

UPDATE: We've been contacted by authors who have stressed that potential contributors should be certain to check HowToDoThings' contract terms before submitting their work. Some authors are concerned with policies that assume all rights to any accepted content, whether it's published later or not, and offer writers remuneration only from Google AdSense earned on the writer's article pages.

In addition, if a writer terminates the agreement with HowToDoThings, any previously accepted work remains under contract and the company is free to alter and sell said work using the writers' likeness and name without further permission from or paying the writer.

Posted by at 10:00 AM | Permalink

March 26, 2007

Bryan Eisenberg Talks about Persuasion Architecture

The latest in my line of interview is a discussion with Bryan Eisenberg of Future Now. Bryan is very well known in the web analytics world, and is the chairman of the Web Analytics Association, and the co-author of Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results and Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing.

Bryan, and his brother Jeffrey, are the leading proponents of "Persuasion Architecture". This is the notion that you need to model and understand your customers, what they want, and figure out how to persuade them to buy what you are selling. Sounds trivial, but it's not. We are emerging from the era when marketing focused on branding and broadcasting simple messages to create desire for their products.

But now there are so many choices available to consumers, and they are in much more control. They don't want to be slammed with marketing brouhaha, they want the answers to their critical questions, and, if it makes sense to them, to be able to buy the product.

It's made more challenging by the fact that your prospective customers are not all at the same stage in the process. Some of them are ready to make an immediate decision, others are still doing research, and others may be at various in-between stages. In a Persuasion Architecture you strive to be successful in addressing the needs of all of these kinds of prospects.

It's a thought provoking concept. Persuade the customer to buy, by serving them. Doing this truly well requires a lot of insight and ongoing optimization to get to optimal results. Yet the upside is tremendous.

Posted by at 9:34 AM | Permalink

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