Affiliated.net Announces the Launch of Peeker Video Ads

www.Affiliated.net, an Ad Network focused on ‘Web 2.0’ technologies, is announcing the initial launch of its first video ads combined with animations. Their unique approach has broken records and drastically increased CTR% and Conversion rates online. They have ‘broken free’ from embedded video, and create customized videos for advertisers and major brands. The approach is likened to many TV Networks, which they have termed “Peeker Ads”. The advertisements ‘peek’ or animate onto webpages much like you see on major TV Networks now. The new approach online is unobtrusive and visitors seem to enjoy watching these video ads to learn more without having to leave the page or open a new window.

“This approach is interesting as it has increased eCPM drastically when compared to any other form of creative,” says Ricky Ahjua, Director of Online Marketing at Affiliated.net. “The advertisers love it because it is customized video produced for their product or service. Video right now is very hot and publishers are ‘cashing in’ as well because of the new found space these peeker ads present. These give publishers the ability to instantly plug into true targeted video advertisements that are generating click through rate percentages 20% and higher. It is a new frontier of online advertising.”

Affiliated.net seems to have perfected the process, utilization and monetization of video advertisements and brings videos quickly and efficiently to any campaign to increase and enhance online campaigns. They are definitely on the front edge of the wave; large advertisers such as www.Google.com and www.MSN.com are both looking into like technologies.

Merchants and Publishers get these videos peeker advertisements absolutely free when they partner with the Affiliated, letting Affiliated shoulder the cost of production while increasing ROI and conversion rates for merchants, in most cases for a revenue share partnership.

“Publishers are often constrained by limited tools and services provided to them by their networks” says Chris Kautz, Director of Business Development at Affiliated.net. “Affiliated’s videos are provided with customizable players and peeker ads to blend in with sites and give a variety of options as to a video’s look and feel.” They have complete control over how many times these videos are played for a viewer, delay time, positioning and so on. These are merely the first options available, after the initial run of these videos; more options will be gradually added for the publishers benefit. Affiliated.net is constantly working to improve its offerings and provide more options for its partners.”

About Affiliated.net:
Affiliated.net has taken the next leap in Affiliate Marketing and produced the highest responding vehicle on the internet today – Video!
We have opened the world of online video advertising to Publishers and Advertisers with the launch of a Web 2.0 Ad Network. To learn more about Affiliated.net visit www.affiliated.net.

Google Co-Op Overview

Google Co-op was announced by Google, along with other announcements, in May of 2006. Google Co-op represents Google’s efforts to embrace social web and social search concepts in a major way to help improve Google search results. Google Co-op will allow users to contribute context, knowledge, and expertise. In essence, Google Co-op allows users to tell Google what web content really is by providing labels (categories) for that content. Users will also get to “vote” on what content they find to be valuable by subscribing to the content of various web sites that they value. An additional benefit to end-users is that Google Co-op allows them, through their subscriptions, to alter their own Google search results so that the provided information better meets their needs. It further helps end-users to filter out spam content, or content of little or marginal value.

Google Co-op is currently in beta test. As with any new service that is being beta tested, there are still some things being “worked out”. The documentation is somewhat limited and lacking, making it a little difficult to understand and implement Google Co-op. The remainder of this paper will provide a high-level overview of Google Co-op to help individuals better understand what it is, how they can use it, and what they will see. Subsequent papers on the topic will delve more into the “nitty-gritty” of how to implement it.

At its most basic, “social web” (aka Web 2.0) is a process whereby users provide information and opinions, and share them with others. It is the sharing that provides the social aspect. Users can share information about what they find to be valuable. A good example of this is del.icio.us where users share links to their “favorite” information on the web (for example, favorite articles, or web sites about a topic etc.). Other examples of “user-vetted”, or user-contributed information, would include Wikipedia (the open, user contributed, encyclopedia), and DMOZ (the open directory). There are many other examples.

“Social search” is the same process of humans providing and sharing information to help improve the results that a search engine presents to various queries. Google Co-Op would appear to be a strong move by Google into the social search arena.

Google Co-Op Components

Google Co-op consists of two things:

• Topics
• Subscribed links

Topics

Topics is simply Google’s way of saying “area of interest”. Topics allow users a way to provide labels (or tags, or categories) for information on the web. A user does this by associating a URL with a label (for example, www.citytowninfo.com might get the label “destination_guide”). These labels simply tell Google what a particular URL is all about. Users may use labels for topics that Google already has under development, which include: health, destination guides, autos, computer and video games, photo and video equipment, and stereo and home theater. Users may also develop labels for their own topics (for example, if a user has an interest in “wine” they may develop labels for the topic wine, which may include “wine_regions”, “wine_types”, etc.).

The process of labeling content will benefit everyone in several ways. Labels will provide Google with a vast amount of information about what web sites are all about, potentially down to a very granular, or individual page level. In addition, by taking the time to label a site, users are essentially “voting” on what sites are valuable to them. As these votes accumulate over time, Google will have a clearer picture of what sites are authoritative on a topic or topics. It is not hard to come to the conclusion that with time, Google will start to use this data so that sites with a lot of votes will start to appear much higher in appropriate search results.

Subscribed Links

Subscribed links provide several very beneficial features to both users and web publishers. Subscribed links provide:

• End users a means of altering or tailoring their search engine results so that they receive more relevant search results as well as results from sources that they “trust”
• End users a potential means of saving time since the results that they need may actually appear in the search results, negating the need to click through to the site
• End users another mechanism to “vote” on sites that they find to be valuable or authoritative by going through the process of subscribing to those sites
• Publishers with another means to make content available to end users

With subscribed links, publishers can make a subset of their information available to end users by submitting their subscribed links via an XML file to Google, and letting users know how and where to subscribe. Users who value the content of particular publishers will subscribe to their subscribed links. In so doing, the content for subscribed sites will appear at the top of search results when the users searches on relevant terms. In essence, the user alters their own search results by subscribing, so that content that they find to be more valuable appears at the top of search results.

As a site gains more subscribers, Google will most likely, with time, come to see it as more authoritative. As has already been mentioned earlier in this article, it is not hard to jump to the conclusion that such a site will appear higher up in Google search results for relevant search terms over time.

Google Co-Op Will Improve the Content That Users See

The whole process of labeling and subscribing has the added benefit of being self-vetting. This means that spam sites, advertising sites, and sites that provide marginal or useless content will be pushed down in search results. Social web dynamics in action means that users simply will not bother to label or subscribe to poor quality sites in high enough volumes for them to be seen as authoritative and useful. The end result for all should be better and more useful search results.

What Users Will “See”

At this point you may be wondering how users actually see Google Co-op search results. Google Co-op content appears to the end user in one or more of three ways:

• As “Refine Results”: Refine results are search refinements for the topic. This is a set of predetermined categories that can be used to refine a search for a given topic. For example, a search on “Boston” will yield a “Refine results for boston:” box at the top of their search results with the following categories: Dining guides, Lodging guides, Attractions, Shopping, Suggested itineraries, and Tours and day trips.
• As “Subscribed Links”: A Subscribed Links results box that presents the results from one or more of the authoritative sources to which a user has subscribed at the top of Google’s search results. For example, if the user were subscribed to citytowninfo.com, and they searched on “Boston”, they would see an “About Boston, MA” subscribed links box at the top of their search below the “Refine results”.
• “Labels”: Labels appear for result items within a search. A label is a tag that appears below a search result. For example, an item after the title and brief description might say “Labeled Dining guides”. These labeled sites show up below the subscribed links, but above Google’s organic search results.

Users who do nothing will see search refinements for the health and destination guides topics areas at the top of any relevant set of Google search results (try a quick Google search on “Boston” to see “Refine results for Boston”). This is because Google subscribes everyone to those topics by default. In fact, there does not appear to be any way to unsubscribe from these two topics. Users will also see relevant labels from these two topics below search results for sites that have been annotated by users or publishers.

Users who subscribe to the subscribed links of web sites and search on terms that are relevant to those authoritative sources will see items from those sources at the top of their search results. The end-user’s search results are altered from what they would “normally” see and they will see the “Refine Results”, “Subscribed Links Boxes”, and “Labels” for the sites with which they have subscriptions. By subscribing, the user alters their own search experience so that it is more relevant and tailored to their own needs.

To see this in action go to Google’s directory and subscribe to one or more of the listed subscribed links, or try subscribing to citytowninfo.com’s subscribed link. If you subscribe to citytowninfo.com, a quick search on “Boston” yields both the “Refine results” from Google as well as a “Subscribed Links” “About Boston, MA” box from citytowninfo.com.

Conclusion

While still in its infancy, and going through the growing pains that are normal for services that are in beta test, Google Co-op clearly has a lot of promise to enable Google to provide much more powerful and relevant search results to users. As the volume of labels and subscribed links grows, as well as user “votes” by going through the process of labeling sites and subscribing to sites, Google Co-op will become a very powerful and important force impacting both how people go about searching, as well as what search results actually appear.

Wealth Funnel System and Developmental Performance Consultants: SEO

Boynton Beach, FL – May 12, 2008

I’m sure most of you have heard of PPC and Organic Search Engine Marketing and Optimization. If you are anything like me you have probably thought to yourself “I don’t have a clue what a Search Engine is let alone what Search Engine Optimization is?”

We, at Developmental Performance Consultants along with Derrick Harper’s Wealth Funnel System of online marketing education experts, want to share with you insights into the world of Search Engine Optimization and how you can utilize this web 2.0 technology to get your products/services and business more exposure on the world wide web.

A Search Engine is basically a program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found.

Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Alta Vista are all search engines. A typical search engine works like this: you type in the keyword(s) you are looking for, the search engine goes to work finding the various possibilities, then you are provided websites that have solutions for your inquiries.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via Organic and Pay Per Click (PPC) search results for targeted keywords.

Organic traffic to your website is FREE. PPC is just what it says; you as the advertiser pay each time someone clicks on your ad.

Organic traffic represents about 80% of the Search Engine Marketing with PPC accounting for 20%. Typically, Organic traffic is generated through articles, press releases, and blogs that link the customer back to your website but it takes some time before your site is ranked in the search engines with this method. PPC marketing can be costly, sometimes up to $150 for 1 sale, but the monetary rewards may come more quickly because your website gets indexed immediately (in other words your ads show up immediately).

Does it make more sense to generate FREE traffic and put your dollars to work in other areas of your business? Or, will the ROI for PPC advertising be worth the revenue you will generate from the immediate traffic to your site?

You Decide!

Wealth Funnel System and Developmental Performance Consultants: Blogs

Derrick Harper’s Wealth Funnel System (WFS) and Developmental Performance Consultants (DPC)Introduces You to the Wonderful World of BLOGS

Boynton Beach, FL – May 6, 2008

I’m sure most of you have heard the words blog, blogger, or blogging.
If you are anything like me you have probably thought to yourself “I don’t have a clue what they are talking about!” Have you had that experience before?

If so, not to worry because we, at Developmental Performance Consultants along with Derrick Harper’s Wealth Funnel System of online marketing education, want to share with you some information and insight into the wonderful world of BLOGS and how you can utilize this web 2.0 technology platform to get your products/services and business more exposure on the world wide web.

What is a BLOG? Take the words “Web” + “log” = “Blog”.
A blog is, in the case for this article, textual in content and is an online interactive journal used to build relationships between you and your potential/existing clients.

There are a couple of Blog Platforms to get familiar with; “Hosted Blog Platforms” and “Stand Alone Blog Platforms”.

A few of the Hosted Blog Platforms DPC and WFS use are: Blogger, MySpace, and WordPress. They are Free, easy to use, simple to implement, and are indexed to the Search Engines rather quickly.

The other type of Blog Platform is the Stand Alone Platform and they include: WordPress (which is currently #1 out of the top 50 Blog Spots), and ProBlogger. These are both Free to post to however, there is a domain name fee, and a hosting fee you are responsible for.

One of the advantages of the Stand Alone Blog Platform is you can post the blogs directly on your company’s website. You can also be a little more creative in the design of the Blog as opposed to the standard templates found with the Hosted Blog Platforms.

Derrick Harper and The Wealth Funnel System teach you to be the “Expert” on the products/services you offer by using blog platforms to get your personal branding online marketing campaign out to your clients. Remember, people are looking to you for the leadership skills along with your knowledge and education so you need as many avenues as possible to reach them.

We hope this education has given you an insight into the world of blogs and will be beneficial to you as continue to build your business and online personal branding marketing campaign.