YouTube Rolls Out Sponsored Videos

YouTube Rolls Out Sponsored Videos

Paid search has come to YouTube. Users can pay to have their videos appear in a right hand sidebar called “Sponsored Videos” in the results of desired search terms.

It works pretty much exactly like AdWords. You bid on terms, set daily limits, etc. You only pay when someone clicks to watch.

Check out YouTube’s YouTube video for more details:

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LinkedIn Combines Social and Search in New Events Feature

LinkedIn Combines Social and Search in New Events Feature

LinkedIn has announced yet another launch. This time it’s a robust Events feature that includes social and search to boot.

Members will receive recommendations for events that match their profile. These can be found on the Events homepage.

Events can be searched for by industry, date, and location.

You can see who on LinkedIn has indicated that they’ll be attending a particular event as well as update your own attendance status.

Also, keep track of updates or look up the history of events.

Check out this video for more info:

Incisive Media Promotes Matt McGowan to VP/Publisher for Digital Marketing Businesses

Incisive Media Promotes Matt McGowan to VP/Publisher for Digital Marketing Businesses

Incisive Media announced today that Matt McGowan is being promoted to vice president and publisher for its digital marketing businesses, including the ClickZ network, Search Engine Watch and the Search Engine Strategies conference series. Matt, who was formerly the global VP of marketing for the group, will oversee all non-editorial functions including sales, marketing and operations. He will report to Kevin Vermeulen, senior vice president.

Matt joined Incisive Media in 2006. Before that, he had served as vice president – sales, marketing and operations for PropertyRoom.com. He began his media career as a marketing manager for Pearson PLC.

McGowan holds a bachelor’s degree from Lafayette College and received his MBA from the University of Oxford. He will continue to be based in New York City.

In a press release, Vermeulen said, “We’re pleased that Matt will be leading the expansion of these fast-growing brands that are widely recognized as key resources for interactive marketers.”

Matt is well-known in the search industry. In addition to seeing him at Search Engine Strategies conferences and expos on several continents, he has also started moderating SES Webcasts, including the one last Friday with Bill Tancer of Hitwise.

John Connor Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Matt during SES New York 2008 — in Times Square. If you look closely, you’ll see a big shamrock in Matt’s lapel. Hmmmmm. Do you think, maybe, McGowan is a wee bit Irish?

Matt McGowan in Times Square, Day 1 SES NY 2008

Google Audio Indexing: Review and SEO Implications

Google Audio Indexing: Review and SEO Implications
Continuing its quest to index all of the world s information Google released Google Audio Indexing into its area reserved for beta features Google Labs. Google Audio Indexing lets users search for keywords within the spoken content of YouTube videos. While it still has a few bugs the service s SEO impact should spread well beyond this year s U.S. Presidential election….
Roxio Creator 2009 - New Edit movies and burn DVDs like a pro. Keep your precious memories safe.

Web 2.0 Videos - Todays Web :: Tech Videos, Screencasts, Webinars

Web 2.0 Videos - Todays Web :: Tech Videos, Screencasts, Webinars
FeedBurner Blog Demo. Consumerization of enterprises: A Security Conundrum. Enhancing Web 2.0 Accessibility Via AxsJAX: A Tutorial. Nerdfighters: Insider View from a YouTube

Blip.tv, DoubleClick Inserting Ads Into ITunes and Other Videos

Blip.tv, DoubleClick Inserting Ads Into ITunes and Other Videos

Blip.tv CEO “Mike Hudack revealed that his company has found a way to dynamically insert ads from DoubleClick into video downloads on iTunes and elsewhere,” the Washington Post reported.

Given the huge use of the tube sites such as YouTube and the increasing popularity of downloading ITune videos this new technology should prove a good revenue source for Google - owner of DoubleClick.

“For the past six months or so, blip.tv has been experimenting with placing pre-roll, post-roll, and overlay ads in some iTunes videos. These ads are served by DoubleClick and have hyperlinks that make it easy to track when somebody clicks on an ad,” the Washington post noted. Videos downloaded to Ipods and other offline players will not be tracked at this stage - though given the synching technology this could be adapted to soon.

Online Reviews Second Only to Word of Mouth in Purchase Decisions

Online Reviews Second Only to Word of Mouth in Purchase Decisions

New data released by Rubicon Consulting shows that online reviews are second only to word of mouth when it comes to influencing consumer purchasing decisions.

Here’s other key points from the survey:

• The Web is the #2 resource for customer support information, after user manuals. It ranks ahead of calling the manufacturer or asking a dealer.
• Website categories that get the most daily usage are search, social communities like MySpace and Facebook, general news websites like CNN.com and NYTimes.com, and online banking.
• The websites that Americans value most are (in order), Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Facebook. Although Yahoo’s financial challenges have generated a lot of press attention, it continues to have a very large and loyal following.
• Young people (age 22 and under) are much noisier online than their elders. They account for about half of all the content and comments posted online.
• Facebook appears to be ahead of MySpace in terms of number of users in the US, and perceived value of the site.
• Despite extensive publicity, the community sites SecondLife and Twitter reach only a few percent of US Internet users.
• Democrats are more active online than Republicans. Democrats are more likely to participate in online communities, and say they are more heavily influenced in their voting decisions by information they find online.

Harry Max, a principal at Rubicon Consulting said, “Many companies downplay the importance of online communities because only a few percent of all Internet users contribute to them heavily. What they don’t understand is that most other Internet users read those reviews and rely on them heavily when making purchase decisions. Taking good care of online communities can be a huge money-saver for companies trying to get more marketing impact from limited budgets.”

I disagree. I think a lot of companies are interested in online communities but aren’t always sure how to engage consumers with them. However, with the economy the way it is, many companies are likely to cut social media first, as we saw in data released just the other day.

The biggest key to making sure you get good online reviews is to have a solid product or service. So, while you’re making those efficiencies in order to survive the slow economic times, make sure your products don’t suffer. Better yet, create efficient products and services and just watch those positive reviews come in.

To get the ball rolling, you might try pitching a few bloggers - especially mom bloggers if you have a product or service related to them.

Related Reading:
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Constructive feedback on online reputation management
SEO for Brand Reputation Management
Pssst. People are Talking… About Your Business!

Beam me up, YouTube!

Beam me up, YouTube!

On Friday, the YouTube Blog announced that the video sharing site was starting to test full-length programming. Apparently, YouTubers have been asking “to be beamed up with Scotty, to devise a world-saving weapon using only gum and paperclips, and to get your grub on at ‘The Peach Pit’.”

Hey, I’m not making this up. Go to the YouTube Blog and read it yourself.

Through a deal with CBS, YouTube is now offering “Star Trek,” “MacGyver,” and “Beverly Hills, 90210” to the 91 million viewers in the U.S. who watch 5 billion videos a month (54.8 videos per viewer). Yes, yes, comScore Video Metrix reports there are another 19.7 million viewers in the U.K who watch 1.4 billion videos a month on YouTube.com (72.4 videos per viewer). But, I’m sorry, I can’t find out how many there are in Canada.

Nevertheless, the YouTube Blog says, “These shows will be available in the new Theater View style we rolled out earlier this week, which provides optimal experience for watching full-length programming on your computer.”

Yes, yes, but what does this mean to search engine marketers?

The YouTube Blog adds, “As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows. You may see in-stream video ads (including pre-, mid- and post-rolls) embedded in some of these episodes; this advertising format will only appear on premium content where you are most comfortable seeing such ads.”

Ah, ha! You knew there was a catch!

Still, in order to make it clear to viewers, YouTube has labeled all full-length videos with a Film Strip symbol so they’ll know what kind of content they’re choosing to watch and what type of ads they might see.

I can’t wait to share this news with Matt Bailey, the founder of SiteLogic. My business partner, Jamie O’Donnell, talked with Matt about Trekkie lore and web analytics at SES San Jose 2008. Matt was the first to analyze “the Red Shirt Phenomenon.” (As any die-hard Trekkie knows, if you are wearing a red shirt and beam down to the planet with Captain Kirk, you’re gonna die.) But, check out the YouTube video below to hear Matt’s analysis for yourself.

Measuring Web 2.0 with Star Trek - & SiteLogic’s Matt Bailey

By the way, Matt Baily will be teaching one of the Search Engine Marketing Training Workshops at SES Chicago 2008. It’s the Search & Analytics Workshop: Using Analytics to Increase Search Effectiveness, which will be held on Friday, Dec. 12, 2008.

To prepare you for Matt’s workshop, here are some basic stats:
The Enterprise had a crew of 430 during its five-year mission (although, the show was only on the air for 3 years). In the 80 episodes that were produced, 59 crewmembers were killed, which represents 13.7% of the crew. So, that’s what Matt uses as the overall “conversion rate.”

Heck, I can’t explain it as well as he does. So, watch the video interview above — read his article over on the ClickTracks site — or prepare to be amazed during his workshop at SES Chicago.

YouTube, Now with Click-to-Buy

YouTube, Now with Click-to-Buy

YouTube has begun placing click-to-buy links beneath videos. This is the beginning of a greater plan to offer YouTube as an e-commerce platform to interested companies.

Amazon, iTunes, EMI Music and Electronic Arts are among the first to get a crack at the new feature, which is currently only available in the United States.

Memo to Viacom: Instead of suing Google and YouTube, which is costing you undoubtedly large sums of money in legal fees, you might try advertising on the wildly popular online video network instead.

Google Adds Click-to-Buy Functionality to YouTube.com

Google Adds Click-to-Buy Functionality to YouTube.com

After launching “Goggles”, a frivolous Gmail tool to prevent drunk Friday night emailing, the Mountain View giant announced earlier today the launch of a new major feature for the YouTube.com website that will allow users to easily buy songs and other media directly from the iTunes or Amazon store, in their latest effort to monetize what is one of Google’s strongest strategic assets.

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