WiredPen

VideoNuze tells us that Google is planning to provide ad-supported “high-quality video” (from Fox’s “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane) to affiliated websites. For free. The websites help distribute the content (a long tail distribution model). Google, MacFarlane and the website proprietor split the revenue.

Lest you think only big guys can play, consider Jambo Media — 12 employees, two years old, video syndication with 2 million views per day. Like Google, Jambo relies on affiliates to distribute the videos.

Amazon popularized this concept when it launched its affiliate program in 1996. In that program, website proprietors who linked to Amazon offerings got a small cut of any direct link sales.

PenguinGroup tells us that Don Tapscott has updated Wikinomics (”expanded” edition, not “second” edition) with “a new introduction and a new chapter.” Great. But for those of us who bought the original book, why not make these two chapters available as a PDF for free or for a nominal fee?

I wandered over to the book’s website to see if they were offering these updates. Nope. The “sneak peak” link (pdf) is from the 2006 edition of the book, even though the webpage text focuses on the “expanded edition.”

When Sam Harris updated The End of Faith (hardcover to softcover transition) and added an afterward, I sent him an email and said, “It would be lovely if those of us who have the hardback could read the afterward that is part of the paperback … without having to buy another copy of the book.” Sam kindly sent me a PDF of the new chapter. Wonder if Tapscott will do the same thing? I’ll let you know if he does.

x-posted to summer’s economics class blog

Amazon’s not just on Twitter, they are promoting MP3 Daily “deals” via Twitter. Today’s deal: Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage. Everyday low price $5.99, today it’s $0.99.

I think that this is what I’ll call all of these examples … it just makes life simple. The example this week comes from Ziff Davis Media publication PC Week:

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Anecdotal evidence suggests that some black-hat advertisers are using automated tools to fool Craigslist into thinking that multiple site visitors are complaining about “offensive” or “false ads”…. as a way to drum the competition out of the free space.

Forget, for a moment, that the design of the above-the-fold portion of this website is ugly as sin, crowded with ads and “junk” (hat tip, Edward Tufte). Look at the ad, sitting front and center!

It’s blocking the copy — the only reason we’ve come to this page. Yes, I know that lots of publishers are doing this these days. That doesn’t make it right — it makes it intrusive, in the same manner as television ads. And people like these just as little as they like TV ads (in general, Super Bowl excepted!).

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Marketing exec Chris Winfield (Let’s Get Social @ SearchEngineLand) explains how Twitter can help marketers … and he did his research by conducting a Twitter poll.

I, on the other hand, wrote this post after commenting on Chris’ column! In the process, I learned a little about Sphinn (not much, need to dig some more).

Like polls on LinkedIn (or any other social media site), the odds of getting responses increase with the size of your social network. However, there are ways that you can increase the probability of a reply. You can add the hashtag #poll or #twitterpoll to a post; the hash groups tweets, makes them easy for people to find. Or you can turn to an external aide; for example, PollDaddy has a Twitter poll feature.

More good stuff if you’re still trying to figure out how to use Twitter: Paul Bradshaw just wrote a post about how journalists are using (can use) Twitter. Of course, as I wrote earlier this month, I’m working on Twitter genres (another way to analyze how people are using the tool).

Well, yeah, it can. That’s a “doh.”

The NYT’s headline writer asks this question to promo a short article in Sunday’s business section … as though this were something novel. Or hard to do. It’s neither and is common in Japan. In 2006 about 6-in-10 mobile customers in Japan used mobile coupons more than once a month.
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Sam Lawrence throws down the gauntlet to marketing folks today in a blog post entitled “Stop guarding your precious brand.” Here’s what I wrote in a comment (with a typo corrected!):

Hi, Sam, this is a slightly different frame on the concept of user-centered design … which is the core of what makes a product or a website **work**. Period!

On one level, control also reflects fear, I think. (Hey, I just saw the Dalai Lama today. His message: need to remove fear, doubt and suspicion to make way for compassion.) Marketing (and advertising) uses fear-uncertainty-doubt as weapons against the unsuspecting (or unsophisticated). That’s the absolute opposite of engagement and conversation.

Control can also mean “fear of losing one’s job.” It’s closely aligned, in this meaning, with preserving position (esp. common with middle managers whose jobs have been to control the flow of information w/in an organization). But it, too, is the opposite of conversation.

What’s different about new companies (digital ones) and old companies is reflected in Jeff’s comment: “All brands which through overuse became synonyms for an object rather than a brand. Kleenex Bandaid Hoover”

NEW companies *want* their brand to become a verb … to diffuse rapidly and totally. Google is a verb (but not Yahoo!). So is Tivo (but not ReplayTV). If those companies had tried to “protect” their brand like Jeff is suggesting, would they be as successful as they are? (Yes, I know Tivo is not as successful as Google, but it’s more successful than its competition.)

What do you think?