I don’t know The Inquirer’s success rate in speculating on upcoming acquisitions, but the site sure seems convinced that Google is about to acquire Valve:

WELL PLACED SOURCES tell us that Google is going to be buying Valve any second now. If you have to stop and think about why, you probably are not aware of Steam, Valve’s amazing content distribution platform.

I’m not familiar with Valve, but I am familiar with the video games it’s produced, such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, and Portal. The Inquirer suggests that it’s Valve’s Steam gaming platform that Google is interested in.

It’s not likely that Google would be interested in owning a gaming portal, but the actual technology behind Steam. Then again, I’m not much of a gamer and have never used Steam–so maybe some of you who have, can shed some light as to what Google might want from Valve.

As much as I love Google, hearing that Trackur is kicking its butt makes my heart sing! Just as I was preparing to update you on some new features at Trackur, what should turn up–via Trackur, of course–but this glowing review.

Wow, “Trackur Trumps Google.”

But, we’re not resting on our laurels. We want Trackur to be the very best reputation and buzz monitoring tool–at a price you can actually afford! With that in mind, here are some of the things we’ve been working on:

• We’ve increased the keywords monitored across all plans–actually 3x as many, with no price increase.
• We’ve added CSV export for our Corporate and Enterprise plans. Now agencies can download the data and add their own logo, before handing over to their clients!
• We’ve fine-tuned the database. You should notice that Trackur is a little more spritely.
• When you log in, you can stay logged in. As much as I use Trackur, I hated that I had to log in with each new browser session. Now we can all check the box to remain logged in!
• Many more upgrades coming!

If you’ve not already checked out Trackur, then get your free 14-day trial here. If your free trial has expired and you’d love to take another look, simply email us with your request–we’d be delighted to extend your free trial.

Whether you’re monitoring your reputation, tracking your buzz, or simply listening for customer feedback $0.60 a day is a small investment to make–don’t you think?

Read the original post:

To promote its MSN toolbar — “Jet fuel for procrastinators!” — Microsoft launched Start Procrastinating.

More:
Microsoft Angles for the Favor of Procrastinators

Sometimes you can’t do everything yourself. You don’t have the budget to launch a big marketing campaign. Or you don’t even know where to start. One of the best ways to promote your website or business is to work together with others to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.

The legal form of this is known as a joint venture, where two or more parties create a new entity by contributing equity and sharing revenue, expenses and control. Another form of collaboration is known as a strategic alliance, whereby the parties involved pursue common goals while remaining as independent organizations.

No matter what you call it, collaboration with others will benefit you in ways that go beyond what you can do on your own. Think about it. Each involved party comes with their own established audience, reputation, brand, networks and strengths. Some of them may overlap with your own but usually, they’ll reach people or own assets you don’t.

Some people may have more media contacts. Some may have a specific skill (e.g. design, programing) and others have an audience or customer base that you’re trying to reach. Partnering with them for short or long-term initiatives is a smart way to promote your business, on top of all the online marketing that you’re already doing.

How can you collaborate? The possibilities are endless. For example, you can run joint contests/competitions, set up incentivized referral networks, promote a co-op web product, create content together, exchange ad space or trade skills for exposure. There are many ways to collaborate for mutual benefits. It’s just about finding what works for you.

So how do you get started? Four simple steps:

1. Identify your goals. This is what you want to get out of the collaboration. Your goals will determine who you should work with and having a clear idea of what you want from the beginning will give you an immediate idea of what kind of marketing strategy you want to take, and hence who is most suitable for you.




2. Determine what you can offer. Make a list of benefits you can offer to the opposite party. For example you might have specific personal skills or a website with a built-in audience. Perhaps you’re launching a new product and give away free samples of it away. In other words, this list consists of what you can do for the other parties.




3. Create a List of Potential Collaborators. Start writing down a list of people you want to work with based on your goals, what you can offer and who you think will be potentially interested. Make the list broad: there’ll always be people who’ll turn you down so you want as many secondary options as possible.




4. Pitch the people involved. Draft up an email template and send it off to the people on your list. Try to customize your pitch by using each recipient’s name and including unique information/comments. Keep the emails short and frame them in terms of benefits. Alternatively, try pitching over the phone or a face-to-face meeting. Remember to follow up before permanently striking a recipient off from your collaborators list.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. There’s no harm in reaching out to people, all you have to risk is your pride. When it comes to partnerships, you’ll be surprised with the people who will be interested in working together. Don’t automatically write yourself off, especially you have something valuable to offer to another party.

If you’ve never tried any strategic collaborations before, why not start today?

For more online marketing tips, subscribe to dosh dosh.

This is an article from Dosh Dosh




Sponsor: Make money with your website or blog - Earn 50% with Referback.com

Strategic Collaborations: A Powerful Way to Promote Yourself

Social Bookmark

Read the original here:
Strategic Collaborations: A Powerful Way to Promote Yourself

Back in August 2007, usability guru Jakob Nielsen wrote about banner blindness and indicated that plain text, faces and cleavage (or other private body parts) were the three design elements most effective at attracting eyeballs. While Nielsen didn’t examine any popular internet websites specifically, this eye-tracking research holds true in many instances.

Take Youtube for example, it’s well known that the use of sexy screenshots can help your videos get a lot more exposure. People are much more likely to click through on videos showing cleavage or the body of an attractive male/female.

This is something that video creators/uploaders exploit to their advantage. What they do is that they insert a suggestive clip or picture within their video so that it shows up as the thumbnail. Sometimes the content of the video has little or nothing to do with the screenshot.

For example, users will click through expecting to see an attractive girl and end up watching a man talking behind a webcam. This practice is widespread and it has become a common marketing tactic for many who want more views for their uploaded videos.

Having noticed this phenomenon, Wired reports that Youtube comedian LisaNova has taken this practice one step further by offering copyright-free video clips of her role-playing as different characters. Available for download at her website, these racy videos show her acting as a sexy nurse, emo college girl and bespectacled librarian, among others.

She calls these ‘collabcharacters’ or characters you can use in collaboration with your videos. Basically you download her video clips and insert them into your videos, with the aim of using these sexy images to increase your video views. See her video below for more details:

I like how this initiative benefits LisaNova. It increases the utilitarian value of her videos. Previously, her uploaded videos were simply entertainment. People watch them and left comments. That was all. But right now, her videos have become short, tasty brand bites, the ones you can contextualize and incorporate into your own content on Youtube.

It’s a smart way to spread her name even further. People will insert her ‘collabcharacters’ into their videos and the accompanying word-of-mouth will help her get some new fans. Right now, LisaNova has 98K+ channel subscribers (a strong launchpad) and as long as she keeps creating new clips, images of her will continue to infect more and more videos out there.

She’s also doing the smart thing by asking for feedback and suggestions from other users:

I am going to be uploading tons of character collab clips, so that we don’t have too many people using the same image/clips. But I would LOVE your suggestions so please if you are planning to make a video and need a great collab clip, let me know and i will try and make it. Whatthebuck was doing a video about Kim Kardashian so I was able to make him a personalized collab clip.

By offering free customized videos, she’s making sure that her brand is malleable enough to accommodate different contexts and audiences. Content producers will seek her out. It’s a wonderful pull-strategy, especially when a site like Youtube has such a varied userbase.

She also recommended that people who use her collab clips leave an attribution link in the description box, which points back to her profile and her download site/forum. Word of mouth online is strongest when its accompanied by links. There is great value in getting free links on relevant Youtube video pages, all driving interested traffic back to her.

In essence, LisaNova has done quite a few things right: First of all, she recognized the phenomenon or trend of using sex to promote Youtube videos and found a way to leverage it. Trends are often indications of demand and it’s important to know how to read the community you’re targeting in order to increase your viral potential.

She then created and released free content. Free, because it allows zero-risk consumption, something that aids initial mass adoption/participation. This is important when you want to build influence and buzz. She then set up a new community away from the site, to allow fans to mingle with each other. This is a good way to test new initiatives and receive feedback.

Along the way, she offered to collaborate with other content producers while making full use of the medium (videos) to make her brand spread easily among myriad audience types/contexts. To sum up, this is an excellent example how to market yourself effectively in the new media environment of blogs, social media communities and user-generated content.

For more online marketing tips, subscribe to dosh dosh today.

This is an article from Dosh Dosh




Sponsor: Make money with your website or blog - Earn 50% with Referback.com

Viral Marketing on Youtube: A Look at LisaNova’s Sexy Videos

Social Bookmark

Here is the original: