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A Sticker For Your Thoughts

posted on October 28, 2010

There was a time when a glittery, gold star sticker was all the praise you needed for doing your homework or making your bed. There was something about that tiny spot of color that made going that extra mile worth it and that mentality holds true today — with a twist. These days, the prize is a virtual sticker or badge that shows your social media buddies that you’ve done something special.

Online communities such as FourSquare, GetGlue and CBS.com all offer virtual sticker incentives for performing a series of actions on the site. They have no monetary value and yet people will go out of their way to earn them. Why?

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Internet Marketing News Dies Slow Death In Q4

posted on October 28, 2010

According to various sources (trust us they are real people) the report of the death of any interesting news in the Internet marketing space is real. Apparently there is nothing that is really happening in the industry, just a lot of yammering on about things that effect about 1,000 people in total, on average.

The resulting dearth in real news has led to an increase in stupid post titles that are designed to garner links and add no real value to anyone at any time. What these posts do accomplish though is they clutter up Twitter and provide the opportunity for other people in the industry to blindly retweet anything because “that’s what you are supposed to do”.

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Manage Multiple Link Building Campaigns with a Free Trial at Ontolo

posted on October 28, 2010

It turns out the guys at Ontolo had a pretty great launch of the next version of their Link Building Toolset. And, as is the case with bringing any new product to the market–that does things very differently than anyone else–it sounds like they’ve been hard at work folding in user feedback. The biggest feature that has just been added is the ability to manage multiple projects within your account.

How it works is that you’re now able to define various keywords and competitors on the fly. If you want to manage campaigns or projects in your account, simply add a few Research Keywords for each project and, voila, they’re finding you new prospects for each project that night.

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Google Place Pages Get New Prominence in Search Results

posted on October 28, 2010

Google appears to have officially rolled out the new look SERP’s which places much more importance on a business’ Place Page listing. Google has been playing with these changes for the past several months and we talked about it back in early July along with leaders in the local search space.

The bottom line is this. Google moved a significant internal player (Marissa Mayer) into the local space. They claim that over 20% of total searches have a local element. Now, they are making much more room for these listings in places that are normally reserved for Google’s holy grail, the paid search ad. You don’t need to be first in your class to see that Google is banking on local for the future and that more monetization techniques (i.e. the introduction of Boost) are just around the corner.

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StumbleUpon Video: This Time It’s Personal

posted on October 27, 2010

Nothing on TV tonight? Fear not, StumbleUpon can fill your evening with personally selected videos covering everything from cats playing the piano to entire episodes of The Dresden Files, to cooking lessons by a master chef. It’s all here – accessible from one “theater-like interface.”

What’s really new about StumbleUpon Video is that it’s not all about the most popular videos. The idea here is to present a custom list of videos perfectly suited to each person who logs on.

The system begins by connecting you to videos that fit into your chosen list of topics. From there, you can refine your stumbling to a particular source, or take only videos that were favorited by your friends.

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Walmart Does Groupon Without Groupon

posted on October 27, 2010

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I’m not sure Groupon felt the love when they saw Walmart’s new marketing plan on Facebook.

They call it the “CrowdSaver,” and guess how it works. When a deal reaches a certain customer threshold, the deal is unlocked and everyone gets to buy in for a discounted price. The only difference between Walmart’s CrowdSaver and Groupon (and it’s a big one) is the upfront money.

When you choose a deal on Groupon, you’re committed to buy provided that the deal hits the threshold. (I’ve always wondered what percentage of deals never hit the mark. . .. ) Walmart isn’t looking for your credit card info or a purchase promise. All you have to do to join the deal on their Facebook page is “like” the deal.

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Google Looking To Buy A Lot of NYC Office Space

posted on October 27, 2010

When most companies talk about buying office space it can be newsworthy but usually only in certain circles. Well, we are talking about Google after all so there should be nothing ordinary about the space they are considering buying in New York City. Apparently there isn’t.

According to the New York Post

Google appears close to buying the trophy 111 Eighth Ave. building, one of the largest buildings in Manhattan, The Post has learned.

The price is rumored to be tantalizingly close to $2 billion.

The 18-story Chelsea giant carries 2.9 million square feet of space and covers an entire city block — between Eighth and Ninth avenues from 15th and 16th streets.