Build Personal Brand Through Blog

Blog merupakan media yang sudah tidak asing lagi bagi kita. Menurut Wikipedia Indonesia, blog merupakan singkatan dari "web log" adalah bentuk aplikasi web yang menyerupai tulisan-tulisan (yang dimuat sebagai posting) pada sebuah halaman web umum. Tulisan-tulisan ini seringkali dimuat dalam urut terbalik (isi terbaru dahulu baru kemudian diikuti isi yang lebih lama), meskipun tidak selamanya demikian. Situs web seperti ini biasanya dapat diakses oleh semua pengguna internet sesuai dengan topik dan tujuan dari si pengguna blog tersebut.

Sebagian blog dipelihara oleh seorang penulis tunggal, sementara sebagian lainnya oleh beberapa penulis. Banyak juga blog yang memiliki fasilitas interaksi dengan para pengunjungnya, yang dapat memperkenankan para pengunjungnya untuk meninggalkan komentar atas isi dari tulisan yang dipublikasikan.

Sebagai sebuah bentuk media komunikasi, fungsi blog sangat beragam, mulai dari sekedar sebagai media curahan hati (curhat) atau catatan harian, sampai pada media interaksi yang memungkinkan pada terbentuknya komunitas online. Blog juga bisa dimanfaatkan sebagai media publikasi untuk kepentingan komersial maupun non-komersial, baik secara personal maupun kelompok atau corporate.

Secara personal, blog juga bisa dioptimalkan sebagai media untuk membangun personal brand. Berikut ini ada beberapa tip menarik yang ditulis oleh Darren Rowse di Problogger . Rowse menguraikan 7 faktor yang perlu diperhatikan dalam "menjual diri" kita :

# build trust - increasingly marketers are finding that people want to know and be in some sort of trusting relationship with those that they buy products or services from. This is particularly true for a personal service like consulting. Be open about your agenda and about what you do and don’t know. Talk both about your successes and failures. If all you do is use a blog for ’spin’ you’ll present as too good to be true.

# be personal - building on the last point - one way to make a deeper connection with potential clients is to show something of who you are. This doesn’t mean blogging about your personal life, but show you’re human injecting humor, a photo or two of yourself and showing your personality.

# use story - I find readers respond very well to story on blogs. Stories of my own experience, stories of other clients (shared with permission as case studies) etc. Using relevant stories can help build credibility in your niche.

# establish expertise - people won’t give you the ‘expert’ label without you earning it. Show what you know (without being arrogant), show how you apply it (it’s one thing to know a lot - but can you translate your knowledge into something constructive and useful) and be a thought leader in your niche (ie break some new ground and show people that you’re capable of original thought).

# be generous - some consultants use their blogs to talk very abstractly about their field of expertise but don’t actually give their readers much in the way of practical and applicable content. My approach is to give away quite a bit of information and to be quite generous with what you share. If you help someone for free I find that the next time they need something they’ll quite often be willing to pay for it. You might not want to give everything away for free but free reports, ideas and tips should feature pretty heavily on these types of blogs.

# establish relationships in your niche - while building relationships on your own blog with potential clients can be very effective - when another blogger recommends you it can be even more powerful. Get to know other bloggers in your niche and you’ll find they will add to your credibility with their links and mentions on their blogs.

# be consistent - while there’s no problem with changing, growing and developing in your ideas over time you do need to present some consistent messages over time. If you’re constantly chopping and changing what you’re on about and focusing on you’ll find that readers find it hard to connect with you and build a ‘relationship’ over time. Remember that every time you post you have the opportunity to add to or take from your reputation and brand.

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AdSense Bukan Segalanya, Masih Ada AdBrite, BidVertiser dan Chitika

Sudah beberapa hari terakhir ini, AdSense yang biasanya nongol di blog ku berubah menjadi Iklan Layanan Masyarakat. Sebagai blogger baru yang masih tertatih-tatih, harapan mendapat dollar pun semakin tertunda :( Berbagai masalah yang muncul semakin membuat ku penasaran. Setelah tau respons dari AdSense masih "angin-angin an", aku segera berselancar bersama Om Google untuk mencari alternatif solusi.

Setelah klik sana, klik sini, aku menemukan segudang artikel yang membahas berbagai alternatif cara untuk mendapatkan dollar. Dari sekian artikel yang ada, cara yang udah sering digunakan adalah Monetize your Website or Blog with BidVertiser atau monetize blog dengan AdBrite :



Selain kedua cara tersebut, ada cara lain yang tidak kalah menarik, yaitu "ProjectWonderful". Seperti dinyatakan oleh mister JimmySun dengan ProjectWonderful kita tidak dibayar ketika ada orang yang klik iklan yang ditampilkan, tapi kita dibayar untuk menampilkan iklan-iklan itu. Hal ini di-klaim Project Wonderful sebagai salah satu keunggulannya, dimana click fraud 100% dihilangkan.

Cara lain yang tampaknya mulai dilirik oleh para blogger adalah mencoba peruntungan dengan "Chitika". Hmmm....manis banget ya namanya? Kayak nama cewek aja :) Menurut Resep.web.id Chitika memiliki beberapa kelebihan dibanding program-program PPC sejenis. Pertama, Chitika memiliki serangkaian produk iklan inovatif yang jauh lebih menarik dan atraktif (bahkan dibanding Adsense) seperti Chitika eMiniMalls, Related Product Unit (RPU), ShopLincs, ShopClouds, Owna dan Linx.

Selain itu, produk iklan Chitika bisa bersanding bersama produk-produk PPC yang lain seperti Google Adsense, ShoppingAds, TTZ Media ataupun WidgetBucks. Ketiga, Chitika memiliki program affiliasi yang memungkinkan setiap publishernya mendapatkan tambahan penghasilan dari referral. Keempat, batas minimal pay out hanya $10. Sangat jauh berbeda misalnya dengan Adsense yang memiliki batas minimal pay out $100. Kelima, Chitika membayar Anda melalui akun PayPal (tidak seperti Adsense yang belum men-support Paypal).

Satu hal yang mungkin masih jadi hambatan adalah Chitika tampaknya belum mau melirik blog dengan konten berbahasa Indonesia. Namun menurutku tidak ada ruginya kita mencoba peruntungan untuk meminangnya. Bagi Anda yang penasaran, segera klik Chitika untuk sign up.

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Media Planning

Definition: The process of establishing the exact media vehicles to be used for advertising
Choosing which media or type of advertising to use is sometimes tricky for small firms with limited budgets and know-how. Large-market television and newspapers are often too expensive for a company that services only a small area (although local newspapers can be used). Magazines, unless local, usually cover too much territory to be cost-efficient for a small firm, although some national publications offer regional or city editions. Metropolitan radio stations present the same problems as TV and metro newspapers; however, in smaller markets, the local radio station and newspaper may sufficiently cover a small firm's audience.

That's why it's important to put together a media plan for your advertising campaign. The three components of a media plan are as follows:

1. Defining the marketing problem. Do you know where your business is coming from and where the potential for increased business lies? Do you know which markets offer the greatest opportunity? Do you need to reach everybody or only a select group of consumers? How often is the product used? How much product loyalty exists?

2. Translating the marketing requirements into attainable media objectives. Do you want to reach lots of people in a wide area (to get the most out of your advertising dollar)? Then mass media, like newspaper and radio, might work for you. If your target market is a select group in a defined geographic area, then direct mail could be your best bet.

3. Defining a media solution by formulating media strategies. Certain schedules work best with different media. For example, the rule of thumb is that a print ad must run three times before it gets noticed. Radio advertising is most effective when run at certain times of the day or around certain programs, depending on what market you're trying to reach.

Advertising media generally include:
* Television
* Radio
* Newspapers
* Magazines (consumer and trade)
* Outdoor billboards
* Public transportation
* Yellow Pages
* Direct mail
* Specialty advertising (on items such as matchbooks, pencils, calendars,telephone pads, shopping bags and so on)
* Other media (catalogs, samples, handouts, brochures, newsletters and so on)

When comparing the cost and effectiveness of various advertising media, consider the following factors:

* Reach. Expressed as a percentage, reach is the number of individuals (or homes) you want to expose your product to through specific media scheduled over a given period of time.

* Frequency. Using specific media, how many times, on average, should the individuals in your target audience be exposed to your advertising message? It takes an average of three or more exposures to an advertising message before consumers take action.

* Cost per thousand. How much will it cost to reach a thousand of your prospective customers (a method used in comparing print media)? To determine a publication's cost per thousand, also known as CPM, divide the cost of the advertising by the publication's circulation in thousands.

* Cost per point. How much will it cost to buy one rating point for your target audience, a method used in comparing broadcast media. One rating point equals 1 percent of your target audience. Divide the cost of the schedule being considered by the number of rating points it delivers.

* Impact. Does the medium in question offer full opportunities for appealing to the appropriate senses, such as sight and hearing, in its graphic design and production quality?

* Selectivity. To what degree can the message be restricted to those people who are known to be the most logical prospects?

Reach and frequency are important aspects of an advertising plan and are used to analyze alternative advertising schedules to determine which produce the best results relative to the media plan's objectives.

Calculate reach and frequency and then compare the two on the basis of how many people you'll reach with each schedule and the number of times you'll connect with the average person. Let's say you aired one commercial in each of four television programs (A, B, C, D), and each program has a 20 rating, resulting in a total of 80 gross rating points. It's possible that some viewers will see more than one announcement--some viewers of program A might also see program B, C, or D, or any combination of them.
For example, in a population of 100 TV homes, a total of 40 are exposed to one or more TV programs. The reach of the four programs combined is therefore 40 percent (40 homes reached divided by the 100 TV-home population).

Many researchers have charted the reach achieved with different media schedules. These tabulations are put into formulas from which you can estimate the level of delivery (reach) for any given schedule. A reach curve is the technical term describing how reach changes with increasing use of a medium. The media salespeople you work with or your advertising agency can supply you with these reach curves and numbers.

Now let's use the same schedule of one commercial in each of four TV programs (A, B, C, D) to determine reach versus frequency. In our example, 17 homes viewed only one program, 11 homes viewed two programs, seven viewed three programs, and five homes viewed all four programs. If we add the number of programs each home viewed, the 40 homes in total viewed the equivalent of 80 programs and therefore were exposed to the equivalent of 80 commercials. By dividing 80 by 40, we establish that any one home was exposed to an average of two commercials.

To increase reach, you'd include additional media in your plan or expand the timing of your message. For example, if you're only buying "drive time" on the radio, you might also include some daytime and evening spots to increase your audience. To increase frequency, you'd add spots or insertions to your existing schedule. For example, if you were running three insertions in a local magazine, you'd increase that to six insertions so that your audience would be exposed to your ad more often.

Gross rating points (GRPs) are used to estimate broadcast reach and frequency from tabulations and formulas. Once your schedule delivery has been determined from your reach curves, you can obtain your average frequency by dividing the GRPs by the reach. For example, 200 GRPs divided by an 80 percent reach equals a 2.5 average frequency.

Frequency is important because it takes a while to build up awareness and break through the consumer's selection process. People are always screening out messages they're not interested in, picking up only on those things that are important to them. Repetition is the key word here. For frequency, it's much better to advertise regularly in small spaces than it is to have a one-time expensive advertising extravaganza.

source : entrepreneur.com

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Internet Explore (IE) Bikin Blog ku Berantakan :(

Salah satu hal yang mungkin banyak terlupakan ketika kita membuat blog adalah menge-tes layout blog di berbagai browser. Hal ini penting dilakukan karena kita tidak pernah tau browser yang dipilih pengunjung untuk mengakses blog kita. elengahan terhadap hal tersebut baru saja menimpa diri saya-yg nota bene adalah pendatang baru di dunia blog yang ternyata menyimpan sejuta misteri.

Sejak awal saya asyik mengoprek blog menggunakan browser mozilla firefox 2.0. Setelah berhari-hari melotot di depan komputer sambil berselancar kesana-kemari mencari referensi, akhirnya layout bisa tampak rapi dan tidak terkesan sebagai blogger pemula. Berbagai elemen yang ada seperti header, main body dan sidebar tertata pas di posisinya masing-masing sesuai yang diangankan.

Hari berganti hari sampai waktu sudah berjalan dalam hitungan bulan yang berganti, saya masih belum ngeh untuk mencoba nge-cek blog di browser selain mozilla. Sampai pada suatu saat seorang teman bilang kalo blog ku (agak) berantakan. Aku masih bersikukuh bahwa layout blog ku ga ada masalah karena setelah ada feedback tersebut, saya cek blog (lagi-lagi di mozilla) layout nya masih rapi. Namun alangkah terkejutnya saya ketika secara tidak sengaja saya coba lihat blog di IE. Layout nya ternyata memnag berantakan. Sidebar sebelah kanan yg didominasi adsense, tiba2 saja nyelonong ke bawah sidebar sebelah kiri.

Spontan saja rasa bingung dan gusar segera menghinggap. Layout segera ku oprek. Hampir dua hari nyari cara belum ketemu juga. Di titik akhir dimana sudah hampir dihinggapi rasa putus asa, tiba2 ada ide untuk mengurangi lebar main body. Dan setelah diotak-atik akhirnya sidebar kanan mau naik ke posisi nya semula. Ternyata “hanya” sepele. Ah lega.....

Berikut ini beberapa langkah (setelah muter-muter ga karuan nyari referensi dari berbagai sumber) yang saya lakukan untuk mengatasi blog agar blog kompatibel dengan berbagai browser (khusunya mozilla dan IE) :

1.menyisipkan kode

word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */

di bawah kode

#content-wrapper
#main-wrapper
#sidebar-wrapper

sebelum kurung tutup “)”

2.menyesuaikan lebar “main”, "main-wrapper" dan "sidebar"
Dalam hal ini, lebar "main" dan "main-wrapper" harus sama.

Bagi temen-temen yang mengalami problem sejenis, semoga info ini bermanfaat. Segera cek tampilan blog Anda di berbagai browser yang sekiranya sering digunakan pengunjung,
Waspadalah..! Jangan sampai Blog Anda berantakan..!

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Social Media

Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories, and understandings.

Description

Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Examples of social media applications are Google Groups (reference, social networking), Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Facebook (social networking), Last.fm (personal music), YouTube (social networking and video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Flickr (photo sharing), Twitter (social networking and microblogging) and other microblogs are Jaiku and Pownce. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms like Mybloglog and Plaxo.

Distinction from Traditional Media

Social media or social networking (one example of social media) has a number of characteristics that make it fundamentally different from traditional media such as newspapers, television, books, and radio. Primarily, social media depends on interactions between people as the discussion and integration of words builds shared-meaning, using technology as a conduit.

Social media utilities create opportunities for the use of both inductive and deductive logos by its users. Claims or warrants are quickly transitioned into generalizations due to the manner in which shared statements are posted and viewed by all. The speed of communication, breadth, and depth, and ability to see how the words build a case solicits the use of rhetoric. Induction is frequently used as a means to validate or authenticate different users' statements and words. Rhetoric is an important part of today’s language in social media.

Social media is not finite: there is not a set number of pages or hours. The audience can participate in social media by adding comments or even editing the stories themselves. Content in social media can take the form of text, graphics, audio, or video. Several formats can be mixed. Social media is typically available via feeds, enabling users to subscribe via feed readers, and allowing other publishers to create mashups.

Social media signifies a broad spectrum of topics and has several different connotations. In the context of Internet marketing, Social Media refers to a collective group of web properties that are driven by users. For example, blogs, discussion boards, vlogs, video sharing sites and dating sites. Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the process of trying to get one's content more widely distributed across multiple Social Media networks.

Social Media has two important aspects. The first, SMO, refers to on-page tactics through which a webmaster can improve a website for the age of social media. Such optimization includes adding links to services such as Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us so that their pages can be easily 'saved and submitted' to and for these services.

Social Media Marketing, on the other hand, is an off-page characteristic of Social Media. This includes writing content that is remarkable, unique, and newsworthy. This content can then be marketed by popularizing it or even by creating a “viral” video on YouTube and other video sites. Social Media is about being social so this off-page work can include getting involved in other similar blogs, forums, and niche communities. Search Engine Marketing or SEM involves utilization of all available Social Networking platforms to brand a product using Search Engine Optimization or SEO techniques of communication, to the end consumer.

Examples of Social Media Applications Include:

Communication

* Microblogs / Presence apps: Twitter and Pownce
* Social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace
* Events: Upcoming

Collaboration

* Wikis: Wikipedia
* Social bookmarking: del.icio.us and StumbleUpon
* Social News Sites: Digg, Mixx and Reddit
* Opinion sites: epinions

Multimedia

* Photo sharing: Flickr and Zooomr
* Video sharing: YouTube and Vimeo
* Livecasting: Justin.tv
* Audio and Music Sharing: imeem

Entertainment

* Virtual worlds: Second Life
* Online gaming: World of Warcraft
* Game sharing: Miniclip.com

Other/Specialty

* social ads
* Healthcare apps: CareFlash


This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

References

* Johnson, Steven (2005). Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. New York: Riverhead Books

* Scoble, Robert, Israel, Shel (2006). Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. New York: Wiley & Sons

* Surowiecki, James (2005). The Wisdom of Crowds. New York: Anchor Books

* Tapscott, Don, Williams, Anthony D. (2006). Wikinomics, How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. New York: Portfolio


source : wikipedia

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Telepon Gratis dengan FREN

Baru-baru ini teman saya, si Agus S memberi info rahasia trik menelpon gratis ke semua operator memakai kartu FREN.
Cukup dengan 3 Langkah sederhana, dengan syarat teknis satu HP berkartu FREN dengan pulsa Rp. 0 (kosong) milik anda, dan satu lagi HP FREN teman anda, pulsa diatas Rp. 100.000,-

Berikut tiga langkah tersebut :
1.Pastikan sinyal HP FREN anda Full, usahakan dekat pemancarnya FREN.
2.Dekatkan HP teman anda pada jarak 50 cm posisi sejajar saling berhadapan. Setelah 2 langkah tersebut telah dilakukan dengan benar, sekarang memasuki langkah ketiga yang sangat penting karena menentukan keberhasilan anda bertelpon ria dengan gratis ke semua operator dalam dan luar negeri.
3.Ucapkan: "FREN FREN pinjam handphonenya bentar aja... gw mo telpon... pulsa lagi abis nih..."

Oke FREN, Selamat Mencoba FREN...:D

sumber : Iwal - Ketawa.Com

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Which FreeWare do You Need?

Anda pengen menggunakan software legal dan murah? Cara berikut ini mungkin bisa jadi alternatif solusi. Bagi yang mau total gratisan, Anda bisa menggunakan Operating System Linux. Namun bagi yang belum familiar, Anda dapat membeli OS Windows XP Home original sekitar Rp800 ribu-an. Kemudian download freeware sesuai kebutuhan.
Berikut ini beberapa freeware yang mungkin cocok dengan kebutuhan Anda :

Kalau pengganti produk officenya Bill Gates, dapat menggunakan OpenOffice. Program ini gratis download atau beli di toko-toko komputer.

Untuk menggantikan produk Adobe Photoshop dapat menggunakan GIMP2, freeware ini cukup menggantikan, bagi yang biasa pakai photoshop mungkin harus menyesuaikan terlebih dahulu, tetapi bagi yang baru belajar, syukurlah gak perlu penyesuaian, cukup latihan saja. Semua fungsi dan efek di photoshop dapat dilakukan GIMP2.

Untuk menggantikan ACDSee gunakan FastStone, powerfull dan mudah penggunaannya. Untuk menggantikan WinZIp dapat menggunakan 7-Zip, sama keren dan penuh fungsi. Untuk gambar vector dapat gunakan Inkspace.

Untuk security, bisa menggunakan anti virus AVG Free Edition, Firewall guanakan COMODO Firewall, Antimalware guanakan Ad-Aware 2007 Personal atau kalau sudah punya Windows original, download Windows Difender untuk pendukung Ad-Aware Personal.

Printer PDF gunakan FreePrimo gratis, tetapi untuk dokumen anda dapat langsung save as di OpenOffice menjadi file PDF.

Untuk download freeware-freeware tersebut, Anda bisa klik FileHippo.com
Situs ini juga menyediakan freeware lainya, seperti program pembuat website, ftp dan media player. Selain FileHippo, salah satu situs yang menyediakan software gratisan siap download adalah FreeWare

Selamat mencoba, semoga bermanfaat...

sumber : disarikan dari Yahoo! Answers

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Ten Rules for More Effective Advertising

Leahy's Law states that if a thing is done wrong often enough, it becomes right, and as a result, volume becomes a defense to error. When advertising fails to sway consumers, most advertisers follow Leahy's Law by increasing the frequency of the advertising hoping that more of what is not working will somehow work when consumers are subjected to more of the same.

Use the following 10 simple rules to evaluate the advertising you encounter. You may be disappointed, but don't be surprised when you discover that most advertising fails to follow any of the rules.

1. Does the ad tell a simple story, not just convey information?
A good story has a beginning where a sympathetic character encounters a complicating situation, a middle where the character confronts and attempts to resolve the situation, and an end where the outcome is revealed. A good story does not interpret or explain the action in the story for the audience. Instead, a good story allows each member of the audience to interpret the story as he or she understands the action. This is why people find good stories so appealing and why they find advertising that simply conveys information so boring.

2. Does the ad make the desired call to action a part of the story?
A good story that is very entertaining but does not make a direct connection between the desired call to action - the purpose of the ad - and the story is just a very entertaining story. The whole point of the story in advertising is to effectively deliver the desired call to action. If the audience does not clearly understand the desired call to action after seeing the ad, then there is no point in running the ad. Contrary to popular belief, having an entertaining story and clearly delivering the desired call to action are not mutually exclusive.

3. Does the ad use basic emotional appeals?
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember. There are eight basic, universal emotions - joy, surprise, anticipation, acceptance, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. Successful appeals to these basic emotions consolidate stories and the desired calls to action in the lasting memories of audiences. An added bonus is that successful emotional appeals limit the number of exposures required for audiences to understand, learn, and respond to the calls to action - people may only need to see emotionally compelling scenes once and they will remember those scenes for a lifetime.

4. Does the ad use easy arguments?
"Jumping to conclusions" literally gave our ancestors an advantage even when the conclusions that made them jump were wrong because delaying actions to review information could have deadly consequences. Easy arguments are the conclusions people reach using inferences without a careful review of available information. Find and use easy arguments that work because it is almost impossible to succeed when working against them.

5. Does the ad show, and not tell?
"Seeing is believing" and "actions speak louder than words" are two common sayings that reflect a bias and preference for demonstrated behavior. This is especially true when interests may not be the same. Assume audiences are skeptical about any advertising and design advertising that shows and does not tell.

6. Does the ad use symbolic language and images that relate to the senses?
People prefer symbolic language and images that relate to the senses. People are far less receptive and responsive to language and images that relate to concepts. Life is experienced through the senses and using symbolic language and images that express what people feel, see, hear, smell, or taste are easier for people to understand, even when used to describe abstract concepts. The language and images used in advertising should "make sense" to the audience.

7. Does the ad match what viewers see with what they hear?
People expect and prefer coordinated audio and visual messages because those messages are easier to process and understand. Audio and visual messages that are out-of-sync may gain attention, but audiences find them uncomfortable.

8. Does the ad stay with a scene long enough for impact?
People have limited mental processing capacities. Quick cuts to different scenes require people to devote more of their limited resources to following the cuts and less resources to processing each scene. It takes people between eight and ten seconds to process and produce a lasting emotional response to a scene. Camera movement or different camera angles of the same scene can engage people through their orienting responses while providing enough time for them to process the scene.

9. Does the ad let powerful video speak for itself?
Again, the processing capacity of our brains is limited and words may get in the way of emotionally powerful visual images. When powerful visual images dominate - when "a picture is worth a thousand words" - be quiet and let the images do the talking.

10. Does the ad use identifiable music?
Music can be a rapidly identified cue for the recall of emotional responses remembered from previous advertising. Making the same music an identifiable aspect of all advertising signals the audience to pay attention for more important content.

source : American Research Group, Inc.

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Make Money with Adsense

Adsense is operated by Google. This is a method of advertising that has become quite common on the internet. You will allow Google to place advertisements on your website for them and for other businesses. There is no cost to you. However, in exchange for the space on your website these ads take up, you will earn money each time a consumer clicks a link from an advertisement on your website. This is a great way to generate some extra income. The amount of money you earn will depend on the number of ads you have on your site as well as the amount of traffic on your website.

You may be saying this is too easy, what is the catch? It is easy, but there is no catch. This is a great way for businesses to get exposure in various places all over the internet. It also helps them cut down on advertising expenses because they only pay each time a consumer takes a link from a website. Most other types of advertising cost a set amount regardless of if anyone looks at it or not. This is a great method for new businesses that have a low budget for advertising. The more traffic they can generate to their site, the more profits they will make. In turn they can afford to advertise more.

Adsense is a winning situation for everyone. Businesses use it as a low cost way of advertising, website owners use it as a way to earn money, consumers use it as a way to find other products and services they are interested in, and Google uses it as an effective way to earn more money. In fact, Adsense has become so common you will find it on numerous websites just by surfing around the internet a little bit.

Google has a great system in place to determine the best advertisements to place on your website. They will place ads that relate to your products or services offered but not direct competitors. Google is able to determine market trends, customer demands, and evaluate the best ads for your website based on accumulated data that has been analyzed in those areas. This means you have a very good chance of earning money because a great deal of research has gone into determining what consumers are after.

There are many places on your website that you can place Adsense advertisements including your homepage, blogs, emails, and anything else you wish to use. You don’t have to sell products or services to benefit from Adsense either. You may have an educational site or information site. Any type of website can be used for Adsense. Remember that the ads will be fitting and related to the type of website you operate.

The process of signing up for Adsense and start earning money is very simple. Just go to www.Adwords.com. You will need to fill out some basic information on an application. Within 48 hours you will get a response telling you if you were approved or not. If you are not accepted you will need to contact them to get a full disclosure of why. It is important to have the application completely filled out as that is the number one reason why websites are rejected. Other reasons include personal websites that are not subjective enough and having a website under 15 pages.

Once your application has been accepted you will have to copy and page an html code into the pages you want ads to show up on. You can choose to display the ads vertically or horizontally on your website. You can even customize the colors to make them match your website better. Online help and customer service is available 24/7 if you have questions or other issues.

Adsense is very simple to set up and you can choose to stop being a part of the process at any time. The ads will be relevant to your website yet not direct competitors. You don’t pay anything to become a member of Adsense, so what do you have to lose?

source : Terry Detty - freearticlepublishing

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Blogs: A Part of the Modern Life

Imagine a place where you are allowed to speak your mind freely. Imagine that everyone else listened intently and nodded rhythmically in agreement with every word that was spoken. It is this fantasy that has fueled internet users all over the world to start posting blog entries on every subject imaginable. With the help of free sites such as Myspace(www.myspace.com), Livejournal(www.livejournal.com), and Deadjournal(www.deadjournal.com) there are now millions of blogs maintained in the United States alone. There seems to be no decline in this trend. The blog is one trend that may not be going anywhere for a while.
There are quite a few bloggers out there making quite a name for them selves and not doing anything more than typing out a few opinions or in the case of the vlogger, video recording those opinions. It is becoming a daily routine for people to write in their blogs just as someone might write in a journal or diary. It has not caught on completely but the statistics are pretty impressive with 12 million Americans keeping blogs as a Jan 2006 study states.
Blogs started to rise in popularity just in the last few years but got their start in the late 90s. The first blogs were online journals started by individuals just keeping track of their lives and sharing them over the internet. This was a harmless hobby that very few participated in. It did not stay that way for long. Now there are news groups, public figures, celebrities, and people from all walks of life that have skipped over the pen and paper and gone straight to the keyboard to log about the many facets(or not) of their lives.
The internet has made a completely new form of media/entertainment in our recent history. This development opened the door for a new type of celebrity (as if we needed more of those), the internet celebrity. Many a new face came forth from our computer monitors with the development of the blog and it’s offspring, the video log, or vlog. A good example of a popular vlogger is the, Oh so popular, Chris Crocker, who can be found in all of his highly emotional glory on Youtube.com ranting in defense of the falling star, Britney Spears.
When we are not distracted by the over exposure of internet celebrities, some of us use blogs in a more productive sense. I am speaking from experience when I say that blogs can be an excellent creative outlet. Blogs are not exclusively used as online diaries. One of the great wonders of blogs is that they start as a completely blank canvas for the blogger. Using handy html coding; pictures, videos, and music can be added to any blog page maximizing personal expression.
Of course, like most things, blogs are not exclusive to being a benefit to society. With more computer literate kids than years before we are seeing a higher number of young users being exposed to and creating blogs of their own. This can be especially hazardous with the prowling eyes of cyber stalkers hiding among the massive internet community. Then again with crime fighting blogs like Crime Blog, The True Crime Weblog, and Bonnie’s Blog of Crime it seems that the crime fighting is on pace with the criminals. Still, the preventative measures of parents are the first defense to such internet hazards.
These days many of us are spending more and more time in front of our computers. Since you are sitting there anyway, why not type up what you did today. Throw in some dreams, aspirations, opinions on major issues of our day and you have just created a blog. A blog could be a pretty useful tool in keeping all your friends and family in touch with your daily life. Computers are becoming more and more a part of our lives, this is just one more evolutionary step in the life of technology.

source : Bruce Tucker - freearticlepublishing

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Benefits of Aerial Advertising

Although business owners might not think of aerial advertising when planning their annual advertising budget, they should. There are many distinct advantages to using airplane advertising. In many cases, the advantage of using plane advertising over more “traditional” advertising mediums is quite significant.
When planning an advertising budget, business owners should consider the distinct advantages of using aerial advertising as a medium to get a message across. The return on the initial investment could be significant.
Some of the benefits include:

Cost savings
First, aerial advertising is cost effective. You can easily reach thousands of people in a small period of time. You don’t have to assume they’ll watch the commercial and not flip the channel. You can be assured that when airplane messages appear, they will look skyward and pay attention to the advertisement that’s passing over.
That means there is no money wasted on advertising that won’t be read or paid attention to. In fact, it’s estimated that plane advertising costs about 50 cents per thousand people. No matter the deal offered by a radio station or a newspaper, it’s hard to beat the return on the aerial advertising dollar. Cost effective it is.

Novelty
It’s unusual and provides a break from the usual. People pay attention to aerial advertising, likely because it’s not something you see often. When they are laying in the sun on the beach on a lazy July day, they look skyward when airplane messages appear.
In addition, that novelty leads to memory. That is, people remember the aerial adds they see more than they remember other types of advertising. This is partly due to the novelty – they stop and say “hey, look at that plane and the banner!” – But it’s also the attention the banners garner. Studies show that people will generally watch the aerial advertising as is passes over and will continue to watch it until it disappears from sight. That’s a solid block of time where the intended audience is focusing on the advertiser’s message.

Non intrusive
To get the message across, advertisers who use banner towing aren’t intruding on people’s homes, their living room tables or their cars. They are simply providing a message that’s flown over the beach, or an event or other gathering.
People don’t feel as if their privacy, opinions or personal reading has been invaded. This advertising actually does something that most advertising can’t do – provide a welcome distraction, entertainment and a novel thing to talk about.

Increase ad recall
People remember aerial advertising more than any other advertising medium. Studies have shown that when questioned, 77% of the people who had just seen airplane advertising remembered what was being advertised on the banner. Another 67% could remember what was being advertised.
These numbers are far greater than the response to other kinds of advertising like radio and print ads.

All of these benefits add up to one great benefit – better use of your advertising dollar and a better return on that dollar.

Aerial Advertising services are available from companies that specialize in this type of advertising. The Internet is a good source of information when it comes to choosing aerial advertising services. Arnold Aerial Advertising is one of the companies that provide such services. Located in New York, Arnold Aerial Advertising provides nationwide service with affordable rates.

source : Michael Arnold - freearticlepublishing

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