MarketingBlog.NET: Online Marketing Journey

Today I received an alarming e-mail from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) with a link to their press-release that read the following:

“NEW YORK, NY (November 20, 2008) — The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and  PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) today announced that Internet advertising revenues reached almost $5.9 billion for the third quarter of 2008″

That’s only a 11% increase from Q3 ‘07 and only a 2% increase from the Q2 ‘08. I remember when the Q1 ‘08 report came out, I wrote an article titled “IAB Q1 ‘08 Report in Perspective“. 1/2 a year later and if you look at the graph above, you’ll see very little growth…more like a “bunny hill” than anything else.

“The growth of interactive advertising that we’ve been experiencing over the past few years has stabilized due in large part to the difficult current economic climate,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.”(IAB)

Now that the Retail industry is predicting huge cuts in online spending, the Automotive industry in shambles,”the fourth quarter could see an actual decline in both U.S. and global growth.” (TechCrunch) Bear in mind this is highly speculative and there are more factors out there than our current economic situation. Online marketers are coming up with highly innovative and revenue generating cost-effective methods that may help fix this “situation”. Keep your fingers crossed, hold on tight, and hope Q4’s report is nothing more than a bunny-hill.

Posted under Finance, Online Marketing, Stats

I learned something new about Blogging today. I made a mistake and must learn from it. Learn from my mistake: I didn’t think to blog about “Gmail Customizable Themes” when I was given access before anyone else yesterday. I called a few friends and they all responded “How can I get it? How did you get it?” I should have know that things like that are extremely valuable in the blogging world. Just check out TechCrunch’s article Gmail Themes. That’s Totally Ninja. They openly said “Thanks for the tip Dan” to a guy who sent in a screen-shot. I bet Dan is getting huge amount of traffic for being providing TechCrunch with that tip. Hats off to you Dan!

So what did I learn about Blogging today? When something new, innovative and long awaited comes out and you’re only one of a few with access…BLOG ABOUT IT! There ya go. Learn from this event. Now for your viewing pleasure, check out my theme’s screen-shot below. I decided to go with the “Shiny” Theme:

Posted under E-Mail, Technology

For the best review of the the new Blackberry Storm, there is no better place to go than TechCrunch’s CrunchGear. They do a fantastic job covering every issue and comparing it to the iPhone 3G and Blackberry Bold’s capabilities.

If you’re like me and work forces you to stick with the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), then it’s not easy to jump to iPhone knowing you’ll lose work e-mail connectivity. The exchange server forwards just don’t cut it! So it really comes down to the New Bold or the Storm, AT&T vs. Verizon…mono vs mono…which is why this review is extremely important. Click the picture below to check it out for yourself:

Posted under Mobile, Technology, blogs

YouTube is launching its first ever live streaming event that will celebrate it’s endless list of user communities. Part concert, part variety show and part party, YouTube Live will bring together some of the amazing videos and unforgettable individuals that have contributed towards making the site what it is today. Expect to see Internet-born stars like Soulja Boy Tell’em, Esmee Denters, and “Canon Rock” virtuoso Funtwo, a global b-boy showcase featuring dancers from the movie Planet B-boy, Discovery Channel’s MythBusters and lots more.

But one thing is still unclear. Why did they call it a “Live Streaming Event“? Isn’t this more than event? Isn’t this the luanch of Google Live!? That’s the thing…nobody knows for sure. Here’s my time line covering YouTube Live from the first time it was mentioned until now:

• January 2008: First rumored on the popular blog Scobleizer.com,  when Robert Scoble asked the Chad Hurley (co-founder of Youtube), “Is YouTube working on streaming video?”. Chad responded, “We’re working on a lot of interesting things…” (watch the video here).

• February 2008:  NewTeeVee published a video taken by video-blogger Sarah Meyers asking Steve Chen (CTO & co-founder of youtube) “When are you guys gonna do live video on YouTube?” in which Chen responded:
  • “2008. We’ll do it this year. Live video is just something that we’ve always wanted to do, we’ve never had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to actually do it this year.” (watch the video)
    

• August 2008: according to an anonymous source cited by Silicon Alley Insider’s Michael Learmonth, they state that YouTube is not getting into live streaming. Well, that didn’t last long!

• October 3rd 2008: Wired.com’s Blog anounced that “YouTube will be hosting an event called YouTube Live in San Francisco on November 22 which (as the name implies) will be streamed live on its site”. (Blog.Wired.com) That same day, Gawker Media blog Valleywag also anounced YouTube is going live after all. But they also supported Michael Learmonth’s position saying “Google and YouTube won’t necessarily be offering live streaming video to users of the site any time soon.”

• October 22nd, 2008: AlleyInsider goes ahead and publishes a followup to their August article with a new one titled YouTube Launching Live Streaming Service — Or Something.  They claimed a source was telling them that “someone personally involved in the YouTube Live! event on November 22 [...] specifically described it as Youtube’s Live launch.”

• November 19th, 2008: Well here we are! In 3 days the Youtube Live! event is taking place. Will this be the “official launch” or just a one-time-thing?

Posted under Finance, Online Video, Social Networks, Viral Marketing

I was reading a CNN article “Ten Jobs That Pay $80,000 A Year“, and noticed that Marketing Manager held the #6 spot. The statistics were as follows: Annual mean income: $86,283, Projected employment in 2016: 192,000, Increase between 2006 and 2016: 14%. That looks like a promising future, but I decided to do a little research of my own. I wanted to see the difference when I specified the position as “Online Marketing Manager”.

So I went to 6 different Salary Predicting sites, typed in the term “Online Marketing Manager” and here is what I came up with:

1. Indeed.com: $72,000
2. SimplyHired: $76,000
3. Salary.com: $73,000
4. Yahoo! Hot Jobs:$64,145
5. CareerBuilder Salary: $86,746
6. Monster.com: $81,555

I was also able to get my hands on an effective PayScale salary widget. PayScale is a market leader in global online compensation data, and this widget directly accesses the world’s largest database of individual employee compensation profiles. Give it a shot:

Posted under Online Marketing, Stats, Widgets