Perez Hilton and CollegeHumor have something in common
I love to see new trends and directions in Internet brand marketing. From roll over flash adverts to page takeover advertising, it is getting easier to push a brand on viewers - maybe a little too much for comfort.
For those not familiar with page takeover advertising, it is sometimes just referred to as a site “takeover” or “layout skins.” It is essentially those over obtrusive ads that take over the background of an entire site and possibly the majority if not all of the available ad slots on this page.
Some sites known to do this very often include MySpace and Perez Hilton. Unlike a skyscraper ad or text link - they are next to impossible to overlook and not surprisingly provide some of the best brand advertising possible on the web today. But at what cost? Well for PerezHilton.com, “Page Takeovers” come with a hefty price tag. Ads are sold on their site through BlogAds.com, and here is their most recent quote for takeover adverts on Perez Hilton:
“Takeovers on Perez are $36K per day and includes the 728×90, 160×600, 300×250, and the custom skin. Please let me know if you have any other questions.” - BlogAds.com Sales Rep
Landing Pages To Affect Google Quality Score. Fair?
In February of this year (that’s 2008 if my future kids find this one day), Google announced that landing page load times will have a factor in calculating your quality score. Don’t go crazy just yet, it has been announced but not implemented yet. And when it is implemented the first run of the program will provide you with load time evaluations and provide you one month to address any issues.
From Google’s FAQ:
The AdWords system re-evaluates landing pages on a regular basis (approximately once a month). If you make significant improvements to your website’s load time, you should see an improved Quality score and lower minimum cost-per-click (CPC) bids. Note that your Quality score may update incrementally over two to three months after you improve your load time.
I understand a page load time of 1 second versus 10 seconds is a huge deal, and can say a lot about your company’s infrastructure, but isn’t the goal of Google to provide links to the most relevant sources? Let’s see how this unfolds.
The Machine is Using Us
I have always loved this video, and was reminded why when I attended InfoCommerce 2007 where one of the keynotes pumped everyone up by playing this to kick off his speech (however I think the video trumped his speech unfortunately). The video was originally put together by Professor Michael Wesch at Kansas State University. Am I an Internet geek if this gives me chills each time I watch it? 20 years from now, someone will probably look back at this video and laugh as we go from Web 2.0 to Web 20.0. A real inspiration and quick crash course on emerging web trends that can be understood by all. We are all connected.
Cleaning up
This site is under going some maintenance. I swear I’ll be back. Seriously.
