Is Calacanis’ optimism about online marketing justified?

Written on 28th October 2008                                                                                                              4 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Jason Calacanis predicted in his last night’s newsletter that online advertising spending would go up. After a rather depressing forecast, which included terms like “the Death Spiral of the American Economy” and “The Group Belt Tightening”, Calacanis comes up with the good news. This consists of four parts. Firstly, experience becomes more important than expenses. Good news for Digg, StumbleUpon, and other discovery services. Moreover, there’s no competition (2) for bootstrapping start-ups (3). Lastly, a measurable advertising boom will occur:

Advertisers will start cutting print, outdoor, TV, and radio (probably in that order) in favor of the internet’s action-based offerings such as CPA (cost per acquisition), CPL (cost per lead), and CPC (cost per click).

Jason Calacanis

Although Calacanis is talking about the US, his prediction can be projected on different parts of the world. It won’t be surprising to see it happen in Europe as well – as it makes sense to cut marketing costs and look for attractive alternatives. In Russia this trend is already visible.

Online advertising boom in Russia

Sfnblog reports that online marketing communications in Russia have experienced a surge in financial backing since the beginning of this year. Total marketing numbers for 2008 will average between $1.04 billion and $1.48 billion, says market analysis firm Tagline at the annual Russian Internet Week. They based their findings on a study of 600 companies.

In the UK they’re still waiting

However, in others parts of Europe, the online marketing industry has been noticing a decline in advertising spending. Patrick Smith from Paidcontent UK reports:

IPA’s recent Bellwether report showed that online ad spend in Britain was flat in Q308 and Enders cut its 2008 forecast from £3.56 billion [€4.44 billion] to £3.33 billion [€4.16 billion], despite most in the industry predicting – or at least hoping – that online ad spend would weather a downturn and continue to grow.

Of course I hope we can look back in a few months and say Calacanis was right – that most online markets did follow the Russian pattern. It would further professionalize the blogosphere, including this blog.

advertising, Cost per action, Cost per click, Cost per lead, Europe, Internet marketing, Jason Calacanis, online advertising, russia

4 Comments »

Seven ways an article a day keeps recession away

Written on 9th October 2008                                                                                                              2 COMMENTS
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web

Written by Jeff Herring – The Article Marketing Guy and 7TipsArticleSecrets.com

Article marketing has recession-proofed my online businesses. Now I know that is a big claim, and lots of people are talking about how to recession-proof your business right now.

Read on to discover how to really do it with Article Marketing and the article-a-day strategy.

Here are 7 ways an article-a-day can recession-proof your business:

1. Extend your reach

I like to call my articles my “international evergreen article agents.” My articles allow me to reach all over the world into many markets that I could not have reached in any other way. And they are evergreen, which means they are out there forever, delivering good information with links back to my websites and blogs. For example, just one article I has published online in August of 2005 still receives an average of 1500 unique views each month. And once you learn how to do it the right way, is is free.

2. Unlimited content

One of the things you must have on the internet is content, and lots of it. When you write an article a day, you create an unlimited stream of regular content. While most online entrepreneurs are worried about where their next content is coming from, you are creating
content everyday.

3. Repurposing

When you create an article a day, you have arrived in repurposing heaven. You can take just one article and turn it into multiple marketing messages such as a blog post, a teleseminar, ebooks, ecourses, and so much more. Repurposing leads to…

4. Even more content

Your content creation does not stop with your article creation. When you repurpose your articles into multiple marketing messages, you are creating even more content. The more content you have, the greater web presence you can create. I’m getting ahead of myself though, because that is number five.

5. Create a massive web presence

When you have a storehouse of content and turn it into multiple marketing messages, you are then able to create a massive web presence. What is the advantage of a massive web presence? Prospects find you everywhere, and you begin to be seen as the go-to-person in your niche. And remember this:

A massive web presence is not created in a day, A massive web presence is created a little bit everyday.

6. Ups your expert-ability

I define your “expert-ability” as your perceived expert status in the mind of your prospect. When you are creating article content just about everyday you will quickly be seen as an expert in your field. Even better, you come to be seen as THE go-to-expert in your
niche.

7. Rapid product creation

Another thing you need to be successful on the Internet in any economy is many products, or what can be called an information empire. As an article writer and article marketer, you have the keys to your own information empire kingdom. You can quickly repurpose your articles into teleseminars, ebooks, ecourse, DVDs, and many other information products.

And to get started with your article-a-day campaign, you can claim your free instant access to my 7 Tips Article Writing Template when you go to 7TipsArticleTemplate.com.

Article, Article marketing, blog, Internet marketing, marketing, writer

2 Comments »