Every SEO knows that from time to time you gotta spice things a up a little bit. Xsara is no exception… especially since she has discovered the full marketing potential of DogBook: “I especially dig the apps that make me receive bones on a daily basis”, she says. “I never seem to be able to digg the ones I hid in the ground the day before!”
UK-based ad network UnrulyMedia specializes in viral video seeding: bloggers get per-view payouts for including the videos on their site – and that's revenue stream which easily triples Google AdSense, so it's not a big surprise that dhe network is a huge success. Payout rates are very fair, the whole system is transparent. Instead of running after a quick buck, UM puts the focus on quality; most video campaigns are highly entertaining, in the past I posted some of them here on datadirt. I did and interview with Scott Button, CEO of UnrulyMedia: he answered all my questions about the future of viral marketing – this one is a must-read for anyone interested in viral seeding!
The interview is avaible on datenschmutz in German as well – thanks a lot to Vivian Wagner, campaign manager Germany, for translating this piece!
datadirt: When and with what intention did you found Unruly Media?
Scott: We founded Unruly Media in January 2006. We started out collating cool viral content from around the web and launched www.viralvideochart.com in September 2006, which uses a blog scanning engine to determine the videos that are being shared most rapidly in the blogosphere and who's doing the sharing.
!: We branched out into video seeding in 2007 as it was an ideal way to monetize the Viral Video Chart site and the sheer scale of the demand soon encouraged us to open up this sort of viral advertising opportunity to other sites and blogs. We now have a network of over 3,000 publishers across Europe and North American who earn money showing the latest viral videos, movie and game trailers to their readers.
?: In your opinion, what will the future of Video-Seeding(Viral Marketing) look like?
I think we're going to stop thinking about this in niche and jargonized terms such as ‘video seeding' and ‘viral'. As brands and agencies shoot more video for the web, we're going to see a natural move away from the 30 second spots to longer form content (60-120 seconds) that's got time to be more entertaining, more useful, and more engaging.
Blasting viewers with short, commercial, interruptive video messages is getting more expensive and less effective every year. It's a no-brainer for brands to start making and commissioning content that their fans, customers and prospective customers will want to watch.
As we see things, we simply provide a marketplace that matches up high quality content with audiences who want to watch it. Sure, that includes ‘classic virals' trading on humor or sex, but it also includes movie trailers, game trailers, infommercials, and lots of niche content for niche audiences.
?: What are common reactions from bloggers/webmasters who are part of your Unruly Network?
!: We get a lot of positive feedback. Sure, we would say that! But bloggers and webmasters genuinely love our model. They love getting paid to show good content to their readers rather than annoying ads. They love the fact that the viewers stay on their site. And they love the fact it earns them more money than AdSense and most other advertising programs they'd be eligible for.
?: In what way does the German market differ from the English or American market (in reference to blogger feedback, willingness to put paid videos on their website)
We've found the German market a little harder to enter than the English and American markets. This is our fault. Although we employ German nationals to scout for good German sites, our publisher network is entirely English-language and is denominated in US$. We understand that this is going to be bit off-putting to German bloggers and we do hope to localize our product in the future. That said, we've got some fantastic sites we work with in Germany and we've run several high profile campaigns there already.
?: In your opinion, what are the basics for a successful video campaign?
!: The content needs to score very highly on one of the key triggers of sex, humor, shock, originality, spectacle, inspiration or illumination. These are the reasons people pass content on. It then needs to be seeded in a high impact way to several hundred thousand people in the right target demographic. And finally, the content has to be made really easy to share, especially within social network environments, because this is where a lot of the dissemination takes place.
?: In what way and how will viral marketing change in the next 12 months and how will that influence the CPC?
!: Lots more content, Lots more noise. It's going to get harder and harder to get cut through. I mean it's pretty hard already, with over 300,000 videos a day being uploaded to video sharing sites, but you ain't seen nothing yet.
Vivian Wagner, CampaignOn the one hand, the increased demand from advertisers is going to put an upwards pressure on prices. I think there's going to be more focus on targeting and site quality, too, which is also going to put upwards pressure on prices, at least for high quality sites reaching desirable audiences.
On the other hand, inventory around video content will keep increasing, and the video sharing sites are going to get better at opening this inventory up. So this may balance out the increase in demand. CPMs for pre-roll, for instance, are already eye-wateringly high and seem unsustainable when compared to the gross costs per thousand when buying TV. That said, one of the more interesting areas that I think none of us has figured out yet is the value of an engaged viewer. When we get someone to voluntarily watch a 2 minute film, that's delivering significantly more value than a 30 second TV ad playing to a distracted, multi-tasking viewer or an empty room.
In addition, the market is going to become a lot more ethical, professional and transparent. We're extremely pleased that the EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices has now been implemented in most member states. What this does is criminalize a bunch of marketing techniques that were already ineffective and unethical – fake comments, fake voting, non-disclosure, surreptitious product placement – thereby outlawing a wide range of clandestine and underhand guerrilla techniques that formerly passed as ‘viral marketing'. Instead, this places the emphasis back where it should be – on great content, on high volume, legitimate distribution routes, and on frictionless sharing tools that enable content to spread more rapidly among online communities.
Today I got invited for an interesting new facebook group: it's all about a so called Jesus: he's a guy invented by some antichrists with the sole intention to mis-credit our true one and only saviour, Lord Jeebus Chuck Norris. So repent, SINNERS – and never forget what Jack Donaghue said about Irish catholics on 30 rock: “There's always the crusing guilt!” On the facebook group page it says:
JESUS save SINNERS.
JESUS told us about LOVE.
JESUS told us about TOLERANCE.
JESUS told us to HELP the others.
JESUS told us about PEACE.
JESUS told us about FREEDOM.
JESUS told us about FORGIVENESS…
lets go this way together.
But while Jesus is walking on water, Chuck Norris is walking on Jesus. Or swimming through land. So shouldn't the intro rather say:
CHUCK NORRIS is his own SON.
CHUCK NORRIS punishes SINNERS.
CHUCK NORRIS told us about MARTIAL ARTS.
CHUCK NORRIS counted to INFINITY. twice.
CHUCK NORRIS told us to SMASH THE FACES of others.
CHUCK NORRIS told us about the dangers of PEACE.
CHUCK NORRIS is FREEDOM.
CHUCK NORRIS reminded us that FORGIVENESS is for pussies…
lets go his way together.
Who let the dogs out? It's happening again! Google, the old dog catcher, doesn't like sold links at all, so Xsara has to cover her trails. But there's something she might have overlooked…
Not that young maybe… just watch out: in BBC's new comedy show The wrong door lifeless things are not that lifeless:
This is a trailer for The Wrong Door, a daring new sketch show set in a parallel universe
The contract about her 24/7 online-life has been signed long ago – with a loud “wuff”. But now Xsara gets to know what it really means to spend every hour observed by the public, while paparazzi follow her every footstep – and she loves it.
GPS monitoring has evolved, at least in terms of spreading the word: the latest Nokia cellphones store training tracks, allow for sharing with friends and enable their users to geotag each picture. Very handsome if you're Pacman and on the run from ghosts chasing you: but what if they use a Nokia guide as well?
Here and there is not a music video in the strict sense and definitely not your average youtube short movie: the result of the collaboration between Eoghan Kidney and musician Simon Cullen is a very interesting hybrid with hypnotic qualities – watch for yourself:
Gina Lisa was a contestant in the hugely succesful tv-series “Germany's next top model”. Even though she had to leave the show after the first rounds, she won a lot of fans during that period. Gina Lisa is blond, has pretty impressive eyes and a lot of people – especially women – claim that she looks the tyical porn star. Her favourable sexy looks and clothes were not quite contradicting this judgement.
When Germany's biggest newspaper, the Bildzeitung, published an article about an online clip that supposedly showed Gina Lisa indulging into various kinds of lovemaking with an ex boyfriend, a huge amount of users eager to see their favorite topmodel undressed started to search for the video online: et voil
Yaro Starak, the Aussie “make-more-money-online-you-dimwit” guru tells me I gotta have pillar content for my blog. These articles constantly are going to drive unwanted traffic to datadirt. And Yaro says that How-to postings are a good way to achieve a strong pillar effect, so first I wanted to blog about how to blog (how to find the proper topic, that is.), but then it suddenly hit me: first things first, mate! All postings consist of proper sentences in the first place, so I decided to go on rambling about how to write a blog-posting sentence. I hope this will drive all desolate creatures out there – SEO dogs, bloggers and the like – to my blog for eternity.
Maybe I'll tell you how to find proper topics later on. And thanks for the reminder, but yes: I know that all sentences start with words, but I'll tell you how to find the proper word later. Maybe this is even going to turn into a pillar-content-series. No fillers, promised! (But there's tons of affliliate links to come.)
So first, we gotta ask ourselves: what exactly is a sentence? English teachers tell us it's basically a big or small bunch of words, thrown together in proper order and finished by an infinitessimaly small dot. Or a question mark. Or an exclamation mark. Generally, it's a good idea to first choose a proper stop-mark for your sentence in order to let the read know that a new sentence is about to begin. Once you've managed to complete this extremely important task, you should now go for…
There are many words, you can find some of them online. But be careful: not all words are apt as a starting point. Like “crud”, which is a word but yet again a whole sentence in itself. Or cunt, which is not so good for more obvious reasons. Personally, I prefer words beginning with the letter A or T, for example “Asfixation” or “Tourette Syndrome”. If you're totally undecided, you can always go with I – but not every time, as changing the so called ferstwerd (author slang) is vital. Sometimes it's even enough to just change the ferstwerd and put add a simple “,too” at the end of your second sentence:
Asfixation kind of sounds like ass fixation. Tourette Syndrome kind of sounds like ass fixation, too.
Young sentence builder, you're good to go now: once the first word has been written down, it's very easy to complete the sentence. Don't get distracted by style guides and know-it-alls you tell you to put focus on the verb. The verb totally doesn't matter. For the first couple of weeks, “to be” will do:
I am being totally happy. Christmas is this year.
That's what pros call the “ontological writing style”, which is totally uber-important for all pillar articles, as you're trying to define something here, right?
Once you advance in writing level, you'll probably want to start using commas as well. But be carefull though: stick to one sentence whenever possible, or you're bound to confuse your readers:
I am suffering form asfixation, I am suffering from Tourette syndrome, too, I decided to write this article, I hope you are now reading it.
Most writers tend to over-use new tools, it's basically the same problem with people who start using word and insert a wordart graphic on every single page. Just keep these advices in mind and your sentences will rule supremely over anybody else's!
Wanna know more? Enlist in my online course “How to write other sentences than all most other people.” The course covers a variety of vital topics (sentences that don't start with I, other verbs besides “to be” to name just the two most important ones.) It's just 300 dollars a month, or you pay me 3.000 dollars upfront – and you'll see where this gets you. Just look at me. If I hadn't paid for my own course, I could have never written this many sentences! And don't forget: once you know how to write succesfull sentences, the money will come back to you. No, it will flood you. You'll wish you never made so much money as you gonna need a way bigger flat to store all your brand-new 100 dollar bills. And a bigger car to transport them. And a bigger anus to stick your own head into, as you gonna be so self-satisfied that it actually hurts.
Don't even think of blaming me if you scheme won't work. It it doesn't, it's purely your fault, you dimwit. Didn't I tell you to stick to simnple sentences for the first few weeks?
Back in the days the pagerank algorithm was the greatest invention of all SERP times, and Xsara has learned the importance of organic link growth very fast. And since other SEO dogs know this as well, she now wants to increase commenting activity on here blog via the use of a dofollow-plugin. And she strives to be number one for the query “nofollow dog blog”… but there's a long and winding road in front of her!
