Published on November 18, 2007
in Ideas.
If you’re thinking about starting a business, there are two markets I really like. Pets and Babies. Here’s why. First, they are large markets. Second, the parents tend to be more emotional than practical about many things they purchase for babies and pets. How may moms buy used bottles and sterilize them instead of brand new ones? This adds strength to the primary market.
Parents will buy the healthiest, safest, newest, most educational and even cutest for their babies and pets before they look for the cheapest. Competition is still fierce in these markets, but the product category supports premium pricing as long as the product is the “est”(safest, healthiest etc).
There are other markets with passionate consumers with similar profiles. Consider green products, health and diet foods, even college admissions.
Published on November 13, 2007
in Ideas.
We were presenting at a conference and they asked exhibitors if they wanted to present. Anytime I get a chance to talk to a group, I try and take it. Never can get enough practice speaking to groups. Anyway. I’ve been super slammed and had to really hustle to get a presentation together. I watched a panel on making money with your blog and was totally disappointed with two of the presenters. They just did infomercials and didn’t share any real knowledge. I felt bad for the people that paid to hear what they had to say.
So, I was going to give a talk about how to get text ads to perform. Jeremy Schoemaker had already told the group that he doesn’t use text ads, but I felt he didn’t give them a fare shake.
I put together a deck. Practice the presentation three times and show up to the stage. There was only one person there. I was like, I’m not going to talk to twenty empty chairs and one person. So I sat down next to the person and went through the information.
Here’s what we covered.
- Publishers need to optimize the formatting and placement of text ads to increase their revenues
- Misconceptions about text ads. How to block advertisers you don’t want and that you don’t need to make a site look spamy to perform well
- Vary formatting per ad spot, Consider how the ecosystem of ads on a page works together, Alignment is key!
- Less common ad sizes can achieve big results
- Use slightly lighter backgrounds than navigational elements
- Use darker fonts and link colors
- The highest earning period is 10 am - 2 pm
About 20% higher eCPMs
- 2-3X the Click Through Rates for search referrals
- How to use analytics to improve your advertising performance
