Top Internet Advertising Networks

Although Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing remain the gorillas of online advertising, there are a considerable number of alternatives for generating exposure and clicks. Here the top Internet ad network alternatives:

Chitika
Serves up mini-malls and guided shopping services through a large network (10,000+) of websites and blogs. Strictly B2C.

AdBrite
Runs text ads, banners and interstitials on an extensive network (16,000+ sites) of publishing partners. Also B2C-focused.

Advertising.com
Search, behavioral, and database marketing services for online advertisers. Now owned by AOL.

24/7 RealMedia
Web advertising and search marketing through a diverse network of consumer, business and media sites. Primarily B2C, but can provide brand exposure for broad-market B2B advertisers as well.

Burst Media
Ad networks with thousands of content sites that enables advertisers to target audiences based on content, behavior, demographics, geography, and time of day. Primarily B2C.

Commission Junction
Affiliate marketing and managed search advertising for B2C retailers. Owned by ValueClick.

Kanoodle
Runs search ads on a network of search engines such as CNET's Search.com, Mamma, WebCrawler and Dogpile. Suitable for B2C or B2B advertisers.

Linkshare
Online advertising and search marketing programs specifically for B2C e-commerce retailers.

ValueClick

Provides online display advertising, video, lead generation, serach engine marketing and e-mail marketing solutions for B2C or B2B advertisers.

You can find a more extensive list of online ad networks, brokers and software on the Internet website marketing strategy portal here, and an even more comprehensive list of online ad networks from eConsultant here.

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Terms: online advertising, search engine marketing, Internet ad networks, Chitika, AdBrite, Advertising.com, 24/7 RealMedia, Burst Media, Commission Junction, Kanoodle, LinkShare, ValueClick, eConsultant


The Internet website marketing strategy portal: WebMarketCentral.com


Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

Two New Web Marketing Concepts

Going beyond search ads, pop-ups, banners, email marketing, white paper postings, podcasts, webcasts, video, even social networking, web marketing innovations -- of sorts -- continue to be developed.

One new offering is browser branding from Brand Thunder. The company offers web browser customization services that enable clients to customize the look, feel and functionality of the Firefox web browser by adding their logo, content, custom functions (such as a news ticker and custom link buttons) to the user experience.

Beyond the limitation to Firefox, one has to ask the question: do users really want a "branded" web browser? CEO Patrick Murphy is betting they will, if there is enough value-add in the form of enhanced browser functionality. Time will tell. Other than this dialog between Mr. Murphy and a few early users on StartupNation, I haven't seen much about Brand Thunder yet.


An offering with a different sort of potential is ShowMeLocal. In the words of founder Eugene Belenky, "ShowMeLocal makes it easy for business owners to put their content online with simple tools...Business owners can use ShowMeLocal to publicize coupons and promotions, put up photos, general business info, job listings, and contact information. Users of the site can also utilize blogs to keep in touch with their customers and solicit feedback directly from customers through their ShowMeLocal listing. The site also allows business owners to form networks with one another." His idea is to bring a tight-knit neighborhood feel to the Internet by allowing local merchants to easily put all of their business information, promotions, coupons, job listings online for easy consumption by customers.

The keys to success for that model will be high-quality content and effective marketing. Mr. Belenky will face tough competition from newspapers and other local media sites for those local eyeballs, not to mention Citysearch, Local.com, the inexplicably successful craigslist, and even MySpace, but if he can differentiate his offering in the minds of consumers, this concept has a shot.

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Terms: Web marketing innovations, Brand Thunder, Patrick Murphy, ShowMeLocal, Eugene Belenky, Citysearch, Local.com, Craigslist, MySpace

The website marketing business portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

More of the Best Website Marketing Tools

Larry Chase at WDFM recently published his "Top 10 Marketing Sites for 2006." (Somehow he overlooked WebMarketCentral, but he's probably saving that for the 2007 list.) Here are the best tools from his list plus a few featured here previously that belong in any "top" tools list.

SpyFu
Type in any search phrase, and SpyFu will show you:
- The top organic and paid search results
- The number of advertisers who have purchased that term
- Other terms also bought by these advertisers
- Clicks per day and cost per click

Keyword Cloud
A useful keyword density tool that provides a visual display of the most prominent keywords for any site, along with a keyword frequency and density table. Note that this tool works much better with IE than with FireFox.

Google AdWords: Keyword Tool
Enter a search phrase, and this Google tool will display related keywords along with advertiser competition and search volume; average cost per click and ad position by bid amount; and global search volume trends over time.

Check Rankings
A subscription-based service (free registration required) that provides daily reports of your site's ranking for keywords you choose across all the major search engines. A great tool for monitoring the results of your SEO efforts. For one-off or periodic checks, I still like the search engine rankings tool from Mike's Marketing Tools.

Finally, Backflip is still my favorite tool for organizing marketing research, and Free Essential Tools for Blogger Blogs from Quick Online Tips is a must-have list of tools for business blogging.

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Terms: Larry Chase, WDFM, best website marketing tools, top search engine optimization tools, keyword help

The portal for Internet marketing strategy: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

An Update on Backflip

Correcting my earlier comments on Backflip, an online bookmarking and excellent research tool: it does indeed work with Firefox (or pretty much any other browser). Kenny Gorman sent me the following information:

"Backflip indeed does work on Firefox. You simply have to create the 'button' by yourself. In fact it works on Safari and just about any other browser that has a button bar. If you paste the below link into any button bar, your button will work...

javascript:void(open('http://www.backflip.com/add_page_pop.ihtml?
title='+escape(document.title)+'&url='+escape
(location.href),'Backflip','height=350,width=500,location=no,scrollbars=
no,menubar=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,resizable=yes'));

Thanks for the mention!"

There you have it. You can check out Kenny's database engineering blog here.

There are also indications that Backflip may be adding some interesting new features over the coming months. I'll keep you posted.

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Terms: Web research tools, Backflip, online bookmarking tools, Firefox, Safari browser, Kenny Gorman

Website marketing tools, news and resources: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

Print Magazines Are Dying, but Their Brands Aren't

The fact it's been one year since one of my favorite print pubs, the award-winning CMO Magazine, ceased publishing got me reflecting on the state of print magazines. Printed publications will eventually go the way of printed checks (which are being replaced by check cards, which are in the early stage of being replaced by the human thumb, which will eventually be replaced by Humans 2.0) and CDs (downloads).

What killed CMO? Although Blackfriars blamed a slowdown in marketing spending generally, Joseph Jaffe and Web Ink Now seem closer to the truth: the publication failed to capitalize on its brand franchise. To survive, publishers will have to stop thinking in terms of format (print magazines) and focus instead on providing compelling content that attracts a quality audience, and is delivered in a variety of formats (print, website, blog, podcast, video, and whatever comes next). The printed page won't continue to attract advertisers indefinitely, but delivery of a targeted, high-quality audience -- in whatever format is used -- will. As Paul Conley and Hershel Sarbin put it, magazines "need to reinvent, redefine, and adapt to the demand for multi-platform delivery of content and audience."
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There's no question that print is declining. Overall subscription rates are falling, and subscribers are aging: as Don Dodge points out, the top ten magazines by U.S. circulation are now "AARP Magazine, AARP Bulletin, Readers Digest, TV Guide, Better Homes & Gardens, National Geographic, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Lady's Home Journal, and Woman's Day." Those aren't publications that will lose their readership to the web; they'll lose it to human mortality.

Mark Minosi doesn't feel that we have a suitable replacement yet for printed magazines, but that's a technology issue, not one of content. Again, as Dodge notes, "The blogosphere is doubling every 5 ½ months." For now, the delivery mechanism may be anything from an email on a Blackberry to a website or RSS feed on a big flat panel monitor; it may eventually move to something like electronic paper. In the end, the format doesn't matter -- the business model for delivering compelling content to a high quality audience, and delivering that high quality audience to advertisers, is what will save successful publishing brands.

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Terms: print publications dying, print magazines declining, publishing, blogging, Joseph Jaffe, Paul Conley, Don Dodge

The Internet website marketing portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com