Rate my ad!

Update 6/11/09:  Read more details on Digg Ads

Recently social bookmarking site Digg announced a new initiative for its advertising, where the users rate the ads and discuss them.  Poor performing ads have to pay more, or get kicked off the site.  (Details here in the MediaVision blog)  It's an interesting concept, and it just might be crazy enough to work.

Remember a decade ago when everyone thought search results needed to be unbiased and "editorial", rather than being paid?  At the time, GoTo (later Overture, now Yahoo! Search Marketing), and later Google AdSense and MSN adCenter have proven that the users "voting with their mice" for pay-per-click advertising is a smart and lucrative business model.

Will people vote for ads?  Comment on ads?  Similar functionality already exists in Facebook, with the thumbs up or thumbs down button next to each ad.  It sounds like Digg plans to take this to the next level, although I couldn't find any further details on their plans yet.  Update 6/11/09:  Read more details on Digg Ads

Certain kinds of ads are likely to work well here.  Think about the Super Bowl, where you have day-after-the-game reviews of the ads in every major newspaper and TV station, plus dozens of websites.  People will weigh in on advertising.  But is Super Bowl advertising different, since companies are spending millions of dollars on the airtime and likely six or seven figures making each 30-second spot?  How will that model translate to a simple online ad, created by a not-so-talented marketing manager in less than an hour?  That's where I fear the Digg model may fall down.

But whether or not it works, kudos to Digg for trying something new.  If this type of model is going to work anywhere, Digg is probably the place -- since the whole site is based on people voting for articles.

Sometimes the most simple contests are the most successful

As I was sorting through my postal mail the other day, I saw an ad for a heating and air conditioning company that caught my eye.  The reason I noticed this ad promoting a contest is because of its simplicity.  It's nothing new, nothing groundbreaking...but still smart.  Cyngier Heating & Air Conditioning is running an "oldest furnace" contest.  If you are found to have the oldest furnace, you win a new furnace.

The reason I like this promotion is because it's directly tied to the company's line of business.  Usually you see "win an iPod for filling out this survey" or "win a free vacation" when the prize has nothing to do with the company who is sponsoring it.  But in this case they're giving away a furnace -- which makes sense.  But more importantly, Cyngier is going to end up with a stack of entries for people who are admitting they have an old furnace.  I'd imagine that's a pretty valuable list, since it'll allow them to approach the non-winners with an offer to sell them a new furnace.

A few ways Cyngier could make their contest better next time:

1. If the customer can't verify the age of their furnace, the fine print says they can't win.  I don't know a lot about furnaces, but my guess is it's going to be very hard for most people to verify the age of their furnace.  That seems like a deal-breaker to many people who otherwise might consider entering.  I know my furnace has its date of manufacture stamped on it, perhaps many others do too.  A friendly note in the contest description to that effect might be helpful.  Or if people can't verify the age, let them enter anyway for the potential to win a secondary prize.
   
2. Cyngier isn't really interested in the oldest furnace, they're more interested in finding a bunch of people with old furnaces.  They could set up a similar promotion that invites people to enter any furnace that is at least 20 years old, then hold a random drawing.  Under the current contest, homeowners who have a 25 year old furnace probably don't have much motive to enter, since they'll be pretty sure someone has a 30 or 50 year old furnace.
   
3. Instead of needing to print a PDF and fill out a sheet of paper to enter, make the entry form online.
4. Tie it into social media.  Ask people to take digital pictures of their old furnace when they enter (an optional part of the contest), then let people browse the pictures on the Cyngier website.
   
5. A "tell a friend" about this contest is a no-brainer too.

Suggestions aside, this type of contest is a smart and simple way for a business to drive new sales leads.  Can you tie your company's sales leads to a contest like this?

New Facebook Chat: An example of social media going anti-social

Within the past couple days, Facebook rolled out new functionality for its chat application.  The old system only allowed you to be "online" or "offline" for chat purposes -- there was no in between.  So either all your friends were able to chat with you, or none of them were.

With the new functionality (see official Facebook blog post here, and AllFacebook.com explanation here), now you can allow certain groups to see you online and chat with you, while appearing offline and inaccessible for chat with others.  Now you're in control of who can and can't chat with you.

This isn't new technology or a new idea.  You've been able to appear offline to certain users or certain groups within IM applications for a long time.  But this is groundbreaking for Facebook.

Thanks to this change, I'm sure there will be plenty of people I'll never see in my Facebook chat window again.  I guarantee some people will only allow chatting with a specific circle of their friends.  And people will be able to go "into hiding" a lot easier, where they're chattable to only one or two people, while the rest of the world can't see they're online.

Facebook is supposed to be a social network, but this feature sounds more anti-social to me.  It'll make avoiding particular people on Facebook a lot easier.  But if you don't want to talk to certain people on Facebook, why are you friends with them?  (That's a rhetorical question)

Even though I call the new Facebook Chat anti-social, it certainly has its benefits.  Will I use it?  No doubt I will.  But that doesn't make it any less anti-social.

Photo by r-z

Your website is thirsty. Water it.

I don't like to update web pages I assembled a long time ago.  If I've seen the page hundreds of times, and if the initial thrill of creating it is long gone, it becomes difficult to stay on top of updates.  Those types of pages give me a "been there, done that" type of feeling.

Updating old web pages isn't a challenge.  I'd much rather create something new!  Where's the triumph, where's the challenge in working on old pages?  But yes, care and maintenance is critical to a healthy website.

This afternoon my wife and I went to the nursery to buy some new shrubs.  The only reason we needed to buy new shrubs is because four of ours died in the past year, and it's finally time to rip out the old and put in the new.  And I know why they died -- because I'm bad with plants.  Plants hate me because I don't take care of them well.  I don't prune shrubs, I don't water them during dry spells, and I certainly don't protect them in the winter or fertilize them often enough.

Think about your website(s).  How often do you prune them (remove old content, look for dead links)?  How often do you give them the maintenance they deserve?  Do you take existing pages for granted, and only get excited when you're creating a new page (just like I take my existing shrubs for granted, and only spend time thinking about them once they've died and I need to buy new ones)?

This week, give some tender loving care to a section of your website you haven't looked at in a long time.  What can you do to remove the dead wood?  How can you make it stronger?  Are there ways you can build it into something that can blossom?  If you give a little thought to SEO on these neglected pages, can you help to pollinate the search engines and drive more traffic?

Photo by Art Poskanzer