Digital Marketing Blog

Ask A Ninja wins landmark ad investment

A video podcast hosted by a balaclava-wearing geek has become "the best-paid online video show in the business" after scoring a $300,000 advertising deal.

Ask A Ninja, a regular online piece-to-camera comedy sketch which debuted in November 2005 and is currently pulling in 154,000 unique visitors a month, signed to have its ads handled by Federated Media.

by Robert Andrews 01 February 2007 11:36am 2 comments

PPC budgets to be cut as online spend grows, report says

US advertisers aim to up their online ad spend by 18% this year, and the bulk will go toward search engine advertising, according to a new report.

Data from Outsell shows online will outstrip a general 5.8% growth in ad spending across all media in 2007 - what it called a "major milestone" for the web.

by Robert Andrews 01 February 2007 11:36am 0 comments

More on Shiny Media's recent funding

Earlier in the week we wrote about how UK blog network Shiny Media has sold half of its business to a new London-based VC fund, in exchange for $4.5m.

I talked to Shiny Media CEO Ashley Norris to find out more about the company’s progress and plans for the future.

by Chris Lake 31 January 2007 16:46pm 3 comments

YouTubers would flee video ads

Three-quarters of YouTube viewers would visit the site less often if the video behemoth placed ads before clips, according to a poll.

YouTube founder Chad Hurley, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, told BBC News the site was mulling placing three-second commercials ahead of uploaded videos and sharing the revenue with producers.

by Robert Andrews 31 January 2007 13:34pm 0 comments

Online clothing sales break £1bn barrier

Internet clothing sales reached £1.2bn in 2006 and have increased by 461% over the last five years, according to figures from market research company Mintel.

Despite the obvious drawback of not being able to try before you buy, sales passed the £1bn barrier for the first time. Mintel is labelling it a 'defining year' for online fashion, as retailers invested heavily online.

by Graham Charlton 31 January 2007 12:13pm 0 comments

Simplifying SEO - Five laws of effective search engine optimisation

Alan Eustace, a Google VP of search engineering, announced last year that there are now over 200 signals that Google uses to determine document relevance for a searcher. Unfortunately, he didn’t go on to explain them all… :)

With this number of factors and constantly updating algorithms, it’s tricky when I want to explain to a site owner when training or consulting which really matter. So here are five laws of effective SEO I have defined to assess strategic focus on SEO - hopefully it's easier to remember five laws than 200!

by Dave Chaffey 31 January 2007 09:49am 0 comments

Microsoft ploughs $500m into Vista marketing

Microsoft has reportedly earmarked $500m for a massive global advertising campaign to support the launch of its new Vista operating system.

In what will be its "most aggressive launch ever", Advertising Age said the Redmond, Washington, giant is launching a campaign across 20 countries that aims for "6.6bn impressions in its first few months".

by Robert Andrews 30 January 2007 15:37pm 0 comments

Brands attempting “User Generated Content” – the good, the bad, and the ugly

With the rise of “Web 2.0” and “UGC” (User Generated Content) many brands are attempting to harness the power of UGC. But how well are they doing it? Which ones are getting right and which embarrassingly wrong?

Here are a few of my own thoughts on the winners and losers, but do suggest your own…

by Ashley Friedlein 30 January 2007 15:21pm 3 comments

Q&A: Six Apart's Anil Dash on business blogs

Anil Dash is the chief evangelist at Six Apart , the company behind popular blog platforms Movable Type, Vox and Typepad.

With many businesses still to recognise the potential benefits of blogging for SEO, internal communications and customer relations, we asked him how more converts can be won over in the enterprise space.

by Richard Maven 30 January 2007 11:49am 6 comments

The pros and cons of gift vouchers and wishlists

A study by Jakob Nielsen has shown that many etailers are failing to realise the potential of wishlists and gift vouchers.

The report, called E-commerce User Experience: Wishlists, Gift Certificates, and Gift Giving in E-Commerce, found that, despite highlighting usability issues, certificates and wishlists are excellent ways to attract visitors to a site.

by Graham Charlton 30 January 2007 11:30am 2 comments