OK so what is the solution for these ad networks who all copy each other and all claim the same thing?

- Come up with a different model.  Stop following everyone else and innovate.

- Pick a niche space and own it.   “Go Green Ad Network”  (Doesn’t exist, at least I don’t think so?)

- Raise your qualifications.   Increase the quality of your publishers and you can charge a higher CPM’s.  Stop accepting anyone into your network, just to raise you ComScore numbers and inflated fluffy reach.

- Sell ads at real CPM’s and then actually pay out a good percentage to  your publishers.  (Casale Media is doing 70% at the moment)

So who is actually at the top?  That’s what I’d really like to know.  Which ad network constantly out performs all others?  Leave a comment if you’ve had any success and got paid real money from anyone.

3rd party services like Pubmatic and Rubicon will eventually answer this questions for all of us and settle the score once and for all and the cheap networks will fall…

- The Rich get Richer. Well it’s a joke really that the only ones making any money are the owners of Google. If you are the one actually producing any of the content that they get rich off of, most likely you are still a broke ass. It is the sheer gap of wealth from the amount of money being printed to the actual publishers that makes me the most angry. With a 200 billion market cap, they could pay their top ONE MILLION publishers $100,000 and still have 100 billion left over. No but Google Officers like Doerr are cashing in 43,475 shares for a cool $30,000,000. He must need a new set of rims for his hummer?

- The Poor get Poorer. Yes, you guessed it. If you have been using AdSense as your only source of blog income you now know that AdSense blindness is setting in on your readers and they are clicking less and even if they do click, CPC’s are down. The money you used to buy your daily coffee with is now only paying for the soy milk upgrade.

- Lack of customization. Color palette change, rounded edges. Wow. Some customization. In the gaming world it’s common place to be able to customize your character to look almost identical to you or anyone you like, and this coming from much smaller development companies, let alone a billion dollar behemoth. Too busy counting their money I guess. I mean when the geek sitting in the cube next to you is worth 4 million on paper, why work? He is too busy twittering and checking out his net worth.

- Loyal promoter? We don’t need you. OK so you’ve been doing a money making blog for years and sending tonnes of fish over to the big shark as an affiliate referral. They pay you a bounty and then suck millions out of your referrals, but now depending on where you live, they might not want your krill. edit  - (OK they fixed this since I wrote this post a while ago, but now they still don’t accept certain countries.)

- Still only a CPC model.  Wherever there is someone paying for a certain call to action there is a way to game the system.   Yes, click fraud is alive and well and Google really doesn’t care that much about it, especially since the buzz about it has died off over the years.  Why not let the publisher decide what format to charge?  CPM, flat rate?  Adify.com allows these options for publishers. I’ve always preferred flat rate, and you can’t game a fixed price.

- Follow our rules or else. Want to sell your own text links on YOUR own site. Forget it. Cutt’s will even get you to sell out your own mother down the river for making money on the side. Big G will come down on your ass like a Columbian Coke lord on a cocaine farmer for chewing on leaves…

1. Use a services like PayPerPost or sponsored reviews and pay someone to blog positively about your product but don’t worry if the blog is completely off topic to your market.
2. Sign up a bunch of fake alias in multiple forums, answer a few questions, and then start flogging your product to yourself.
3. Create a few splogs loaded with scrapped content and loaded with relevant keywords and then blog about your own product.
4. Spam all of your friends and ask them to Digg and stumble your blog posts daily until you have no friends.
5. Create a FaceBook fan club for your product and invite everyone you know and do weekly updates to everyone even if they didn’t join the group.
6. Offer your product for ‘free’ to prominent bloggers only if they write something nice about you
7. Buy a whole bunch of fake traffic and then put your site up for sale on SitePoint telling everyone how much major traffic you have, then cancel the auction and tell everyone, that you site is way too valuable to sell.

Got any more fun ones?   Add them in the comment field.

Newspaper advertising is in big trouble and  and in its current form it will die in the next 10-15 years.  The newspapers need to step up to consumer demands and adapt quicker.

“According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 — the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950.”

Some of my suggestions to adapt:

- Come up with 2 different formats - A home version and a ‘travel version’.  Have you ever tried reading the New York Times on the subway?  UK newspapers are starting to get smaller and some major North American publishers have cut the size slightly to make it more manageable, but to truly get portable, have a power summary edition in a magazine size.  Smaller will be key especially with everyone going green and with the paper wastage.

Start Selling your product - Newspapers have just gotten lazy over the years, and think that people ‘need’ their product and that people will just buy it.  Start pitching it again.  Remember the paper boys that used to be on the street corners selling newspapers or the kid who used to come to your house once a week and collect the ‘paper money’?  How could you cancel your subscription from a pimply 12 year old trying to earn a buck.    Or even the homeless guys selling them at major red light intersections.  I used to buy one from them even if I didn’t really want one. 

- Give it away FREE - Create a free version that is super small and handed out at major hubs and subway stops.  Most major cities already have several small free entertainment or news type mini papers that are giving out free, the major players shouldn’t be giving away the market share to these small players.

- Customized newspapers - OK, we’re still away’s off with this one, but users should be able to fully customize the paper they receive.  Until the fully customization options are scalable, users should be able to at least pick and choose which sections or the current paper they receive.   My Dad only reads the sports section or the paper, I only read entertainment and business.  Why do we need 20 sections if we only read 2-3? 

Time is running out big boys, adapt or die slowly and painfully.

1) Learn the medium. The first step is not only to learn the medium, but use it. Become a power user of the medium before you attempt to exploit it for commercial use or self promotion.

2) Get an outside opinion. If you are OLD or un-connected to the trends, ask someone who is connected to review your ‘viral’ idea before you unleash it. (And before you flame me, I consider myself old. I don’t get why kids where their jeans half way down their ass, but maybe it is cool? But it also doesn’t mean you should!)

3) ‘In’ terms go ‘out’ Fast. If you think a term is ‘cool’ it is already too late and you can’t use it in your marketing pitch. (Example Gwen Stefani using the word ‘Mash-up’ in the HP commercial. Too late sounds corny)

4) Let others test it. If a new form of advertising shows up, don’t jump on the bandwagon to be cutting edge. Let others burn through cash to see if it works. (ie. Facebook advertising :)

5) Bribe with Caution. OK, everyone has a price, but most people have some level of morals, or at least think they do. So if you want to give something to someone in exchange for getting them to endorse your product - do it like the pros do. Sponsor them.

Other great articles:

Successful Social Marketing

The funniest one and the overall winner was a campaign gone wrong from HP where they had a women get her kids to take a actual hammer to the competitions camera and smash it. The kids were both toddlers which made the brainwashing even more horrifying.

The panel consisted of Henry Copland, Steve Hall, Jeff Jarvis, Rebecca Lieb, and Charlotte Selles.I think they did an excellent job on this panel. It was funny, insightful and interactive and it was also refreshing that they actually brought and showed all the examples that they references. There is nothing worse than have someone go, “you remember that viral video, the one from Dove”, or” the one where that chick cut off her hair” and half the audience going’ huh’?

For anyone going to South by Southwest b5media will be holding a Blog Network Camp.  I’m heading down to Texas tomorrow for the festivities, and I hope to see some of you there!!

The Blog Camp will be Monday March 10th from 6pm to 9pm and is open to everyone. 

This event is sponsored by:

lijit:  Revolutionary search tools and stats for your blog.

Outbrain: blog and RSS ratings.

PicApp: the best content for the best publishers.

The event schedule is as follows:

6-6:15- networking

6:15-6:45- Jeremy’s Intro, State of Industry talk

6:45 to 7:00: Lijit demo

7:00 to 7:30: Making Money/Monetization

7:30- 7:45: Outbrain Demo

7:45: 8:15: Growing Traffic

7:15 to 8:30: Picapp Demo

8:30 to 9:00- Business Issues

Event location and details here: 

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/424913/