Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

---

The ‘Likes’ and Dislikes of Facebook’s ‘Secret’ Advertising Weapon Posted: 20 Aug 2012 07:35 AM PDT If you're like 900 million other people, you've probably clicked "Like" on some product you've seen on Facebook or other site at some point in your online existence. If you're like those 900 million, you also probably didn't know that when you did that, you were providing an "endorsement" – replete with your name and picture – that could appear in an ad the seller of the product paid Facebook to run in the news feeds of all your Facebook "friends." And you would be like a small cadre of those 900 million who also didn't know this, and were angry enough about it to sue Facebook in a federal class action in California, claiming this "covert" advertising technique violated their "rights of publicity" and constituted an unfair and deceptive marketing practice. The class action in Fraley et al. v. Facebook took dead aim at Facebook's "Sponsored Stories" program that has been its most effective advertising method and is a central plank of its business strategy to "monetize" those 900 million users (and, not coincidentally, salvage its plummeting stock and battered post-IPO reputation on Wall Street). "Sponsored Stories" are popular with advertisers because consumers are much more likely to recall and respond to an ad if it came with a plug from a Facebook friend. They also tend to blend into the news feeds and thus don't seem like traditional ads, which increases their effectiveness. The "right of publicity" protects against the commercial exploitation of a person's name and likeness without consent. Facebook contended its users gave "implied consent" every time they clicked "like" or posted a favorable comment. It also said it didn't need consent to exploit them in advertising because sponsored stories were actually "news," since all Facebook users were "public figures" to their friends. This novel theory of "fair use" will never be tested, at least in this case, because after a year of litigation, Facebook agreed to a settlement that bans it from converting its users into unwitting endorsers of its advertisers' products. Under the settlement, Facebook must disclose to all users that their names and likenesses may be used in "Sponsored Stories" ads, thereby ensuring it has their permission for such uses. In addition, users will have greater ability to see and control which of their "likes" and posts appear in Sponsored Stories. While the settlement protects the rights of Facebook users to control the use of their preferences and identities in Facebook advertising, it leaves open the interesting question whether an advertiser's use of a person's "like" or a post as an endorsement may violate Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requirements that endorsements represent a person's honest belief about a product based on personal use and experience. Consumers can "like" a product for any number of reasons having nothing to do with the merits of the product itself (i.e., to qualify for promotions, get new product updates, or receive some other tangential benefit). Many will never even buy or use it. To "like" a product on Facebook is not necessarily to truthfully "endorse" it, even if you will now be able to give your informed consent to its use as an advertising plug on Facebook under the class action settlement. As Facebook moves past this legal challenge to its prized "Sponsored Stories" program, it will be interesting to see if, at some point, it doesn't face an even bigger challenge from the FTC. Trying to increase your Google rank that is like no other?

New ShoeMoney Free PDF Email Marketing Guide Posted: 20 Aug 2012 06:33 AM PDT I just completed this email marketing guide.  Its something I have been working on for years actually. Its a virtual brain dump about everything I have learned in the last 5 years from marketing with emails. What bait you should use to get people on your list What persona works best Picking a name for that persona Copywriting 101 for sales The secret sauce in the sequence For those who watched my webinar on email conversion –  I was limited to only about 30 minutes on that so I could not go into some of the specifics that I wanted to. Go here to download it now: ==> http://shmny.me/RkblJE Looking for an SEO service that won’t get you banned?

You are subscribed to email updates from ShoeMoney Internet Marketing Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Top 5 Strategies For Efficient & Effective Blogging - DailyBlogTips

---

Top 5 Strategies For Efficient & Effective Blogging Posted: 20 Aug 2012 03:27 AM PDT Continually cranking out content for your blog that is consistently fresh, engaging, and audience-building can be challenging, to say the least. And unfortunately, blogger's block doesn't discriminate, and it can affect everyone from the greenest writer to the one pulling in six figures. So, what does it too create a chain of content that grows your traffic and keeps audience enthusiasm high? Here are five tips to help you refocus your blog and succeed at creating quality, memorable posts: 1. It's all about the reader You know what you like to read… now forget about it. What interests you specifically isn't worth a hill of beans as compared to what interests your readership. They're in the driver's seat and you're barely a back seat navigator. Every blog post you approach has to be taken from the perspective of your reader. You have to instinctively know the questions that the reader will ask about the industry sector you cover and you must cater to those queries by providing in-depth, unique, and compelling information. It is also extremely important, especially for bloggers in the technical field, to give industry buzzwords and other assorted jargon a wide berth. Sure you may know exactly what "you can’t get decent bogon suppression with AFJ filters at today’s net volumes" but what chance does your non-programmer reader have at deciphering that gobbledygook? 2. A picture sells a thousand blogs What is the reason behind the massive explosion in interest for Pinterest? The answer is fairly simple as it is that since Pinterest is essentially a blogging platform for people who don't care to write and for readers who don't care to read, it's at the forefront of the new blogging world! By replacing long-winded gray blocks of type with pretty pictures, Pinterest is a vivid example of what bloggers should be striving for in building visual allure into their blogs. Visual allure doesn't mean changing the color of your header or background, it indicates a blog that has integrated both static and video imaging into its story telling process. There will likely never be an age when written blogging is completely extinct and only replaced by images, but all bloggers should strive to incorporate as much visual flair into their posts as they possibly can in order to further engage your readership. 3. Hawking your wares should be an ancillary, not primary focus We've all witnessed the disintegration of blogs that we once treasured but have since descended down into nothing more than thinly disguised shilldom. Many bloggers start out by offering phenomenal and insightful content and as their audiences grow, they shift their focus almost entirely to improving their monetization. So a blog which was once chock-full of great information is now doing little more than pushing the blogger's latest paid ebook, online paid course, or selling tickets to their national seminar tour. Although a certain level of ancillary marketing is expected from bloggers who have to pay the rent somehow, when the entire blog turns into a sales pitch, you can be certain your readers will pitch your blog… right into the trash. 4. 95.5% of the world's population is not American Sure, you were born in Nebraska, went to college in Michigan, and raised a family in Texas… but that doesn't mean that the perspective reflected in your blog should end at Portland, Maine on one side and Portland, Oregon on the other. The vast majority of blogging topics are of equal interest to readers in Portland, Canada; Portland, England; Portland, Australia; and every other port on the high seas. With the rise in international blogging, your readers outside of the USA may be finding your Americancentrism disturbing and detracting from the value of your content. Either neutralize your geographical references or make a solid effort to cover events outside the USA. 5. Write well Far too many bloggers write like uneducated dolts. Set yourself aside from the lowbrow, inept, and artless by cultivating a high standard of spelling, grammar, and overall mastery of the English language. You can accomplish this by double-checking your writing, but you should also use the Internet to learn tricks to help you write cleaner and faster. Efficient and effective blogging isn't a fantasy, you can achieve it today by applying these top five key strategies. The rewards for succeeding are steady traffic, plenty of comments, and lots of incoming links. Hal Licino is a successful author, award-winning freelance writer, and frequent contributor to a blog hosted by Benchmark Email, an email marketing service for small businesses. He also writes a weekly column for Daily Blog Tips. Original Post: Top 5 Strategies For Efficient & Effective Blogging

You are subscribed to email updates from Daily Blog Tips To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610