Caution - this site contains the rants and raves of a Michigan photographer and coffee junkie.

Elite Ad Network

As a blogger (with multiple sites) I’m always looking for a way to pay for my expenses and hopefully make some extra money.  Over the years I’ve seen ad services come and go and the ones that have good technology and are easy to use for both advertiser and publisher seem to stay around.  I’ve tried quite a few and found most are not very user friendly and take to much time to learn.  This doesn’t seem to be the case with a new ad network that I found out about recently – Elite Ad Network.

Elite Ad Network Online

The interface for Elite Ad Network is easy to use and seems almost to simple.  I say to simple because I’m used to these things being really complicated like Commission Junction or Google’s Adwords.  If this online ad service delivers some money then it will be a huge success.  As a blogger I want to spend my time creating good content.  As an advertiser I want to run my business and sell my product and not have to be spending a lot of time managing my ads.  The Elite Ad Network claims, “With us you don’t have to search for ad placements or spend hours with keywords. Our unique algorithm will do it for you. 100% hands-free.”  I hope this is the case and look forward to getting my first check!

And don’t worry if you click the link above (or here http://eliteadnetwork.com) I’m not making money.  I didn’t find an affiliate program on the site so I’m not writing this post as link bait to line my own pocket with some money.  Although feel free to click the ad on the right that will make me some money!

We all know that as an advertiser want to increase your profits while cutting the expenses and for this you need brand new technology.  So check out this easy to use service and sell sell sell!!!

Make Money or Get Customers Online

As a blogger I’m always looking for new and easy ways to make some money from my blog.  As an Internet Marketing Director I’m looking for new and easy ways to promote the products the B2C business I work for sells.  This week I can across another site that offers solutions for both side of the business.  It appears to be easy to sign up for and execute.  This is is http://www.linknami.com/.

Online Advertising Money

After signing up for a FREE account I haven’t had much time to play with it yet but it looks promising for both sides of my business.  One of the great features that I see for the B2C business is the ability to advertise on specific pages.  The post can be about the single page ads product. The cool thing about it is that users can advertise on specific pages that relate to their advertisement in real time and profit from the social media traffic new pages create when they go viral on social networks.  For example, I would like to promote an accessory for a Scion xB and a custom car blog posts a review about the new 2012 Scion xB. I will get notified via email the very second the post is online, and before it goes viral I can write an ad that targets specifically the readers of this blog post.  This ad would most likely out perform google adsense ads in terms of ROI because it is much more targeted and I’m paying a lower fee.

As a marketing person I don’t want to use the shotgun method – just shooting and seeing what sticks.  I want to get my message to the exact market where the audience has a higher percentage of purchasing my product.  This type of “sniper” advertising allows me to get a greater ROI with less money spent.  I love the concept and look forward to seeing how this site works in real time.

As a blogger I love the concept that this network will allow more people to see my pages.  And if I’m the blogger that wrote that awesome Scion xB post a vendor will be notified and I can make some $$$.  Perhaps then I can pay my hosting bill!

Can You Find My Business?

Local Business ListingsAs the Internet continues to increase the amount of information available at a phenomenal speed some of the basics for business owners are still getting missed.  Gone are the days of putting your business listing in the phone book and expecting to get phone calls.  In fact I don’t know anyone that still uses the phone book.  They are using the Internet to find everything either from their computer of cell phone.  As with everything else on the Internet there are a plethora of business listing websites.  Most will list your business for free and most require you to sign up in some way.

One very important element to remember is that we are dealing with computers.  Remember the saying, “garbage in, garbage out?”  This is very true and important to remember in the search engine world.  Gone are the days of humans reviewing websites and listing them.  The same is true of your business listing.  It is very important to make sure that you check your listings and make the data consistant across all the sites the information is listed on.  What does this mean?  Lets say that your address is 123 North Main Street.  This can also be listed as 123 N Main St or 123 North Main St or 123 N Main Street.  These are all different addresses to a computer.  Pick a way that you are going to list your address and be consistant with every listing for maximum results.

Also, be sure to search for you listing with each site.  If you need to update the information claim your listing and follow the instructions for the website.  If you are not listed at all be sure to submit your business and follow the conformation process.

So where does a business start when trying to get their information out and accessable to the masses?

The three places to start are:
Google – http://www.google.com/local/
Yahoo – http://local.yahoo.com/
Bing – https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx

Here are some high quality sites that will get you some major exposure because they feed to other major players:
InfoUSA – http://leads.infousa.com/Landing/UpdateListing.aspx
Citysearch – http://national.citysearch.com
Acxiom – http://www.acxiom.com (This company provides data to a ton of listing websites like Yelp, yellowpages.com, superpages.com, local.com and superpages.com.  I have not been able to find out how to submit your data to Acxiom and all the links for doing so that I’ve seen on the Internet do not work.)

Following is a list of other listing providers that are simple to get listed with:
HotFrog – http://www.hotfrog.com/
MagicYellow – http://www.magicyellow.com/add_your_business.cfm
CityVoter – http://cityvoter.com
Angie’s List – www.angieslist.com (this site requires a small membership fee)
Discover Our Town – http://www.discoverourtown.com/
WCities – http://wcities.com (My city wasn’t listed and I couldn’t find a way to submit a listing automatically.  I submitted an editorial content request.  Don’t know what is going to happen yet.)
InsiderPages – http://www.insiderpages.com
YellowBot – https://www.yellowbot.com
Local.com – https://register.local.com

I’m sure there are other websites.  These I found relatively easy to use and updated listing quickly.

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