MediaTrusts opening night podcasting from the red carpet!

Opening Night: “Definitely, Maybe”

It poured buckets of rain down on Santa Barbara on Thursday, but that didn’t stop the thrill of opening night at the 23rd annual SBIFF! People were out in force to watch the world premiere of “Definitely, Maybe,” attend the gala, and maybe get a peek at their favorite celeb. If you couldn’t make it, don’t fret, we captured it all for you!

In our first show we speak with Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin, Adam Brooks, Derek Luke, and Liane Balaban. As if that wasn’t enough, we roped our very own Roger Durling in for a quick chat as well.

Take a look!

CLICK HERE FOR A HI-DEFINITION QUICKTIME VERSION

Host: Melanie Waters

Camera & Editing: Scott Parent

Still Photography: Joseph Matheny

Sponsored by: MediaTrust

Cumbrowski "affiliate marketing resources"

We want to thank Carsten Cumbrowski for the Advaliant ad into his blogs "affiliate marketing resources" section. Being recognized by industry thought leaders such as Carsten is VIP as we grow into an industry leader, and further supports our corperate culture, beliefs and strides to innovate the industry.

CPA Networks (listed alphabetically)

Return to Affiliate Marketing Resources Home

Advaliant is a pay for performance network launched in 2004 by MediaTrust, an integrated online media and advertising solution company.

MediaTrust ALERT : thought of the day

FRICTION IN MACHINERY COSTS MONEY. FRICTION IN HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS IMPOVERISHES BOTH THE SPIRIT AND THE BANK ACCOUNT

Discord in any relationship often has unpleasant financial implications, but it is far costlier in human terms. When you are involved in a fractious relationship, physical and mental energy that could be directed toward positive achievements is dissipated needlessly, squandered upon stressful, unproductive activities. Unfortunately, whatever the cause of friction between individuals, it adversely affects each person involved. When you find yourself in a contentious relationship, there are few acceptable alternatives. You can work out your problems or leave the team. Only you know which is the best solution for you, but if you objectively evaluate your reasons for becoming involved and find that they are still valid, your best course of action may be to swallow your pride and find a solution that is acceptable to everyone involved. If you cannot do this, perhaps it’s time to get out of the partnership and find another course toward your objective

MediaTrust ALERT : new oneQube home page

Chris Smith and Joe have turned out a new home page for oneQube . Nice new look as we move forward into 2008 launches.

oneQube

In the first week of January we will be giving a company wide update on oneQube. This company session will start to be a regular series on oneQube and other areas of MediaTrust.

MediaTrust ALERT : Podcasts Bring New And Old Media Together

MediaTrust,

this is a great article written by our Scott Parent on Adotas. this is a very important read. it will explain the real value of SMO social media optimization

Written on

December 13th 200 by Scott Parent

My company, MediaTrust, just got finished delivering a pretty groundbreaking campaign to the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego. It was a well-balanced mix of host endorsements on popular radio and TV programs resulting in an audience reach of 2.1 million people.

Was it on NBC? CBS? FOX? Or, maybe it was on Howard Stern’s radio show. Nope. It was all online through the growing reach of podcasting. That’s right - over a 10-day period and a handful of shows on the PodShow network we delivered 2.1 million impressions. Even better, we got to target our media buy to exactly the audience we wanted. No broadcast TV shots in the dark here. We knew this campaign would appeal to those familiar with the Hard Rock’s iconic brand of rock n’ roll, Hollywood, and travel. As a result PodShow helped us handpick a group of shows that hit the demographics that were most appropriate - for a fraction of what that reach would cost in traditional media.

The other thing that set this campaign apart from traditional radio and television campaigns was that we weren’t serving prepackaged 30-second spots. Let’s face it, in the era of DVRs and shortened attention spans we all usually tune that stuff out anyway. Instead, we developed a process where the hosts put their own spin on the campaign and talked freely as a host endorsement. We gave each show a set of talking points and goals and asked them to put their own unique flavor on it in a way that their audience would engage and react to. The result is the advertisement became part of their content. Hosts talked about their own memories from a trip to the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas, or about how they loved San Diego and were now planning to stay at the Hard Rock there. It made it personal and real. Additionally, the audience was incentivized by the potential of winning a trip to the Hard Rock’s grand opening. Further, bands were encouraged to submit their music with the hopes of playing with the Black Eyed Peas on opening weekend.

In the days that followed the campaign, I’ve been asked about the return on investment. How did we track the success? Since we are in the business of online marketing we live in a world of CPC, CPA, and CPM - and those sorts of metrics certainly play a large role in our industry. But, I challenge you to think outside the box a bit. Given the chance, how many of your clients would like to advertise on the NBC show “Heroes?” If cost wasn’t an issue, I bet all of them would. However, think about this - the numbers that networks use to gauge audience size are estimates taken from a small sample and are widely acknowledged as flawed. Online we’re able to deliver the power of a traditional media campaign and know exactly how many people downloaded that program.

There’s no doubt that advertising on network TV is sexy, but does it have any teeth? A significant percentage of viewers now use DVRs to skip through commercial blocks. On top of that, I would bet half the audience of a show like Heroes just doesn’t care about the Hard Rock Hotel. The problem is that you’re still paying NBC for that whole audience, whether they actually skip through your commercial, or maybe they just have no intention of flying to the newest Hard Rock property. Whatever the case, with our podcast ad buy, we integrated the pitch into the content so it was nearly impossible to skip over it. We also targeted shows that we knew the audience would have some interest in a campaign like this.

As an extra bonus, these host endorsements will live in perpetuity in these episodes as “back catalog”. Many of these shows report as much as 15% of their monthly audience come in the way of users downloading old shows after discovering the program.

In short, I believe we’re sitting on a great hybrid of old and new media. We have the rich content of television and radio married with the interaction, engagement, and tracking that the web provides us. We’re able to spend ad dollars where we know it will have an impact on brand awareness and consumer interaction.

The next time your client asks you about a unique way to approach a campaign, I challenge you to think out of the box of email marketing or Google AdWords and look to the immersive world of new media.

MediaTrust ALERT:Advaliant: A Top Notch Affiliate Network!

I want to thank our Advaliant teams for all their hard work. The below client review posted to their blog is a great endorsement of our hard work to build strong team work, proactive collaboration, working for the "collective we" not the "collective I" and treating clients as partners. This a great testament to the fabric of our culture which is made out of all of us together. I want to recognize Geoff who's affiliate partner wrote this review. I want to commend all of you who work to create this valuable endorsement from our partner community. BRAVO!!

I recently signed up with Advaliant. They are a relatively new affiliate network, however are quickly becoming one of the best around. They also recently won “Best affiliate marketing campaign 2007″ from ad:tech. Read about that here.

From the week or so I have been with them, I could not have been more impressed with the overall service and support from my AM. I have never had so much help from an affiliate manager in my life, and it is an extreme relief knowing I have that kind of help. I have sent barely any traffic to them, and they are still happy to help me out with anything I need.

One of the main reasons I like them is their tracking system they have. To tell you the truth, I like DirectTrack. I don’t know why, but I really really like it. That was something I looked for when signing up for an affiliate network, if they use DirectTrack or not. However, their tracking system is great. No problems what so ever with it! They have some really great offers, and a few exclusives. It seems like they shy away from the email/zip submit offers, which I don’t mind because I never run them anyways. Weekly emails with the top performing offers, along with their epc’s is also a huge help and something I think I am going to start to look forward to.

If you want amazing service, support, and great offers, sign up with Advaliant, you will not be disappointed!

Happy Friday everyone!

Filed under: Uncategorized

« Entrecard, a refreshing idea! What am I doing wrong? »

1. Peter Bordes, on December 8th, 2007 at 3:02 pm Said:

   Bernard thank you for the great feed back regarding our advaliant affliate division of MediaTrust. We work hard to create a very proactive partner experience when you become a member of our family. Our culture is created around empowering our partner affliates and advertisers with the best technology and having a living dialog that allows us to listen and react to our partners needs with unique offers or customized solutions.
   Stay tuned for the new highly disruptive platform we are launching in Q1 that is the ultimate hybrid system with transparency, custom modular tools sets and a new robust tracking system.
   We welcome your and the communities in put and feed back so that we can better service our valued partners.

   Peter Bordes
   CEO
   MediaTrust

The Four Pillars of a Distributed Web Strategy

My interest in distributed web businesses – web businesses that don’t reside on a single domain, but instead span across various web sites – stems from necessity.

While the long tail of the Web is getting longer, so is the percentage of overall pageviews absorbed by the head of that tail. If your site isn’t one of those elite sites at the head of the curve, you’re most likely losing ground every day.

In this environment, you either find ways to put your content / functionality / service in front of people where they are, or you wither away into irrelevance.

At a macro level, there are four broad strategies that can be undertaken to get distributed.

Widgets

Widgets have been covered in excruciating detail on this blog. The short version: have a stable of Flash widgets available to your users that your makes your site’s best content and functionality available “to go,” at the whim of anybody who hits your site, and at the whim of anybody who comes across one of your widgets in the wild.

Here’s my list of best widget resources.

Toolbars / Extensions / Downloads

Not to sound idiotic (which this does), but another place that Internet users spend a lot of time is in their browser or on their desktop.

If you can convince your users to add a plug-in / toolbar / extension to their browser, your service is going to be front and center in these folks’ browsing experience. From a distributed perspective, it doesn’t get much better than this.

The challenge, of course, is that a download is a big obstacle to adoption. Not that this is an impossible task – StumbleUpon is a great example of a company that rode a browser extension to mass adoption, and eventually, an acquisition.

I’d also include downloadable clients in this bucket. Stuff like Last.FM’s audioscrobbler and Meetro’s IM client are both good examples of download powered distribution.

APIs

APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, allow outside developers build on top of your application, and typically involve creating modular blocks of your site’s functionality or content that can be called into use by other sites.

APIs are not as accessible as widgets, as only developers can make use of them. However, APIs can enable broad, site wide adoption of a web service. For example, when my employer decided to use the Yahoo! Maps API to add maps to our local business reviews channel, in one fell swoop we added about 1M Yahoo! maps to our site.

Facebook Apps

With more than 30M active profiles, and a unique opportunity to distribute your web application via the social fabric of existing networks of friends, Facebook has become a distribution channel all its own.

I was initially skeptical about some aspects of the Facebook platform – but no longer. I see a Facebook distribution strategy as an absolute must have for just about any consumer facing web app.

The best post that I’ve seen on Facebook App tips can be found on Inside Facebook.

Conclusion

While coverage of each of these four distribution buckets may not be appropriate for every consumer facing company, it’s interesting to take a look at some of the leaders in distributed business strategy and see what they’re doing in each area.

So is anybody knocking the ball out of the park on all of these distribution elements?

StumbleUpon has millions of downloads of their toolbar, but “only” 7,000 FB app users.

Adaptive Blue (review) has an impressive toolbar and stable of widgets, but no Facebook app or API that I could find.

Yelp has a newly released API, a stable of widgets, and a Facebook app (3,000 users).

The companies that seem to really have distributed business strategy down are some of the original MySpace era widget kings. Slide has massive traction on Facebook, massive widget traction on MySpace and elsewhere, and a toolbar.

Likewise, RockYou has massive Facebook traction, huge widget distribution, and a Facebook API.

Photobucket has incredible widget traction, a custom browser, and Facebook App (16K users).

Those looking to better understand best practices in terms of distributed business strategy would be well served to keep an eye on the things that these photo widget players are up to – though I wouldn’t necessarily copy these sorts of crass cloaking and spam tactics.

While I don’t believe that it’s nearly time to abandon home base entirely, I do think the importance of building and executing a distributed web strategy is growing. It will be fun to see which companies solve this, and if any of the monster destination properties show an interest in distribution (vs. aggregation).

Reposted from its original on Sexy Widget.

MediaTrust Creates Search and Social Media Optimization DivisionWeb Radio Pioneer Selected to Lead Team

NEW YORK – November 5, 2007 – Today at ad:tech 2007 (booth #830), MediaTrust, Inc. officially announced the creation of its Search and Social Media Optimization (SSMO) Division. Scott Parent, social media and technology expert, has been appointed vice president of the division.

Parent comes to MediaTrust with many years of success in audio and video production and media optimization. Parent created and popularized American Cliché, a weekly podcast that covers news outside of mainstream with a political twist. The podcast is featured on Adam Curry’s PodShow network and enjoyed a year-long run on Sirius satellite radio. In addition, Parent was a co-founder of 8BallRadio, a pioneer in the online radio movement.

Under Parent’s guidance, the SSMO Division will specialize in Social Media Optimization, Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. The SSMO team will also offer various services to create and optimize social media including video and audio podcasts and blogs. MediaTrust’s team of SSMO experts create custom programs based on each client’s needs, and continuously monitor and optimize campaigns to ensure the highest possible returns and performance.

“Social networks, social media and search engines all provide a starting point for users to find and consume information on the Web,” said Parent. “With all the information on the Web, it is becoming increasingly important that companies use social media technologies to deliver content right to the user. By working with MediaTrust’s Search and Social Media Optimization Division, companies can access a broad range of tools that drive customers to their Web sites to engage with their brands.”

By leveraging MediaTrust’s SSMO expertise, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) became the first film festival in the world to podcast live events. Like most festivals, the SBIFF historically catered only to in-person attendees. However, with MediaTrust creating and managing all of SBIFF’s online activities including Web site, blog and audio and video podcasts -- the SBIFF was able to execute a social media campaign that broadened their audience to include any interested film fan with access to the Internet. As a result, in 2007, the SBIFF measured more than 700,000 podcast downloads.

“We needed a partner who we could trust to take the festival online with little supervision, always keeping our best interests in mind,” says Mary Lynn Harms, development manager for SBIFF. “MediaTrust’s Search and Social Media Optimization team did just that. They far exceeded our expectations.”

About MediaTrustMediaTrust (www.mediatrust.com) is an ecosystem of online media properties. MediaTrust combines innovative interactive media and advertising technology with human service and expertise. Companies that choose MediaTrust benefit from relevant and intelligent online campaigns that deliver higher ROI and greater success in acquiring customers, creating brand awareness, generating sales and driving traffic.

MediaTrust is comprised of Advaliant, a performance-based affiliate marketing network, Advario, a proprietary ad serving platform, leading-edge media technologies and the MediaTrust Integrated Solutions Group (ISG). The ISG is comprised of specialists that analyze customer needs and build custom performance-based campaigns that optimize returns for each advertiser and publisher.

Advaliant Details PlayPhone's Affiliate Marketing Success

Campaign Experiences Clear and Measurable Results.

New York (PRWEB) November 5, 2007 -- Today at ad:tech New York 2007 (booth #830), Advaliant, MediaTrust, Inc.'s award-winning, performance-based affiliate marketing network, detailed a successful customer acquisition and retention program that was architected specifically for PlayPhone, Inc., a mobile media company that offers premium, branded mobile content to consumers.

PlayPhone gives consumers access to one of the widest selections of ringtones, videos, wallpapers, games and more. According to MIC (Market Intelligence Center), an ICT industry research institute based in Taipei, the number of worldwide mobile phone subscribers is expected to grow from two billion in 2005 to approximately 3.3 billion in 2010, representing a CAGR (compound average growth rate) of 10.1 per cent. Rising industry forecasts create a competitive environment that forces companies to look to more efficient marketing strategies and tactics in the hopes of gaining market share.

In the fall of 2006, PlayPhone engaged Advaliant to propose a creative marketing strategy to acquire and retain customers. After studying the PlayPhone business, Advaliant executed a custom designed affiliate marketing campaign that included search, highly targeted email, targeted banner placements, joint ventures and private labeled sites.
"We selected Advaliant for its quality of service, its commitment to developing a long term partnership and its studied approach in selecting trusted publishers and affiliates," said Ron Czerny, founder and chief executive officer at PlayPhone. "After running one successful campaign after another, affiliate marketing has become one of our primary means for customer acquisition."

The PlayPhone affiliate campaign has experienced clear and measurable success. The dramatic increase in the number of new PlayPhone customers per day has exceeded the expectations of both PlayPhone and Advaliant. In addition, Advaliant and PlayPhone were awarded the 2007 ad:tech award for "Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign." On the heels of its successful affiliate campaigns, PlayPhone has partnered with some of the world's most well-known brands and is in the midst of global expansion.

"Modern affiliate marketing is proving itself as the most effective way to acquire customers on a pay-for-performance basis," says Jivan Manhas, president, Advaliant. "By partnering with a trusted network such as Advaliant, customers can experience measurable results while extending and safeguarding their brands."

About MediaTrustMediaTrust (http://www.mediatrust.com/) is an ecosystem of online media properties. MediaTrust combines innovative interactive media and advertising technology with human service and expertise. Companies that choose MediaTrust benefit from relevant and intelligent online campaigns that deliver higher ROI and greater success in acquiring customers, creating brand awareness, generating sales and driving traffic.
MediaTrust is comprised of Advaliant, a performance-based affiliate marketing network, Advario, a proprietary ad serving platform, leading-edge media technologies and the MediaTrust Integrated Solutions Group (ISG). The ISG is comprised of specialists that analyze customer needs and build custom performance-based campaigns that optimize returns for each advertiser and publisher.

MediaTrust Debuts bookQube

Social Network for Book Enthusiasts Features e-books from ebrary.

New York and Palo Alto, Calif. (PRWEB) November 5, 2007 -- Today at ad:tech New York 2007 (booth #830), MediaTrust, Inc. in partnership with ebrary®, debuts the private beta version of bookQube: a vibrant online social network that allows book enthusiasts to view, read, purchase, network, review and discuss books.

bookQube was built by MediaTrust on top of proprietary technology that allows Web sites to incorporate social networking, and make recommendations for relevant content, users and ads. bookQube connects its users with relevant book reviews, blogs, discussions and recommendations and supports the OpenSocial standard. Users can also be introduced to other book enthusiasts with common interests and behaviors, and may be invited to relevant book discussions, clubs and groups.

bookQube's Virtual Bookshelf feature will allow users to browse ebrary's specially developed e-book collection, and subscribe to titles of interest. Each bookQube user is provided the tools to share thoughts and opinions on favorite titles, authors, publishers and subject categories. They may also create or join private book clubs, or participate in public book groups.

"We are pleased to partner with ebrary, a leading e-book and technology provider, to bring high-quality content to bookQube members," said Joseph Matheny, chief technology officer, MediaTrust. "We are combining ebrary's world class content with MediaTrust's smart recommendation and social networking technology to deliver a fun and productive online network for book lovers around the world."

"At ebrary, we are constantly looking for new opportunities to deliver value to both end users and electronic content," said Christopher Warnock, CEO and co-founder of ebrary. "Collaborating with MediaTrust on bookQube, offers both our users and our publishers the ability to explore the potential of a powerful social network with authoritative content in a manner that is mutually beneficial to the user, the publisher and the author of the works permitted to participate in this network."

About MediaTrust:MediaTrust (http://www.mediatrust.com/) is an ecosystem of online media properties. MediaTrust combines innovative interactive media and advertising technology with human service and expertise. Companies that choose MediaTrust benefit from relevant and intelligent online campaigns that deliver higher ROI and greater success in acquiring customers, creating brand awareness, generating sales and driving traffic.
MediaTrust is comprised of Advaliant, a performance-based affiliate marketing network, Advario, a proprietary ad serving platform, leading-edge media technologies and the MediaTrust Integrated Solutions Group (ISG). The ISG is comprised of specialists that analyze customer needs and build custom performance-based campaigns that optimize returns for each advertiser and publisher.

About ebrary (http://www.ebrary.com/):ebrary® is a leading provider of eContent services and technology. The company helps libraries, publishers, and other organizations disseminate valuable information to end users, while improving end-user research and document interaction.
The company has developed a flexible eContent platform, which customers may use in a number of different, integrated capacities: ebrary customers may purchase or subscribe to eBooks and other content under a variety of pricing and access models, and they may license the ebrary platform to distribute, sell, and market their own content online. All options are delivered using a customizable interface and include the ebrary Reader™ with InfoTools™ software, which enable integration with other resources to provide an economical and efficient way to utilize information.
ebrary currently offers a growing selection of more than 150,000 eBooks and other titles from more than 260 leading publishers and aggregators.
For four consecutive years, ebrary has been named to the EContent 100 list of "companies that matter most" in the digital content industry.
Founded in 1999, ebrary is privately held and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, USA.

adtech : LIVE BROADCAST on RelevantlySpeaking.com and MediaTrust.com

RelevantlySpeaking , the online ad industry blog will be broadcasting live from the MediaTrust booth (#830) and the adtech expo floor. Online advertising community members: please come by to listen in and join the conversation.

Advaliant President Jivan Manhas Speaks on adtech Affiliate Panel

Jivan Manhas to speak about the evolution of affiliate marketing.

New York, NY (PRWEB) October 24, 2007 --

WHO: Jivan Manhas, Co-Founder and President, Advaliant, Inc. Advaliant's work for PlayPhone was recognized with the 2007 ad:tech award for "Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign."

WHAT: ad:tech New York

Session -- The Evolution of Affiliate Marketing
Last year, MarketingSherpa estimated that affiliates worldwide earned $6.5 billion in bounty and commissions in the areas of retail, personal finance, gaming and gambling, travel, telecom, education, publishing and forms of lead generation other than contextual ad networks. Far beyond revenue sharing, today's affiliate marketing channel is evolving more and more into performance marketing and playing a larger role in online marketing strategies. This panel, moderated by Rosalind Gardner, CEO of Webvista, Inc., will help attendees understand which industry sectors are the most active for affiliate marketers and those that are poised for the greatest growth. Manhas and other panelists will discuss the pros and cons of running affiliate programs in-house versus using third-party services to track referral traffic or sales. The audience will learn how advertisers are connecting with publishers through affiliate networks, and how to extend and protect brands through affiliate marketing.

WHEN: Thursday, November 8 at 4:15 p.m.

WHERE: Hilton New York
1335 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10019

For more information on ad:tech New York, please visit http://www.ad-tech.com/ny/

About Advaliant
Advaliant (www.advaliant.com) is MediaTrust's performance-based affiliate marketing network. The Advaliant affiliate network connects publishers and advertisers in a trusted online community that is overseen by industry-leading experts. Advaliant's services group leverages performance-based media to create unique, customized, and high ROI solutions for its advertisers, agencies and publishers. Advaliant brings together on a single platform all the key performance marketing channels so that marketers have a single destination for acquiring customers, creating brand awareness, generating sales and driving traffic.

About MediaTrust
MediaTrust (www.mediatrust.com) is an ecosystem of online media properties. MediaTrust combines innovative interactive media and advertising technology with human service and expertise. Companies that choose MediaTrust benefit from relevant and intelligent online campaigns that deliver higher ROI and greater success in acquiring customers, creating brand awareness, generating sales and driving traffic.

MediaTrust is comprised of Advaliant, a performance-based affiliate marketing network, Advario, a proprietary ad serving platform, leading-edge media technologies and the MediaTrust Integrated Solutions Group (ISG). The ISG is comprised of specialists that analyze customer needs and build custom performance-based campaigns that optimize returns for each advertiser and publisher.

Jivan Manhas to speak about the evolution of affiliate marketing.

Jivan Manhas to speak about the evolution of affiliate marketing.

New York, NY (PRWEB) October 24, 2007 --

WHO: Jivan Manhas, Co-Founder and President, Advaliant, Inc. Advaliant's work for PlayPhone was recognized with the 2007 ad:tech award for "Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign."

WHAT: ad:tech New York

Session -- The Evolution of Affiliate Marketing
Last year, MarketingSherpa estimated that affiliates worldwide earned $6.5 billion in bounty and commissions in the areas of retail, personal finance, gaming and gambling, travel, telecom, education, publishing and forms of lead generation other than contextual ad networks. Far beyond revenue sharing, today's affiliate marketing channel is evolving more and more into performance marketing and playing a larger role in online marketing strategies. This panel, moderated by Rosalind Gardner, CEO of Webvista, Inc., will help attendees understand which industry sectors are the most active for affiliate marketers and those that are poised for the greatest growth. Manhas and other panelists will discuss the pros and cons of running affiliate programs in-house versus using third-party services to track referral traffic or sales. The audience will learn how advertisers are connecting with publishers through affiliate networks, and how to extend and protect brands through affiliate marketing.

WHEN: Thursday, November 8 at 4:15 p.m.

WHERE: Hilton New York
1335 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10019

For more information on ad:tech New York, please visit http://www.ad-tech.com/ny/

About Advaliant
Advaliant (www.advaliant.com) is MediaTrust's performance-based affiliate marketing network. The Advaliant affiliate network connects publishers and advertisers in a trusted online community that is overseen by industry-leading experts. Advaliant's services group leverages performance-based media to create unique, customized, and high ROI solutions for its advertisers, agencies and publishers. Advaliant brings together on a single platform all the key performance marketing channels so that marketers have a single destination for acquiring customers, creating brand awareness, generating sales and driving traffic.

About MediaTrust
MediaTrust (www.mediatrust.com) is an ecosystem of online media properties. MediaTrust combines innovative interactive media and advertising technology with human service and expertise. Companies that choose MediaTrust benefit from relevant and intelligent online campaigns that deliver higher ROI and greater success in acquiring customers, creating brand awareness, generating sales and driving traffic.

MediaTrust is comprised of Advaliant, a performance-based affiliate marketing network, Advario, a proprietary ad serving platform, leading-edge media technologies and the MediaTrust Integrated Solutions Group (ISG). The ISG is comprised of specialists that analyze customer needs and build custom performance-based campaigns that optimize returns for each advertiser and publisher.

Why YOU Should SEO

Why YOU Should SEO

I speak to prospective clients every week about Search Engine Optimization and many aren’t familiar with the concept. Those that are usually tell me how gung-ho they are about it, but when the time comes to talk about implementation it’s the last thing they want to spend their money on. It always comes down to cost and instant gratification.

SEO takes time to implement and weeks or months before a client usually sees results. On the other hand, a client can spend the same amount of money on paid search and see results immediately. The question then becomes do you want to lease search engine traffic or buy it? When you pay for SEO, you are making a long term investment in keeping your business visible in organic search rankings on Google and Yahoo. Essentially you’ve earned the ranking you’ve worked hard to obtain. When you do straight paid search, you may be at the top of the heap, but that only lasts as long as you choose to pay for keywords. Both techniques are important, but SEO should be the foundation of any sound Internet marketing strategy. Besides building brand awareness and reinforcing the perception that you’re an expert in your field, there is an inherent amount of trust gained when a perspective visitor to your website finds you on the first page of Google vs. being the first banner ad on the page.

So now that I’ve sold you on SEO, you naturally want to know what sort of techniques work to get your site the attention it deserves.

• Make sure your site can be easily “crawled” by Google and Yahoo spiders. Often, we design a website to look appealing to human eyes, but the tools that search engines use to actually learn what your site is about can’t read the content because all your text is buried in graphics.

• Know which keyword terms you should be targeting. Do research on your competition and see what is working for them. Type several search queries into Google and see how your site ranks. If you’re on the first results page, then you’re doing something right. If not, then you have some work to do.

• Update your content regularly. Search engines want their results to be fresh. Just because you published your website to the world doesn’t mean you don’t have to update it for a year. Ideally you should be adding new content every week.

• Become an expert in your field. Google and Yahoo want to highlight the experts in a given industry. By writing articles and blog entries on topics relevant to your business, you establish yourself as a thought leader. That leads to better page ranking.

• Don’t try and “game” the system. Tricks and other “black hat” techniques may work for while, but search engines will catch you if you try and cheat the system. That means no link farms, no keyword stuffing, and no hidden text on your site. The only thing harder to overcome than a low Google ranking is a low Google ranking on a site that’s been penalized for cheating the system.

Hopefully the items above give you a starting point in regard to mounting a successful SEO campaign. If you decide to outsource your SEO (many companies do), make sure you do your research and find a company that won’t do more harm to your business than good. Beware of firms that promise the #1 spot on Google, or guarantee a time frame in which you’ll see results. SEO, when done properly, takes weeks and often months. There are no shortcuts. Set aside a budget, and give your SEO firm six months. You’ll be amazed at the return on your investment.

Scott Parent is the Vice President of Search and Social Media Optimization at MediaTrust. His division specializes in Search Engine Optimization and Marketing, and Social Media Production and Optimization.

MediaTrust Launches Industry Publication RelevantlySpeaking

Mediatrust an innovative interactive media, advertising & technology company has launched RelevantlySpeaking (www.relevantlyspeaking.com) a industry publication about online media and advertising, the web, relevance, technology, culture, and our products.

Social Networking is a FEATURE

RelevantlySpeaking A MediaTrust Industry Blog
Sun, September 30, 2007 Trip Foster

Social Networking is a FEATURE

Based on recent experiences with Facebook and several blog entries from insightful and skeptical prominent bloggers, it has become apparent that social networking has become a very “commoditized” component of the online experience. Social networking has become a feature, not a destination. In effect, as the web has become more writeable and user-generated, social networking functions will be standard on EVERY website, thus setting us on the course similar to that of the late 90’s: users migrated away from the main “portals” to smaller, more focused niche sites for richer and deeper content and community.

This fact may explain why Facebook has “opened” up so much (with the goal of becoming a social networking fixture on other sites). A smart move in my mind, as stand alone “meta social networking” has seemingly begun to “jump the shark”. It also may explain Googles recent legitimate salvo in this battle.

In my opinion, David Bohnett, the founder of GeoCities, said it best in the recent article in the Journal :

“It’s the same as it is today — people want to feel like they’re connected, give them a set of tools and they’ll do it.”

Anywhere you go on the web, you should see social networking capabilities. People want to create community anywhere they spend time. They use this community function as a place to make a spectacle of their lives, interests, and expertise…to provide legitimacy to their desire to belong to the community.

Rather than making predictions now about the demise of facebook and myspace, I’d rather discuss the future…

The real long-term question in this game is: Will any company get it right for the end user? There is no reason (other than a walled garden’s need for revenue and unique users!) that an end user should maintain several different online profiles and manage the content in each across the many communities in which they they socialize. I like the idea of the single login for all Google apps. It makes my life easier, and it makes the ads Google serves up more relevant and ultimately more profitable.

Nirvana for end users would be to have a traveling profile that they can access across several niche sites. Why shouldn’t my movie preferences be used in helping me determine what books I’d like and vice versa?

Sadly, I don’t think this nirvana is a reality in today’s landscape, as the large social networks like myspace and facebook rely on logins to target and these businesses will certainly not welcome the idea of an open ID for social networking features that span all sites. It is my hope that when most tier 1, 2, and 3 sites have social networking features, the ability to open these profiles to other networks will exist. If looked at intelligently, its a win-win. The end user gets a profile that travels, lessening his or her burden, and those sites that accept this traveling profile benefit by more relevant recommendations for ads and content (higher eCPM). The good news is, I don’t think that technology is too far away…it looks to be right around the corner. For some interesting reading about these kinds of solutions, read Alex Iskold’s Piece on the Attention economy and read about Attention Profiling Mark-up Language (APML).

So what do you think? Will it ever happen?