Mainly Melissa!

Affluence.org is the new social networking targeted to the world's wealthiest people. In order to join the network you must have a net worth of $3 million or have an income of $300,000 a year. The site claims to provide the following to its members:

	Interact with other affluent people from around the world
	Receive free access to a dedicated Affluence Concierge
	Attend the most exclusive parties and events in the world
	Receive priority access to the world's most exclusive nightclubs, hotels, and restaurants
	Find other millionaires, billionaires, and socially elite people to network with.

There is currently 30,000 people on the website of which reside in the US. The majority of the users are male and are 49 years old.

Advertising is available on the website therefore marketers are able to directly target the upper crust of society. This could be an interesting test market market researchers for certain luxury products and services. The website guarantees its advertisers a 100% ROI. More information on advertising on this site can be found at http://affluence.org/content.php?page=advertising

I have recently just finished conducting a Google Adwords campaign. This was my first experience with Google Adwords and I had no real knowledge or instruction on how to use it. Through the duration of the campaign I was constantly concerned about the campaign's extremely low CTR (it started out at 0.23% and ended with a CTR of 0.54%). I honestly believed that the campaign was a failure however after seeing an article on eMarketer I see that the campaign didn't do that bad at all.

eMarketer reports that according to ADTECH the average CTR varies from 0.11% to 0.19% during the year (with a tendency for higher clicks towards the end of year because of holiday shopping). In addition the article also states that CTR has been declining steadily since 2004.

Why are CTR so low and why are they declining?
CTR's may be low because there are just so many ads that are on the Internet and a large majority of them are be garbage. The ads may also not be properly targeted or it may not be in view of the online user. (Google Eye Tracking Map demonstrates how eyes' of the online viewer travel across the page.)
The declining CTR's may be attributed to many factors however I believe that the following reasons are the most prominent reason why I believe ads are no longer being clicked as much.

• People are hesitant to click on pop-op-ads, banner ads, or any type of ad because of the fear that they will be lead to an inappropriate site
• People may be hesitant about clicking on ads because they are afraid that their computer will be infected by a virus.
  
• Pop-up software being developed to block several ads
• Sites like Google may be selling too many ad spaces. As seen in the above diagram only the sponsored ads that receive the the top 6 spots will most likely be viewed by the user. With this in mind is there really a point to sell ad space below the halfway page mark?

A current trend for online ads is the use of video ads. At the moment video ads recieve a higher average CTR. Video ads are much more expensive to produce and to place than display ads therefore there is a larger barrier for companies to utilize video ads. However eMarketer warns that once the novelty of video ads has worn off video ads may recieved the same fate as display ads.

Link to eMarketer article http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006969

This week Marketing Sherpa's chart featured why a large majority of people are unsubscribing to E-newsletters. This got me thinking about my own inbox. I regularly get Newsletters from eteamz and I'm not to sure how I got onto the e-mail list for eteamz. I suspect it was when I was in high school and experimented with making a team website for the cheer team I was on. It has been almost 5 years since I've last been involved in cheer, however I still get these e-mails informing me of the upcoming football season happening in Kentucky. Which actually I don't understand because I don't think I've ever expressed an interest in football. This mail usually goes into my spam box however once in a while it weasels its way into my inbox and I just automatically delete it. I can't even be bothered to open it and select unsubcribed because that just sounds like more work. To me this is junk mail. However, after reading the Marketing Sherpa case study on the use of 0E-Newsletters I see that the eteamz newsletters is not necessarily junk its just not very relevant to me. As the table shows another reason why people are deleting themselves of e-mail lists is because the company is sending them too many newsletters. I believe that Nordstroms is guilty of sending their customers too many updates on sales/new items/ trends. I get atleast 3 e-mails from Nordstrom each week informing me of different sales.

So what does this mean for businesses?
It doesn't mean that you should stop sending out E-Newsletters. In fact I believe E-Newsletters is something that can help small businesses create community and create some form of communication with its users. What it means that who you send your e-mails to has to be more narrowed down and limit the quanity of e-mails that are sent. When asking your users to opt in to recieve news letters perhaps create a forum that they can fill out which asks them who they are, where they are, what they would like to hear about, and how often they'd like to hear from you. (ex. weekly deals, or just monthly updates on season trends and upcoming events) This will help you customize your newsletter to fit with the user.

In additon to this if people are opting out of your newsletter perhaps it would be a good idea to ask why they are. It may be beacuse their situation has changed and they no longer need the newsletter. In this case perhaps asking them to give a suggestion as to who they currently know would benefit from the newsletters.

Marketing Sherpa Also suggests that to improve your E-Newsletters you should:

• Create a template for newsletter content - utilizing a table contents to
  
• creating multimedia which matches the theme of the newsletter in order to be able to go more into depth on certain subjects
• Test and experiment new ideas to see what works
  

Visit http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=31118&?9750 for more information on this subject.

Recently I have become aware of a new trend in the online marketplace. Ads created by amateur advertisers, students, and average joes are now being bought by business via various mediums such as AdHack.com and XlntAds.com.

What is interesting about this phenomenon is that it takes the "listening" and "talking" themes from Groundswell a step further. Creators who typically voice their opinions through blogs, and websites are now able to transfer their thoughts into a creative sort of media and sell it to companies who will use it for various marketing campaigns. In addition to this another effect of this is that companies are also able to obtain free media coverages on these websites.

Who can benefit from this?
Small businesses and new businesses who may not be able to afford to produce their own media. Cheap way to raise awareness of your brand and gain an ad.

What can companies do take advantage of this?
Encourage their users to create creative media to voice their opinions. An example of this would be Doritos make your own commercial campaign, or Skittles YouTube application on their website.

Recently Skittles has changed its website to one which embraces the social networking/media.

What is skittles doing?
I believe that Skittles is trying to join the "Groundswell" and connect to its users in the most basic way (ie. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter)

My thoughts:
I believe that what Skittles is doing is a great move into the direction of utilizing social networking and UGM. I do see the benefits of having a skittles fan page, and the twitter page however I do not see these pages as being very beneficial for Skittles. The Twitter page is littered with redundant posts of people announcing that they are either eating skittles or wanting to eat skittles. The Facebook fanpage really has no content either. People are just posting that they love skittles. I believe that its fun to look at the first time but I'd probably wouldn't return to the visit either sites. Its not very engaging or interesting. On the other hand the YouTube portion of this website is rather interesting. It is engaging, and interesting to watch. Skittles can benefit from the YouTube application because basically they are getting free commercials made by their users. I have noticed that the wikipedia skittles page is no longer on the site. And I am not too sure the reason for this. Perhaps it was too risky to have the company information so easily modified by random people.

All in all I think that Skittles should think about redesigning their page to incorporate design and the social networking/media pages. At the moment the website does not look like a quality website that you'd expect from a company like Skittles.

check the site out :)
http://skittles.com/default.htm

Britney Spears is not the only one with a new look. The Pop Diva unveiled a new website in mid 2008 which features an innovative and personal experience for her fans. The website level of community and communication is unlike anything I have ever seen on a celebrity homepage. The community allows fans who have attended concerts to upload photos and videos from the tour. In addition the blog that is featured on the website keeps you up to date with what is going on in Britney Spears life.

I believe that the website's content is extremely exceptional. Britney followers thrive on pictures and news of what the star is doing and the website allows fans to hear first hand what is going on with Britney instead of seeing it in US Weekly magazine. Britney Spears has had a lot of bad press past years. The personal blog allows people to see her working hard at rehearsal, interacting with her children and spending time with her family. This window into Britney's life allows people to take heart and forgive and forget her crazy past. The website is great move for Britney's career.