I just recieved a spoof email from some douchebag in Canada. It’s a very sophisticated request for me to login to my Google adwords account. The email starts with the subject line;

Your AdWords Google Account is stoped.

Thats the first indication, a spelling mistake in the subject. Those PhDs at G are smarter than that. The email then says;

Dear Advertiser, ———————————- We were unable to process your payment. Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment. To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment information. ———————— Please sign in to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login, and update your payment information. ————————————————- We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available. Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords. ———————————– The Google AdWords Team

The interesting thing is the email address is actually on the Google domain, which is another more sophisticated technique, so I followed the link, which is included above but may not be working for very long. Below is a screen capture of the landing page;

It’s pretty darn sophisticated isn’t it. I wonder how many people have gone there and logged in, thus giving the perp their adwords account login. Pretty serious stuff eh? I always forward the email to spoof@google.com, and I usually get an email back from them within a few days…

Well I know I keep banging on about Google but you’ve got to hand it them, they keep on rolling on and pushing more and more advertising and marketing services.

Recently launched is Google TV Ads, which allows you to place televison network ads from the comfort of your office chair no less!

Now you have to realise that if your going to put an ad on a TV network it should be pretty good quality (I don’t mean hd!!), I mean a good script and well shot and produced etc. Come to think of it, going by some of the low budget local ads I’ve seen on the local tv channels, maybe it doesn’t matter?

It’s interesting how the video space has opened up, what with live tv broadcasting on USTREAM etc and now the ability to run tv ads from Googles interface. Plus, with G you can apparently track usage and measure results…

Here’s a nifty little tutorial from Google for your viewing pleasure;

Audio campaigns and print media campaigns are also available. You can check them out here http://www.google.com/adwords/tvads/index.html and on their blog here http://google-tmads.blogspot.com/

I was searching on Google trends earlier today when I came across the following. See what’s in the #1 position? I wonder who did that? Nasty…

If you can’t read it stand on your head or go here; http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Google_Trends_1_Spot_l_oo_no_n

The long form sales letter is, or at least used to be, the staple of many a successful internet marketers online sales efforts. Over the last couple of years web video marketing has really taken off, well at least the technology has become widely available and affordable to all (i.e. FREE).

So the question is does a video presentation beat a long form sales letter? Well, let’s assume that we are talking about a really good long form sales letter versus a really well presented, scripted and produced video sales presentation, who would win?

You have to think that in todays western world the video will be better right? Who wants to (or even can) read a long form sales letter? Here’s something I found the other day which is very interesting…

This is the long form sales letter (old sales letter)

This is the new media landing page with video (new video sales letter)

These are the results of testing (direct response advertising metrics)

So, there you have it. Is the long form sales letter dead then? I don’t think so. The long form sales letter is simply now a script to be learned and presented by buxom wenches as I swallow a couple more Ritalin!

I got an email from Marlon Sanders the other day. I went to his sales page and he was broadcasting live on the internet using USTREAM.tv. He was so excited he could hardly contain himself.

I didn’t buy his trainign program, but I did go create an account on ustream.tv to see how easy it was to setup and what you could do with it. I have to say, I’m blown away! Desktop video, dvd camcorders and all of the technology to create an uploadable video have been with us for a while now and are pretty stable. But to be able to stream live on the internet at the click of a button, literally. That’s bloody awesome!

Check out my quick tutorial, then go get your account and have some fun. Try not to get arrested though!

Just created another screen video using Camtasia 5. This is the latest version and its really cool. You can put in a picture in picture (I know you don’t want to see my ugly mug!), which might be useful in some situations. However, the filesize increases dramatically with PIP.

See what you think…

I’ve just been reading an interesting article in Forbes magazine about YouTube. Apparently advertising rates for display ads on pages with user generated content has collapsed with rates on FaceBook, MySpace and YouTube having fallen 45% since Febuary this year… Forbes state the cost is now 18cents per 1000 page views… hmmm much cheaper than Google! But whats the problem here?

Well, it may have something to do with the fact that the conversion rates for those 1000 page views are extremely low. They can’t be very well targetted at all, so you just stick your ad up there and hope for the best. Just like a lot of people to with magazine ads or the Yellow book…

Apparently YouTube has done a lot of experimenting with ad formats and found some (Forbes says surprising) results.

Get this: Pre-roll video ads prior to the main video cause the viwer to click away 70% of the time. Surprising? I don’t think so. Those pre-roll, pre-view ads are abnoxious. Theres an example of advertisers thinking ‘we’ve got you by the short hairs so you just be a good girl and sit and watch our advertising dross for 20 seconds before we give you what you’re really looking for’… 70% say ‘F*&% you!’ and click away… go figure…

Short banners that pop-up from the bottom of the video window are better, with people clicking those ads 8 times as often as standard display ads next to the video… means you gotta get your ad integrated with the content, bet thats pricey . These pop-up or roll-over ads are more effective if they appear 15 seconds into the video. So what that tells me is 15 seconds is all you got before the viewers attantion span has waned and they are looking to move on, ‘oh look, a banner has appeared, lets click on it aimlessley…’ yehaaw, the miracle of the internet as an advertising media.

When the roll-over is run in tandem with a display ad next to the video the chance of someone clicking can be 46 times as good, whew.

I’ve just finished reading the latest reviews and such about the new (Jan this year) Kindle eBook reader from Amazon. I buy nearly all my books from Amazon and have quite an extensive library now, shelves and shelves of hardback, paperback and manuals etc. In fact, I’ve been running out of room for all of them for a while now.

So, after reading the reviews I think I’m going to get one of these puppies. I just checked and a couple of books that I was going to buy are available for it.

Plus, you can get a FREE converter / creator that will allow you to put your personal docs and files on there too, sounds fair enough.

I’ve been using gotoMeeting for a quite some time now and love it. I do all of my customer training using it and also do sales presentation with it. It’s just fantastic for both.

I recently did my first sales presentation to a new friend of mine named Joe Gaeta, who is a dental surgeon and has just opened a new practice on Siesta Key.

Anyway, the reason I mention this is that it was the first time I have done a sales presentation with gotoMeeting while the client was driving on I75! YUP! Now, I did make sure he was comfortable doing that and he insisted he was OK with it, so as he drove from Sarasota to Port Charlotte I did my sales presentation, demoing my content management system, newsletter manager, membership system, directory manager, keyword editor and this blog. Not once did his connection drop, he’s using a Verizon air card I belive and not once did he crash or come off the road, whew!

Modern technology eh…

I’ve just come back from the Glazer Kennedy Sales and Marketing Superconference in Nashville Tennesse. It was fantastic. Gene Simmons is a powerful and attractive man, who delivered a great keynote speech. I never got into KISS, but I’m now reading Gene’s books as he is a true marketing genius. It seems everyhting he’s ever done has been geared toward marketing, promotion and making money, period. Each to his own, I wish I’d been operating like that for longer…

Here is a pic of me and Dan Kennedy. Just social proof that I was really there…