Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 thinks like you: big. It can help everyone-from the director of marketing to the VP of finance-find new ways to connect, share information, and help keep it safe. That’s helping you do more than think big; it’s helping your small business win big. * Offer valid December 1, 2009-January 31, 2010. Terms and conditions apply. Please see site for details.

Good news! As a lot of you know, we like to keep close contact with our customer, making sure they have what they want round the clock. We’ve already got email, AIM and now we’ve added MSN Messenger to the mix!

If you’ve got any questions and prefer using MSN, add us to your contact list: dsgperformance@hotmail.com

To the AIM users, our ID is dsgperformance

Excited to hear from you!

This entry also appears here at Blogger

Ty Wang, senior director of product marketing for service delivery solutions at Oracle, posted an entry on the Open Communication Blog at Billing & OSS World touting a Gartner forecast that mobile advertising will generate billions of dollars in revenue by the year 2013. Ty asked a great question, in effect, these figures sound great, but what if anything is really happening in the market? Who’s doing this? As the animated hologram told Will Smith’s character in the movie I, Robot: “THAT, detective, is the right question.” Some big (and small) players are making important things happen that are building the foundation for that promised market growth.

Transverse is a unique open systems OSS/BSS provider that offers solutions via open source GPL license with no license fees, and users pay if they engage the firm for advanced functionality, proserv, training and product extensions. Transverse offers a product module called Customer Asset Management that, simply put, offers a way for wireless operators to monetize their subscriber bases by offering them as an audience to advertisers. The success of that approach, of course, hinges on persuading them to opt in for ads on their mobile devices, usually by offering discounted service rates or promotional affinity programs. To that end Transverse commissioned a survey conducted by iGR, a market strategy consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile industry, which interviewed 810 wireless subscribers ages 18 to 65. The study found that 56% of the mobile users who responded to the survey would view ads on their phones in exchange for a 25-50 percent discount on their monthly bill.

At Microsoft, the mobile advertising team is led by GM Charles Johnson and New York-based Marc-Henri Magdelénat, one of the three founders of ScreenTonic, the mobile advertising pioneer acquired by Microsoft in 2007. Magdelénat and ScreenTonic built the largest European mobile advertising network by partnering with tier 1 operators such as Orange and sold more than 2,000 mobile ad campaigns to advertisers such as Coca-Cola, Nike, Reebok, HP and Peugeot. Microsoft is showing signs of life in that regard: In early 2009 it beat out Yahoo! and Google for the half-billion-dollar contract to provide Verizon Wireless with portal, local, web search and mobile advertising services. More recently Microsoft and Verizon launched a mobile ad campaign for Global Hyatt Corporation designed to boost membership in the Hyatt Gold Passport frequent guest rewards program and drive traffic to Hyatt’s mobile website.

Then in September 2009 Microsoft Advertising launched its Behavioral Targeting initiative, which works by anonymously tracking behaviors of users and classifying them into unique segments using web keyword search behavior from Bing, visits to Microsoft sites, Hotmail newsletters, Xbox subscriptions and Windows Live profiles. [So exciting to know that by virtue of just about every move we make online, we are all now part of Microsoft’s own CAM-like monetized audience.]

The Microsoft and Transverse strategies are conceptually (if not actually, yet) related because the big money really starts to flow if Microsoft can offer advertisers access not only to its own growing mobile advertising network but to legions of subscribers from multiple large Verizon-like operators, and a solution such as Transverse’s CAM could accelerate that business model.

Happy New Year!

It’s that time of year again folks! The indigestion from Christmas dinner has finally gone away and we start to reflect ever so emotionally on the events that occurred during another magnificent trip around the sun, again.

But 2009 is/was a special year though, and before we pass through the barrier to the next year, lets just reflect back on the stuff that happened in 2009. Here’s the top 15, in no particular order.

Enjoy!

1) The Birth of Splurgebook; Precisely at 4am on August the 16th, was Splurgebook’s birth. How did I remember so well? It was the same day as Elvis Presley’s death. Nice.

2) Swine Flu; Remember the days when we thought that the world was going to end? Swine Flu pandemic, mass graves, stockpiling, wars… Well, the sooner the media stopped hyping about it, the better. Swine Flu isn’t that serious when you compare it to seasonal flu, and I could remember the flu I had last year (or the year before that, depending on when you’re reading this) was much more serious than the swine flu I had this year. So much for hype.

3) President Obama; Not really that much into politics me, but for the first time, me and many other people who can’t tell their left wing from their right basked at the amazement of this new wonder. He’s half black? So what? As long as he’s a human being, and as long as he can do his job, then I really don’t mind…

…Just a note, his story also came first place on social site Digg, and a close second goes to…

4) Death of Michael Jackson; Like politics, I might not be obsessed about his music though regardless, I, and almost every other person on the planet mourned his death. Just to add though, it was possibly the first time I’ve heard my entire street blasting out his music, and (purely research intended) torrent sites and trackers went crazy over Michael Jackson downloads.

5) New iPod Nano; Hmm, what can we do to the iPod Nano to make it “better”? I know, why don’t we stick a camera on the back of it? Genius. Definitely one of their smarter ideas.

6) Avatar; They’ve definitely nailed it with this one. Simply a spectacular movie with mind blowing special effects and a storyline to match, a great way to end the year, and while we’re at it, 2009 is the first year in which every major movie production has created a 3D work of art, wonderful.

7) Twitter; Sure it was actually created in 2006, but 2009 was the year for Twitter. Showing over a thousand percent a month growth during the best part of 2009, Twitter became the “top word of 2009” according to the Guardian. With all this attention though, came disaster, as a multitude of outages and “fail whale” messages started appearing as even the most mundane news story would retweet the hell out of Twitter’s servers.

While we’re on the topic of Twitter, it has been the first time that a social media service has played such a great role in politics as seen during the Iranian elections.

The 11th Doctor (or technically, the end of the 10th); It’s only Doctor Who, but it seems like it’s woven into the very fabric of culture, not to mention a change doesn’t happen that often. Remember when David Tennant appeared a few years back, and the demand for Converses and skinny suits skyrocketed (almost)? Now with Matt Smith taking over the role, any guesses for what could happen to our clothing demand now?

9) All hail Windows 7; Knowing how much of a disaster Vista was when it was first launched, it’s nice to see that the people behind Microsoft are actually capable of making software that works, and by Jove they have done it. Essentially, it is all Vista should have been…

…and while we’re on the topic, Windows Mobile 6.5 has also been released, but that’s not as spectacular.

10) Who could forget the Recession?; and lets face it, who wouldn’t? It has been projected that 2009 is the first full year of recession since the early 1990’s, and that’s quite a long time. Thousands of jobs have been lost, but it’s not all bad news though, as Christmas spending has increased and there is a general “everything will mend itself” vibe wafting around, right?

11) Highest UK death rate for the war in the Middle East; 106 deaths since January, 99 of which were serving in the army, 7 serving in the Royal Marines and 1 of whom from the RAF. As for the reason we are fighting this war, I have long since lost track, but whatever the reason, is it really worth the death of 422 soldiers?

12) Pirate Bay closed down; Possibly the biggest and most used torrent directory gets closed down with owners being sued millions and put into jail. Also related, popular torrent site Mininova has also gone legit, and should see a major drop in traffic once it does so. The days of illegal downloading are numbered, until someone finds another way of doing it.

13) Susan Boyle (and “Jedward”); Susan Boyle in Britain’s Got Talent and Jedward in X-Factor? That can’t be right, shouldn’t it be the other way round? Regardless, both became internet stars all over the world with Youtube hits hitting the roof. Definitely two of the most notable entertainment stories of the year.

14) Phone Bill go up did it?; Don’t blame it on the kids again. This time, it’s due to our new “digital Britain” scheme,  part of which states that every household landline will receive a 50p tax charge per year to help pay for new hardware which would allow all of Britain to gain access to broadband speeds of “at least 2 megabits”. Not the most spectacular scheme I must say, as folks in Korea are enjoying 1,000 megabit speeds at the very least. Oh well, at least we’re trying.

15) Facebook tops UK Google searches; 2009 may have been a busy year, but it’s nice to see that the world still has time to go on Facebook with the BBC, Youtube and Hotmail coming in close behind. Interestingly, “Google” comes 8th place on the top searches list, which is quite surprising since these searches were actually conducted on Google itself.

…in somewhat related news, FarmVille became the most popular Facebook app of 2009 with over 79 million montly active users, but I assume you would know already.

So I really hope you’ve enjoyed Splurgebook this year and wish you all the best for 2010; because according to the Mayan calendar, we’ve only got 2 years left. Enjoy:)

Images sourced from;

• www.messandnoise.com
• www.wallpaperpimper.com
• http://avatartrailer.com
• http://www.drjudy.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org
• http://newsinbrief.files.wordpress.com
• http://dailybabel.com
• http://www.dgcmagazine.com
• http://deadlinescotland.files.wordpress.com/
• http://www.anorak.co.uk
• http://crave.cnet.co.uk/

Hii,

Sorry if you had left a comment beforehand, I usually get e-mails on who sent me comments on wordpress and so it seems my wordpress and msn don’t really like me. I really thought it was weird that I hadn’t been getting any comments lately . .

But I reply as usual, to all your questions and everything! So thanks for everyone for being really supportive, I’m on my way on writing a big post of 2009 stardoll and a best and worst so hopefully that will be up soon. Really can’t wait till 2010 but as soon as I’m getting to school all the girls are getting their last jags. Terribly painful if I say so myself, you might of seen the ads around stardoll for the Vaccine of the Cancer thingy, HPV or HP virus. But i suppose it’s all worth-it. Such ashame a girl died from it this year

But with a few little updates on stores and sales on stardoll:

As always, at the end of every season theres a sale on stardoll, it’s actually really small at the moment I don’t know why. Probably stardoll want us to spend more cash on expensive items so they can get more money!!

But I went to the Baby Phat store, and if you go on the last little room, all the shoes are $2, i think i bought mostof them and in my suite I’m wearing the trainers, They really remind me of converse so I just had to buy them!! Your getting like 75% off these shoes and they only cost so little, but sadly they are only for superstar:

On other stores, there is a new shop called Decade of the Teens! Little bit exspensive but I don’t think you would want to buy everything from there. They only dress I really had to buy was the Pink/Purple flower dress, I actually quite liked the black and white striped dress until I tried it on and it reminded me of a clown! So thats a no go . . other dresses look really nice but I wouldn’t buy them unless they were on sale. It said competiton winners on the little banner ad before I signed in so I’m guessing there was a competiton to design a dress? I have no idea why there was a competiton but if you know, post a comment and let me know please, I always get shouted out for getting everthing wrong because some people on stardoll are really touchy these days:

and the January Hotbuys are out in the magazine, nothing really special this month, so I’ll probably not buy them all. Quite a big disappointment really. I like the Pink Heart T-shirt, but it rally depends on how much stardoll except us to pay for it and the Silver dress looks quite nice except the stupid wrap is getting in the way.The beginning of 2010 and all that stardoll can give us to start of the year is this:

That model definatly looks like Dita Von Teese except she’s got blonde hair instead of black . . .

and other than that little bit of news, nothing new is happening on stardoll. Everything is usually the same, girls giving out codes for covergirl, scamming and hacking as per, little teeny fight on clubs, more dreaful posts on the stardoll official magazines, stupid silly girls pretending to be celebs on stardoll, more of photoshopped prancy paris type graphics on those pointless blogs . .

Yup that’s stardoll summed up for you

Lel1996

xoxoxo

P.S. Looking through some of my old posts and I mentioned before that stardoll replied to me about me posting on the magazine, that was ages ago and did my posts get on the magazine? No they didn’t even though I posted tons of things, stardoll didn’t even take one peek at them. What a waste of my time, if you didn’t like my posts you didn’t need to give me the sincere little reply “Lel1996, we enjoyed reading your blog, and would like you to feature in our magazine blah blah blah”, shows how much they really like their members, doesn’t it?

EDIT:

New youtube video, I really didn’t want to post it too early because now both of the videos aren’t getting as many views as they should be

I diddnt think that many people would want to check this out but it turns out to be one of the most popular videos on my channel!
The description
This is a video showing you guys how to make a hotmail and msn and a windows live account all in one! If you have any questions or would like to request a tutorial or if you thought i was crap or ledgendary feel free to message me and also dont forget to subscribe or add me as a friend!

Tilly Rivers Entertainment Editor & Food Critic for IRM Magazine

Host; Features Radio Show.

http://immediatereleasemedia.blogspot.com

 Recently, I had the pleasure to interview Artist / Author Kara Elsberry.  Among her artistic inspirations are Boris Vallejo, Clive Barker (yes, the author!), DaVinci, Dali, Luis Royo and Brian Froud. As for everyday inspiration?  She says nature and fantasy inspire her the most.  The exploration of dreams, the beauty of youth and innocence, mystery, the ‘unknown’, perseverance, stubbornness, magic, eroticism, and sensuality.

Now calling South Dakota home, Kara owns and operates Kara’s’ Designs.  What follows is that interview.

How long have you been an artist?

 “Professionally for about 8 years. However Art has been a passion for as long as I can remember.”
What mediums do you work from?

 “Mostly digital, but some painting and free hand drawing.” 
What is the favorite medium and why?

 “Digital by far, because it allows me to do so many things at the touch of a few buttons.  But, when I just need to get away from all the stress and aggravation that lovely technology can cause, I really love to get out the paints and get my hands dirty!!”
Why did you start muti-artist venues? Most artist stick to painting (drawing), graphic art or photography, you ‘do it all’ so to speak.

“I don’t do it all, but I certainly give it a go.  It’s just plain exciting working on so many different projects; meeting so many interesting and fun people…sticking with the same thing over and over is just boring.” 
What was your inspiration?

“That’s hard to say, there are so many people and factors in my life that inspire and have inspired me.  Life in general, life experience, all the people around me, my family, nature, fantasy, dreams… so many things to choose from I couldn’t possibly pin down one.” 

 
How long does it take you to complete a piece?

 “That depends.  Say, I’m going to do a book cover for a certain author….and maybe that author is a certain sassy author with a lovely radio show for instance…. Anyhow, a book cover generally takes about a day to get the concepts I want to show to the author, then another day or three to finalize final details and all that good stuff.  So, we’ll just go on the generous side and say a week at the very longest.  There are other factors of course that affect everything, but very rarely does it go over a week.  Logos, about 1-3 days, T-shirts I generally do within a couple of hours, as well as business cards, etc.  Paintings on the other hand take me a while; I could actually take up to a month or so.  I get very picky and it’s not like there’s an undo function for painting…though I wish there were!!  LOL.”
Can you describe the process you go through when creating a piece from start to finish?

“I start out getting all the information I can about the person or company I am designing for.  From what the company name means to what the person’s favorite colors and their hobbies are all things that are taken into consideration.  Printer’s specs, and the final output of the design are also considered.  For instance, will the design be solely used on the web, or will it also be used for print and large signage?  That’s all extremely important.  Once I have all that information, I start looking for inspiration, be it on the internet, the TV, or print ads, I look for inspiration everywhere.  Just the tiniest little thing can get an idea going and then Bam!  You have a starting point and off you go!  I usually put together a few different design concepts for each client, so they get a variety to choose from.  They pick their favorite (sometimes I have to do another round of concepts), and we refine the design with their personal details.  Then, we agree on the final design and I send all final files to them to keep for their records and to use as they wish.”
Do you work from live models?

“Ahh, wouldn’t that be nice to have a bunch of models to have at my beck and call when I needed them?    Sadly, that is not the case and I don’t often get to work from live models.  In college drawing courses I worked from models quite frequently.  I also use them as inspiration for paintings and sometimes in ads for beauty clients.” 
What has been the biggest challenge in the work you create?

 “The biggest challenge is not in the art itself, but at first attracting clients to your business.  I live in a small town in SD and it was hard to get started…to convince people that are out of state or even out of the country that you are the best artist for the job.  But I stuck with it and things improved dramatically for me year after year.  After that, the only challenge is keeping up with the latest technology and artistic styles to keep everyone happy and up to date with what’s new and improved.” 
What do you want to be remembered for?

 “Hmmm, that’s a tough one!  I guess I just want to be remembered for being a good mother to my children… (But even though that’s absolutely true, it’s also the safe and boring answer, isn’t it?)  LOL- But…. oh hell, who am I kidding, I just want to be remembered for being a kick ass artist!!”
How would you describe yourself?

 “I guess I’m not your average cup of tea to say the least.  I work from my home office, I hardly ever get out to meet many people in real life, I’m usually corresponding over the internet or by phone, but when I do go out I have definitely have my share of fun!!  I love books, art, (big surprise!); gardening…you should see all the plants I have, video games, cartoons…pretty much a kid at heart.  I love the fairytale side of life, the childlike wonder that we don’t get to see much these days.”
What do you hope people think of when they view your work?

 “Oh many many things.  I hope my work strikes a cord in some way, makes people remember a moment in life where they were truly happy or deliciously scared if we’re talking about scary books… maybe my artwork makes them crave something they’ve been dreaming of or yearning to return to…or dream of a place where fairytales exist…. whatever I can do to make people feel good, that’s what I want them to feel when they view my work. “
Is there anything else you’d like the readers to know about? The artist:–the woman?

“Hmmm, well….I’m pretty down to earth most of the time, I guess (unless you count the times I have my head in the clouds dreaming up my latest design)… love my family, love the simple things in life.    I love dogs, (I have two beagles, Snoopy and Lilly, and a chow named Gizmo.  You can catch my attention the best with a fun, sassy, creative imagination…. I am always up for a new and exciting artistic challenge…if you can dream it, I can design it.  I’m a pretty stubborn person (must be the red hair, do you think?) and when I really want something, I usually end up getting what I want in the end…  So, why fight it?  Smiles!  Oh, and I love to write, it’s my secret passion, not many people know about that.” 
Where can readers find you? View your work?

 http://kara.mosaicglobe.com, (that’s my online portfolio, though I don’t have nearly all my work posted on there yet). www.blackvelvetseductions.com, www.funnytshirts.biz , or just do a search for my name, Kara Elsberry on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, your favorite bookstore, or just sign on to Google and look me up!”

Conclusion: What captures you about Kara is her ability to turn an idea from words into a creative work of art. From her nude drawings to her book cover art, she has a rare talent and passion that comes through in everything she touches.  Her humor- her daring nature is balanced with a soft sensitive spirit that I have the pleasure and privilege to be a part of as Kara has designed many of my book covers. PS- Who really just wants an average cup-of-tea anyway?

~T~

———————————————————————————————————————————

About the author: Tilly Rivers is a best selling celebrity author, radio host for “Features,” & Entertainment Editor /  Food Critic for IRM Magazine.

The message from the VC community is clear – “don’t waste our seed money on network and server equipment.” The message from the US Government CIO was clear – the US Government will consolidate data centers and start moving towards cloud computing. The message from the software and hardware vendors is clear – there is an enormous investment in cloud computing technologies and services.

If nothing else, the economic woes of the past two years have taught us we need to be a lot smarter on how we allocate limited CAPEX and OPEX budgets. Whether we choose to implement our IT architecture in a public cloud, enterprise cloud, or not at all – we still must consider the alternatives. Those alternatives must include careful consideration of cloud computing.

Cloud 101 teaches us that virtualization efficiently uses compute and storage resources in the enterprise. Cloud 201 teaches us that content networks facing the Internet can make use of on-demand compute and storage capacity in close proximity to networks. Cloud 301 tells us that a distributed cloud gives great flexibility to both enterprise and Internet-facing content. The lesson plan for Cloud 401 is still being drafted.

Data Center 2010

Data center operators traditionally sell space based on cabinets, partial cabinets, cages, private suites, and in the case of carrier hotels, space in the main distribution frame. In the old days revenue was based on space and cross connects, today it is based on power consumed by equipment.

If the intent of data center consolidation is to relieve the enterprise or content provider of unnecessary CAPEX and OPEX burden, then the data center sales teams should be gearing up for a feeding frenzy of opportunity. Every public cloud service provider from Amazon down to the smallest cloud startup will be looking for quality data center space, preferably close to network interconnection points.

In fact, in the long run, if the vision of cloud computing and virtualization is true, then the existing model of data center should be seen as a three-dimensional set of objects within a resource grid, not entirely dissimilar to the idea set forth by Nicholas Carr in his book the “Big Switch.”

Facilities will return to their roots of concrete, power, and air-conditioning, adding cloud resources (or attracting cloud service providers to provide those resources), and the cabinets, cages, and private suites will start being dismantled to allow better use of electrical and cooling resources within the data center.

Rethinking the Data Center

Looking at 3tera’s AppLogic utility it brings a strange vision to mind. If I can build a router, switch, server, and firewall into my profile via a drag and drop utility, then why would I want to consider buying my own hardware?

If storage becomes part of the layer 2 switch, then why would I consider installing my own SAN, NAS, or fiber channel infrastructure? Why not find a cloud service provider with adequate resources to run my business within their infrastructure, particularly if their network proximity and capacity is adequate to meet any traffic requirement my business demands?

In this case, if the technology behind AppLogic and other similar Platform as a Service (PaaS) is true to the marketing hype, then we can start throwing value back to the application. The network, connectivity, and the compute/storage resource becomes an assumed commodity – much like the freeway system, water, or the electrical grid.

Flowing the Profile to the User

Us old guys used to watch a SciFi sitcom called “Max Headroom.” Max Headroom was a fictional character who lived within the “Ether,” being able to move around though computers, electrical grids – and pop up wherever in the network he desired. Max could also absorb any of the information within computer systems or other electronic intelligence sources, and deliver his findings to news reporters who played the role of investigative journalists.

We are entering an electronic generation not too different from the world of Max Headroom. If we use social networking, or public utility applications such as Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo Mail, our profile flows to the network point closest to our last request for application access. There may be a permanent image of our data stored in a mother ship, but the most active part of our profile is parsed to a correlation database near our access point.

Thus, if I am a Gmail user, and live in Los Angeles, my correlated profile is available at the Google data cache with correlated Gmail someplace with proximity to Los Angeles. If I travel to HongKong, then Gmail thinks “Hmmm…, he is in HK, and we should parse his Gmail image to our HK cache, and hope he gets the best possible performance out of the Gmail product from that point.”

I, as the user, do not care which data center my Gmail profile is cached at, I only care that my end user experience is good and I can get my work done without unnecessary pain.

The data center becomes virtual. The application flows to the location needed to do the job and make me happy. XYZ.Com, who does my mail day-to-day, must understand their product will become less relevant and ineffective if their performance on a global scale does not meet international standards. Those standards are being set by companies who are using cloud computing on a global, distributed model, to do the job.

2010 is the Year Data Centers Evolve to Support the Cloud

The day of a 100sqft data center cage is rapidly becoming as senseless as buying a used DMS250. The cost in hardware, software, peopleware, and the operational expense of running a small data center presence simply does not make sense. Nearly everything that can be done in a 100sqft cage can be done in a cloud, forcing the services provider to concentrate on delivering end user value, and leaving the compute, storage, and network access to utility providers.

And when the 100sqft cage is absorbed into a more efficient resource, the cost – both in electrical/mechanical and cost (including environmental costs) will drop by a factor of nearly 50%, given the potential for better data center management using strict hot/cold aisle separation, hot or cold aisle containment, containers – all those things data center operators are scrambling to understand and implement.

Argue the point, but by the end of 2010, the ugly data center caterpillar will come out of its cocoon as a better, stronger, and very cloudy utility for the information technology and interconnected world to exploit.

You gotta be in the know. That’s why I slave away over the internet all day long to bring you these little gems so you can pretend like you slave away over the internet all day. I mean, at other sites, other than Facebook.

Videogum brings you the 13 cutest animals of 2009. This is my favourite: squirrel in a yogurt cup – straight out of Anchorman!

There’s also the pygmy jerboa, which I will take two of, please! One for each pocket:

On Gizmodo, the great debate over which blanket with sleeves is the best blanket with sleeves is finally answered after each one – all four! – are tested. “Thank you, Snuggie, for raising blanket-with-sleeves awareness.” (I’m not sure how I have become the world’s premiere blogger about Snuggies, but I really had bigger dreams for myself.)

This is pretty funny: beloved local alt-news rag, NOW Magazine, runs a purely comical piece on teh internetz. Jason Richards writes about quitting Hotmail.

When you try to attempt to quit Hotmail, a window appears on the screen that says “Internet Explorer has shut down unexpectedly.” Ignore it. 30 seconds later, the window will close on its own and the affable voice of an Australian man says: “OK, you got us. We were just trying to distract you. Good job, mate.”

Then, you are prompted to endure a 53-page emotional gauntlet that begins with questions about why you want to quit Hotmail, but veers into more philosophical, obscure, cryptic vague, and qualitative territory. Some of the questions aren’t even questions. Among things Hotmail asks:

Who are you on the inside?

What is beauty?

The word “cobra” is short for “cobra de capelo,” which is Portuguese for what?

Whatever happened to the Walt character in Lost? It seems like the writers kind of ditched that storyline.

What is the best recipe for oxtail soup?

and

We hope your brother is enjoying his tap dancing lessons.

Finally, I think this piece about Malcolm Gladwell is meant to be insightful. Well, maybe if you’ve actually read a Malcolm Gladwell book. It couldn’t hold my interest past the first sentence but I’m really stuck on the picture of that guy at the top. Is that Malcolm Gladwell or the author of the post? Either way – holy cow!

That’s your internet update for Dec 22, 2009.  Let’s do this again sometime!

Viral Marketing: Word-of-Mouth via Internet

Viral marketing is a technique that is used by companies to influence individuals to pass marketing messages onto others. A message or a file can be passed on the Internet via peer-to-peer networks, which is what makes viral marketing so effective. Word-of-mouth is the most effective way to advertise a brand or a company’s products or services. Viral marketing is the word-of-mouth advertising for the Internet. One of the reasons that viral marketing is used widely by marketers is because viral marketing methods can be easily measured. According to IMC 613’s lesson six; “viral marketing firm Digital Media Communications has worked with companies like Apple and Microsoft to create online monitoring software that measures consumer awareness by tracking how wide a viral video clip as spread” (Perley, Lesson 6, 2009).

According to IMC 613 Lesson six, “there are six basic elements that all marketers should think about including in their viral marketing strategy” (Perley, Lesson 6, 2009). These elements include;

1. Giving away products or services
2. Providing effortless transfer to others
3. Scaling easily from small to very large
4. Exploiting common motivations and behaviors
5. Utilizing existing communication networks
6. Taking advantage of others’ resources

(Perley, Lesson 6, 2009)

Microsoft’s Hotmail is one of the first companies known to utilize viral marketing. The company offered a simple exchange: a free e-mail service for users as long as the company could put a one line promotion at the end of every e-mail. According to Carol Waugh, author of the article “Viral Marketing” on Xcellent Marketing.com, “The promotion line encouraged the recipient of the email message to go to hotmail.com and sign up for their own free email service” (Waugh, 2000).

Amazon.com is another example of a company that utilizes viral marketing. According to Carol Waugh’s article, Amazon lets users send books to friends, which in turn gives Amazon potential buyers and allows the company to insert promotional materials into the products that are being sent to the friend. Geocities is a site that allows users to make their own Web pages and invite friends to look at these pages. When a user visits one of these web pages they are prompted with an option that allows them to create their own Web site (Waugh, 2000).

Viral marketing is an easy and inexpensive way to draw traffic to a Web Site. Companies can offer users prizes for inviting a certain amount of people to the site or for referring a friend. Also, like Hotmail, companies can insert a promotion at the bottom of an e-mail or companies can give visitors the option to create their own Web site like Geocities does. This type of viral marketing can increase Web site traffic dramatically and can allow companies the option to connect with more users.

References:

Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism, West Virginia University (2009). Lesson 6: Pass along media I: Viral, Buzz, Word-of-Mouse/Mouth, and Word of Blog. Retrieved December 21, from the WVU eCampus Web site: http://ecampus.wvu.edu/

Waugh, C. A. (2000). Viral Marketing. Retrieved December 21, 2009, from http://www.xcellentmarketing.com/html/articles/viral2000.html

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