Blogging and bringing home the bacon

SAN FRANCISCO--The modern woman, per the popular '70s television commercial, was once "bringing home the bacon and frying it up in a pan." Now she's also writing a blog.

As many as 3,000 women are here at the fourth annual BlogHer Conference 2008, which opened Friday, to talk about their lives, their businesses, and their blogs. And in some cases, they're all one and the same. Despite the popular perception that women bloggers are all stay-at-home mothers, many women here run their own businesses or work full-time, and they use a blog as a personal outlet, a connection to a community, or as a way to boost their career.

Women filled the seats and lined the back walls at the Friday session on do-it-yourself promotion for their blogs.

(Credit: Stefanie Olsen/CNET News)

Jamie Risdon Lentzner, for example, is the founder of Foster City, Calif.-based Jamie's Painting Design, a design shop, and she writes a blog about what it takes to run your own business. A first-timer to the BlogHer conferences, she said that she felt a bit overwhelmed because of the lineup of polished writers and the sheer volume of women.

"It feels like I'm rushing a sorority," Lentzner said.

Adnets Weekend

innerActive partners with Utarget.FOX for Mobile Ad Sales Social Media Portal (press release), UK - 2 hours ago Our products are delivered across our four proprietary advertising networks and recently we have added a video advertising dimension. ...

interCLICK Ranked 10th Largest Ad Network According to comScore Data FOXBusiness - Jul 17, 2008 The Company currently ranks as the fastest growing advertising network from June 2007 to June 2008, showing 121% growth in that time period. ...

Charles Pope Joins Kowabunga! Board of Directors FOXBusiness - Jul 17, 2008 Inc. is the leading provider of interactive performance-based advertising networks and technology platforms. Kowabunga! provides a comprehensive and ...THK

Sify

Paid Search Faces Up to Social Media RedOrbit, TX - Jul 18, 2008 The fact that consumers are required to sign up to join social networks means that sites such as Facebook know far more about their users than search ... AOL May Be Plan B For Microsoft, But Yahoo Still In Focus CNNMoney.com Google: the mother of antitrust battles? Register AOL a less challenging buy than Yahoo for Microsoft NetworkWorld.com eWeek - Deccan Herald MSFT - YHOO - INFS

InternetNews.com

Google Buys Contextual Ad Firm Begun eWeek,  NY - Jul 18, 2008 Google is buying contextual advertising service ZAO Begun for $140 million, a move designed to help the search giant expand its domain in a Russia that ... Google To Acquire Russian Context Ads Service Begun RushPRnews.com (press release) Google Bids And Wins Russia's Begun WebProNews Google Rambles With Russia’s Rambler Ad Purchase eBrandz GOOG - LON:RMG

Focus Media Announces US$100 Million Share Repurchase Program 華富財經, Hong Kong - Jul 16, 2008 multi-platform digital media company, operating the largest out-of-home advertising networkin China using audiovisual digital displays, based on the number ...FRA:F1O - FMCN

Business Wire (press release)

Ripple Appoints John McMenamin as Chief Executive Officer Business Wire (press release), CA - Jul 15, 2008 McMenamin, a new media pioneer, brings more than 20 years of experience in developing and launching out-of-home content and advertising networks at ...

Rate This Article Financial Express, India - 18 hours ago Increasingly, international advertising networks are making Indian a hub for their creative and media offerings. "We will see more global networks entering ...OMC

Greystripe Monetizing iPhone Games With Ad Platform Washington Post, United States - 13 hours ago Greystripe, an advertising network for mobile games, has stepped in to compensate developers for every time their games are played, not just for when those ...

Online ad group adds to sector's worries Financial Times, UK - Jul 17, 2008 ... advertising and e-commerce reverberated through Wall Street yesterday after ValueClick, which runs the largest independent online advertising network, ...

Social Media Weekend

Social marketing firm Powered gets new CEO Bizjournals.com, NC - 21 hours ago Nicolson most recently served as chief marketing officer at Pluck, a social media software firm, which was acquired by online media company Demand Media ... Powered Appoints Ken Nicolson as CEO MarketWatch all 18 news articles »

Advertisers Get More Social InternetNews.com - Jul 18, 2008 By Susan Kuchinskas: More stories by this author: SAN FRANCISCO -- Ads are an integral part of social media, but advertisers don't know what works or how to ...

Sify

Paid Search Faces Up to Social Media RedOrbit, TX - Jul 18, 2008 The internet telephony company is planning to put social media at the heart of its marketing strategy for 2008 in an effort to reach a wider audience than ... Web Censorship Opposition Embroils Beijing Olympics eWeek Google, Microsoft augur tougher times ahead Reuters all 527 news articles »

Social Media Media Marketing: The Latest Way for Brands to Engage ... PR-CANADA.net (press release), Montenegro - 37 minutes ago FusionBrand, Asia’s leading data-driven brand consultancy, has enhanced its growing social media marketing (SMM) practice. Now, companies interested in ...

appssavvy Releases Social Media Planning Tool Designed to Connect ... MarketWatch - Jul 17, 2008 The new appssavvy tool connects social application developers and the growing number of leading brands and agencies marketing in the social media space. ... Sometrics and appssavvy Partner to Pair Social Analytics with a ...Business Wire (press release) all 13 news articles »

The Social Media Minute CMSWire, CA - 21 hours ago By John Conroy Social Media moves so fast, it’s hard to keep up. Have a look at the big stories over the past week (…and a bit), in scan-friendly format. ...

Pheedo Dashboard to Help Social Media Advertisers Daily Research News Online, UK - 22 hours ago It also provides analysis of behaviour trends of active users consuming content beyond the web site, to create social media analytics and measurable ROI on ...

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Social media marketing set for 'big things' Business Feet, UK - 23 hours ago Social media will become a "big part" of future internet marketing strategies, according to Google. Commenting in Canadian Business magazine, the internet ...

Washington Post

The Twin Tech Towns Come Together Washington Post, United States - 19 hours ago Glickfield introduced her friend Marco Nunez, a former John McCain staffer, as "the token Republican" of the social media crowd. ...

Blog Weekend

Times Online

Final Act of "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" Goes Live Wired News - 1 hour ago By Patrick Orndorff July 19, 2008 | 8:00:00 AMCategories: Television, Video, Web The third and final Act of Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog goes posty ... Joss Whedon's Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Act III review Den Of Geek Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Act Three Online Now Cinema Blend Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog: "Act Two" Review IGN The Industry Standard - BuddyTV all 96 news articles »

Hawaii Real Estate Blasts Into Cyberspace With Prudential ... MarketWatch - 14 hours ago "To keep up with the ever-changing world of technology, we have started this new blog to provide consumers with real estate industry insight and tips in a ...

JAMIE SAMUELSEN'S BLOG Detroit is the best sports town in America ... Detroit Free Press, United States - 5 hours ago Jamie Samuelsen blogs for freep.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press or its writers. ...

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The Associated Press

NJ beach town mayor sez 'Fuhgeddaboudit!' to blog The Associated Press - 4 hours ago And to blondes everywhere, whether they know how to take out the trash or not, the blog-writing mayor is really remorseful. The comments in his blog for ...

CNET News

Blogging and bringing home the bacon CNET News, CA - 15 hours ago Now she's also writing a blog. At the fourth annual BlogHer Conference 2008, which opened Friday, as many as 3000 women are here talking about their life, ...

ScienceBlogs

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Corporate Social Networks Are A Waste of Money, Study Finds

Corporate Social Networks Are A Waste of Money, Study Finds

How would you feel if you spent more than $1 million throwing a party and less than 100 or even 1,000 people showed up? That sinking feeling is spreading over corporate boardrooms around the nation, according to study performed by Ed Moran, a director at consulting mega-firm Deloitte.

It may be all the rage, but are company-built social networks for customers to socialize in really smart?

According to Wall St. Journal coverage of Moran's study, "Thirty-five percent of the [corporate] online communities studied have less than 100 members; less than 25% have more than 1,000 members - despite the fact that close to 60% of these businesses have spent over $1 million on their community projects." That means some of those $1 million parties probably had less than 100 attendees. Somebody got fired for that, right?

Former RWW staff member Josh Catone found the WSJ story first over at his new gig and offers some good advice for companies seeking to avoid this terrible fate.

According to the study's author, the biggest problems are the following:

• Overpriced, shiny features.


• Insufficient and inexperienced community management. (See our massive post on community management earlier this week.)


• Bad metrics and criteria. Though Moran says most companies can talk the talk, saying they are looking for engagement and word of mouth, they end up measuring in page views. He says that's bad. It probably wouldn't be so bad if they were getting any page views...

Can Google (GOOG) Fix "Quality Control" Keyword Mistake And Boost Revenue?

Can Google (GOOG) Fix "Quality Control" Keyword Mistake And Boost Revenue?

During Google's Q2 earnings call yesterday, Sergey Brin admitted to a rare mistake: The company pulled back too much on the number of keyword ads it displayed, and the strategy backfired.

Why would Google (GOOG) cut back on keywords ads to begin with? The idea was to enhance performance: eliminating lower-performing ads means higher click-through and conversion rates for those that remain, and theoretically higher bid prices. (As well as a better user experience.) Google has reduced the number of keyword ads on results pages by more than 40% in the past 6 months from an average of 6.5 ads to 4 ads, according to AdGooroo's Richard Stokes.

Smart up to a point, but Google went too far. Whether because of the cuts, the economic climate or some combination, AdSense revenue and paid clicks were down sequentially from the previous quarter, for the first time ever.

So, can Google just put back the ads and fix everything in Q3? Maybe not, says Stokes, who has been warning about decreased keyword advertising for a couple of months now.

First off, when Google started its "ads quality" program last year, it culled the herd of AdSense advertisers, meaning there will be fewer advertisers to bring back into the fold. Realistically, Stokes says, Google can raise keyword ads 20% in Q3, but probably not more. Second, consumers got accustomed to less advertising clutter, and so did the advertisers. Presented with more ads, it's hard to know what the conversion rate will be. Advertisers will have to accept a lower rate, and it could take time for bid rates to adjust.

Still, if there's a time to try it, it's now, because ads ususally pick up in Q3. So get ready for more keyword ads on your search results. Meanwhile, Stokes has been charting the missing keywords ads on Google for the past year:

See Also: Google Blows Q2: Multiple Compression Continues...

Google Buys Russian Contextual Ads Service for $140m

BREAKING NOW: Google is buying Russian contextual advertising company ZAO Begun for $140 million from UK-registered Rambler Media (many Russian firms now base themselves in the UK). Rambler owns 50.1 percent of Begun, so to secure the deal it is buying the remaining 49.9 percent stake from owner Bannatyne Limited and then selling the entire firm to Google. Rambler says it expects to net about $50 million from the deal which will finance its investments and potential acquisitions.

Simultaneously Google announced (fairly obviously) that Rambler will now use Google AdSense for Search and AdSense for Content services.

The contextual advertising market in Russia is worth $225 million billion but Google has, until recently, not made much indent into the market which has grown over two and a half times since 2006. Yandex, the Russian search engine and one of the biggest Russian Web portals online since 1997, could account for 64% of the market , accounting for $145 million.

From the press release:

Rambler Media Ltd. (“Rambler” or “the Company”), operating one of Russia’s most popular internet brands, announces that it has agreed to sell its contextual advertising company ZAO Begun (“Begun”) and related subsidiaries to Google. Rambler currently holds 50.1% of Begun. The transaction will consist of Rambler buying the remaining 49.9% stake in Begun from Bannatyne Limited, affiliated with the Finam group of companies, immediately after which Rambler will sell 100% of Begun to Google subject to certain approvals and conditions precedent for a total cash consideration of US$140 million, of which US$69.9 million is attributable to Bannatyne, with customary closing adjustments.

Rambler’s net gain from the disposal is expected to be approximately US$50 million after all direct costs associated with the transaction. Proceeds received in respect of the sale of its holdings in Begun will be retained by the Company for further investments and potential acquisitions in line with Rambler’s stated strategy. The Company’s net cash position after the completion of this sale is expected to reach US$100 million. The Company’s directors consider, having consulted with its nominated adviser, ING, that the terms of the transaction are fair and reasonable insofar as its shareholders are concerned.

Google is the world’s most popular search engine. Begun is one of Russia’s leading search and contextual text based advertising services with local expertise, efficient sales systems and the number of its advertisers exceeds 40,000. Begun’s partner network includes over 143,000 Russian language sites.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Google Q2 Call: How Did They Miss? Chief Economist Varian: Consumers Showing Weakness

from paidContent.org by Joseph Weisenthal

...

-- Outgoing CFO George Reyes: Slight decline in paid clicks is a result of seasonality and focus on quality ads. An interesting note: interest gains were weak in the quarter ($58 million vs $167 million in Q1) due to lower cash yields, increased hedging expenses and a decrease in cash balances due to DoubleClick...

Microsoft testing self-serve AdSense rival

Microsoft testing self-serve AdSense rival

Microsoft is ready to start expanding its AdCenter engine to allow at least some publishers to include contextual advertising from Microsoft on their site.

According to a letter detailing the program and published on TechCrunch, Microsoft is doing a pilot program that allows smaller publishers to use contextual advertising from Microsoft, putting it potentially in competition with Google's AdSense and Yahoo's publisher network.

In a statement provided to CNET News on Thursday, Microsoft confirmed the trial.

"Microsoft's self-serve advertising offering for publishers is still under development and is currently in a private pilot phase, being tested by select publishers who met the participation requirements," Microsoft said. "The private pilot phase began earlier this year."

Microsoft pointed publishers interested in the pilot to sign up for the trial.

"It's our intention to continue to expand our high quality network and relevant audience gradually and intelligently over time for our advertisers," Microsoft said. "We will evaluate customer interest and product performance as we move through the private pilot, but we have no specific launch plans to announce at this time."...

Q2 Earnings

LIVE: Microsoft Q4 Earnings: In Line, But Guidance Is Light (MSFT)

Release out. Microsoft's Q4 is mostly in line with consensus - thought it missed EPS by a penny. Guidance for the next quarter is a little light. And the online business continues to underwhelm - Microsoft doubled its Q4 loss, y/y, and lost another $1.2 billion over the last year while trying to figure out the Web.

Reviewing numbers now; call at 5:30 est.

Key Metrics:
Revenue: $15.84 vs. 15.65 billion consensus, $15.5-$15.8 billion guidance
EPS: $0.46 cents vs. $0.47 consensus, $0.45-$0.48 guidance
Operating Income: $5.684 vs. $5.8-$6.2 billion guidance

Q1 Revenue Guidance: $14.7 billion - $14.9 billionvs. $15.06 billion consensus
Q1 EPS Guidance:$0.47 or $0.48 vs. $0.49 consensus

2009 Revenue Guidance: $67.3 b - $68.1b vs. $67.29 billion consensus, $66.9-$68.0 billion prior guidance
2009 EPS Guidance: $2.12 to $2.18 vs. $2.16 consensus, $2.13-$2.19 prior guidance
2009 Operating Income Guidance: $26.3 billion to $26.9 billion vs. $26.7-$27.4 billion prior guidance

Divisional Revenue Breakdown (Citi Est.)
Client: $4.37 billion vs. $4.19 billion est.
Server/Tools: $3.74 billion vs. $3.67 billion est.
Online Services: $838 million vs. $949 million est.
MBD: $5.26 billion vs. $5.37 billion est.
Entertainment/Devices: $1.58 billion vs. $1.55 billion est.

I.B.M. Income Rose 22%, Beating Forecasts

By LAURIE J. FLYNN

Published: July 18, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO — I.B.M. reported Thursday that its net income rose 22 percent in the second quarter to $2.77 billion, or $1.98 cents a share, from the quarter a year-ago quarter.

Related

Times Topics: International Business Machines Corp.

The company said revenue climbed 13 percent, to $26.8 billion.

The earnings were well above Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts had expected $1.82 cents a share and revenue of $25.92 billion, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Financial...

Google (GOOG) Blows Q2: LIVE ANALYSIS

Release out. As we feared, a miss (albeit on bottom line instead of top line).

Gross revenue and net revenue in line, EPS light. Most of EPS miss from interest income and higher G&A, which isn't good news, but also isn't that big a deal. Massive CAPEX once again hammered free cash flow, which has been flat for four quarters (Where on earth is all this money going?). Revenue benefitted heavily from FOREX, and certainly wasn't the upside surprise the Street was looking for. Stock down hard in aftermarket.

Bottom line: In light of ongoing revenue deceleration and margin compression, stock multiple should continue to compress. We continue to think fair value is 25X-30X free cash flow vs. the 40X everyone has gotten used to.

(And more great news: Microsoft earnings in line, but guidance light). (Link to Google webcast).