DSM Welcomes Luke Alley to the team

Luke Alley (update that LinkedIn page will you bud?) is the newest member of Dream Systems Media. Luke will be helping to guide our company as the Pay Per Click Marketing Director and we couldn’t be happier to have him join the team! Luke is a PPC wizard but much more importantly we feel he truly reflects the culture of our company — Luke works hard, plays hard and seems to be genuinely committed to touching the lives of those he associates with in a positive way.

You could say he is a regular member of Team Tebow (just kidding Luke I am a sucker for Tebow too but that is a pretty good picture!). Luke is originally from Colorado, and is actually a big Broncos fan, an Eagle Scout, Google AdWords Certified, married to a lovely lady and has one little boy! In addition to all that great stuff, Luke is a BYU-Idaho graduate, the former President of Get Found First and one mean tennis player!

So, if you are looking for top-notch pay per click management, inspiration from above or just a great tennis partner, Luke’s definitely your guy. We hope you will be able to find him between 9-5 at a Dream Systems Media office in Lehi, Utah for a long, long time to come!

Old Facebook Profile Ads

Old Facebook Profile Layout

New Slimmer Facebook Profile Ads

New Timeline Layout

 Compare the Same Facebook Ad Side by Side

239 x 117

128 x 168

Differences in Facebook Ads

While the ad sizes are not exact, the widths are fairly accurate. The new ad is slimmer, at about 128 pixels. The image sizes remain the same at 110 x 80 pixels. The background color has changed from white to the light blue. The number of ads on a traditional page range from 1 to 6. The number of ads on the new facebook timeline layout is 2 or 3 depending on your screen size. Yes, the ads display in conjunction with your screen size, pretty high tech programing there. One of the biggest differences between the two sets is that the new layout keeps the ads on page as you scroll down the page. The old set up will actually scroll the ads off the screen. Very subtle differences, but I am sure someone somewhere at Facebook is monitoring revenues based on the layouts. Curious internet marketers would like to know what that difference is. Facebook marketers want to know how this could effect their ads.

Related articles

• Timeline vs Old – How Our Eyes Look at Them (sociableblog)
• How to sign out of the new Facebook layout update. (haiteq.com)
• 8 Great Facebook Changes (dreamsystemsmedia.com)
• How Big is Facebook? (dreamsystemsmedia.com)

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Just your friendly neighborhood pest control guy reporting… I also Report on Scorpions. =)

-Thomas Ballantyne
Director of Marketing for Bulwark Exterminating
Follow me on Twitter —> @Thos003

A lesson in Repurposing Content -

I heard an English teacher once say that “Every modern love story is a copy of Shakespeare.” She used Westside Story as an extreme example, stolen from Romeo and Juliet. She went on to challenge us to find a theme that Shakespeare did not cover. But there are those who argue that Shakespeare himself stole content. Who did Shakespeare steal stories from? Well, no one really knows at this point. But if he did borrow some ideas, does that constitute stealing? He took stories and themes and reworked them so eloquently that they became his own. Taking a peak at what people have done in the past and building upon their thoughts and ideas can be a healthy exercise. Adding to the conversation is a good thing. Further, those that we can identify with and build better thoughts with may even thank us. …or not. Matt Cutts may just consider me more of a pest than a pest control guy. I concede. But thanks Matt Cutts for the original Pac-Man Pie Chart idea.

Making Viral Pieces

Do your homework first. Successful viral marketing campaigns don’t just “happen”.  Search out things that have already been done in your vertical. People send the same chain letters over, and over again. In fact, I was shocked just recently to get an email about some scandal 5 years after the first bogus email came through. Yet, the same sensationalism exists, and that email was forwarded and will continue to be forwarded for who knows how long. The point being, if it worked once then it will likely work again. If people liked it before then they will like it again. Weighing human nature into business is part of a winning strategy. Love songs are still sung, and new songs still come. So find something that worked well in the past and do it again. Do it better. You may not be able to judge a viral piece correctly every time, but if you do your homework then you can certainly increase your percentages.

But Don’t mind me, Just a pest control guy… Make it a great day!

-Thomas Ballantyne III
Director of Marketing for Bulwark Exterminating
Follow me on Twitter —> @Thos003

TDL .XXX was announced earlier this year and is now in full swing. Here is the Pre-Registration Schedule

• Sunrise: Available September 7 — October 28, 2011
  • Registration Requires Trademarked Name.
• Sunrise AD: Available September 7 — October 28, 2011
  • Registration Requires registered like domain name.
• Sunrise B: Available September 7 — October 28, 2011
  • Blocking registration requires Trademarked Name.
• Landrush: Available November 8 — November 25, 2011
  • Pre-Registration only requires membership to Sponsored Community. Add ~$100 to registration.
• General Availability: December 6, 2011
  • Still requires membership but available now for all.

Reputation Management Extortion?

The new TLD raises a lot of concerns for individuals especially when it comes to reputation management. For businesses that want to protect their brand and trademark it’s easy enough to purchase a Sunrise Block, which means you are not registering the name blocking it for a price. Feels a bit like brand reputation extortion. As stated in PCWORLD, most registrations are not even in the adult industry, but are purely doing it for trademark protection. The Free Speech coalition reports that those in the industry are saying they don’t want the .XXX TLD.

But the extortion could get even worse. How many other combinations can still be registered for Levi? It’s not just Levi.xxx it’s LeviJeanLess.xxx or LeviButts.xxx. It also raises a lot of legal trademark concerns, since Levi can be an individual’s name, similar to Macy, Lego, Dixies, Mario, Barbie, and Mercedes. Then there is the myriad of brands with common use words and/or names that could slip into .XXX registrations. I am sure someone is just hoping that Bimbo, as the bakers, doesn’t register their name. And the list can go on; Ben-Gay, Butterball, Ben & Jerry, Blow Pop, Cool Whip, Curves, Egg Beaters, Hooters, In-n-Out, Papa Johns, 5 Guys. The other sticky part of this is the question of human names, are they trademark-able? Who gets the right to register the triple X for Jessica Simpson or Rebecca Black? And since Jessica Simpson doesn’t have a federal trademark, she is forced to pay the annual fee for the domain registration. Further, it’s a catch 22 on the registered trademark. If you haven’t already registered your trademark then you are in trouble. If you have, then you get to block for a one time fee, but you still pay annual fees on your registered trademark. Either way, branding is not cheap.

Should Brands Care about .XXX?

My suspicion is that the .XXX TLD won’t even show in the safe search results, regardless of content. The purpose of these domains are clearly stated. So should brands be concerned with registering or blocking the .XXX TLDs? Should individuals care about .XXX registration? Will links from .XXX be helpful? Will a 301 redirect from a .XXX be harmful? Please add your comments.

See:  (he’s just way to clean cut looking in this pic)

Mike Halvorsen needs a stash

Disclaimer: This image is a fake. Not to be taken seriously.

Social Media meets SEM

Internet Marketers are competitive by nature. Clearly if you are wanting to rank 1st on the search engine you have to compete.  SEO’s wish to rule the Social Media world as well. Why? Traffic equals money. Going viral can mean a lot of traffic and a lot of money.  To those that want to profit from the online world they must find ways to slice and dice data to see what activities carry a monetary value. So what do these SEO minded people do? They create measurement and scoring to see how well they do in the Social Media arena. Attach a game to it, make it fun, and gamble a bit.

Does your local market carry a good audience for Social Media?

Check it out, right now you can go find which U.S. cities are the most social media savvy. Social Media Rankings .

And apparently:

“The average New Yorker has nearly twice as many total friends across all social networking sites as business people in Houston.“

Also noted that Phoenix ranks #5 for Twitter use. Props to the home town. …. and #9 for being the rudest city in the US. It is unclear if those are related. Cool survey. Great info. But don’t let over analyzing your potential to make a buck off someone make you a jerk. Looking at people as dollar signs makes you a soulless individual. Granted if you are a marketer you have to be honest about marketing value. And yes there is value to marketing via social media.

Your Pout Score:

Perhaps this is a bit cynical, but what does a social media score really mean? Is that a pat on the back because you have impressed a computer program? If you want to beat yet another computer game then go download angry birds. Your true reach?… Does that count the number of DMs that run through twitter? Entire conversations happen on twitter behind closed doors. Granted, it is cool to put a ticker on how far your voice travels. But are you twittering just to get noticed? Are you gaming for influence? What happened to just keeping it real? Clearly extremes in either direction are bad.

What’s your take?

Do social media scoring systems destroy the social media platform or do they help people realize “hey, I am a big doofus so I need to chill on the twitter-thon”?

Uh… In Spanish? …Bien, Gracias. Bing, how are you?

Well Bing you seem to have a lot more to say. I hope you are not trying to compensate for something else here. I must admit, I am really excited for this interview today. Are you excited?

Not sure why you are on this Spanish kick Google. Excited for school? No. Excited for Christmas? Well who doesn’t like gifts…. uh don’t answer that. Bing?

Interesting, not much to say here from Bing. I didn’t mean to scare you about saying too much.

The question your Search audience is really wondering:

Why are Google Suggest, or Google Autocomplete, and Bing Suggest so different? Granted we understand that Google has ~65% of the search market-share, but even at 10% Bing should have enough numbers that statistically the results should be similar. Bing your thoughts on Google.

I am a little surprised that Bing would admit that “Google is better than Bing.“ It seems that if Bing were trying to manipulate the suggest that they would have removed that suggestion. Google do you agree with Bing on these?

Well, it seems you have your differences here. But again, I see that Google is not removing “Google is gay, and Google is Watching you“ from their suggest. That adds a little trust to the suggest. Although Bing does believe that “Google is Evil.” Overall it seems that this may just be a question of user demographics. Oh.. Sorry Google. Let’s give you a chance to respond on Bing.

Good questions Google, what do you think?

Well I must agree that  Bing is not Google. But Bing is better than Google? Oh I see, your follow up in the results sticks it to them. Well at least more than half the page seems to be in your favor.

Well I think less on the suggest here would have been better for you Bing. Don’t be so hard on yourself, granted Bing is a stupid name. I mean do you really expect someone to say, “Go Bing that?” But it seems both you and Google think of yourselves as awesome. Could that be a manipulation of the suggest tool? So lets ask some simpler questions.

Who?

Very little agreement there between Bing and Google. Simpler?

Is?

There seems to be a few more “gay” suggests in Google.  And “Is there mail on Veterans Day?” Well, that sounds like a senior citizen question. I am going to have to go with the difference is based on age demographics. I mean “Shingles” Bing? Not a very young trendy crowd you are hitting with that one.

But since Google brought up Facebook…

What does Google Suggest about FaceBook?

What does Bing Suggest about FaceBook?

Bing what do you think about Twitter?

Google?

It seems neither of you care much for Twitter. What about politics? Do you agree on Obama?

Hmmm… Obama is a cactus? Now that was a little uncalled for.

Bing your thoughts on Google’s Obama quesitons?

Amazing how each of you suggest that Obama is the antichrist. I never took you for God fearing search engines.

Not sure where Bing pulled out the great Beer. I mean how many people are searching for “God is great beer is good people are crazy”? That didn’t even show up in Google Suggest. Well since we have covered most of the do not ask questions in civil conversation, religion and politics, let’s try getting some real answers. Answers that Matt Cutts won’t even give us.

What does Google Suggest about SEO?

Well thanks for telling us how you really feel.  Bing?

????…. Oh, the politically correct response. Or is that “If you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything at all response”? Come on you’ve got to give us something.  What does Bing suggest about SEO?

Well it seems you have a little common ground on this one after all. Although these suggestions do seem to have a little bias in them. Hard to say really.  Can I dig a deeper and get some comments on Black Hat?

Come on Bing. “Black Hat Cattle Company”? Seriously?

Yes, Google.  Black Hat SEO.  Maybe I should have been more direct.

Smart move Bing, give us as little to work with here as possible.

So just a quick tally on our interview. Add this is just our interview.

Bing Suggest- Max of 8 suggestions per search. But some searches don’t use the max.

Google Suggest – Max of 4 suggestions per search. And Google always wants to suggest 4 and on as many terms as possible.

It seems that Google and Bing only agreed on top two most searches in “How are you”. They matched the top search on three other occasions “Facebook is down”, “Bing is Not Google”, and “SEO is DEAD”.

Per this interview Bing also seems to carry a shorter cache on their suggest, “Veterans day, and Dancing with the Stars.” But perhaps a more aged crowd as well.

More data coming soon but for today…

That’s all folks!

-Thomas Ballantyne
Director of Marketing for Bulwark Exterminating
AKA… @Thos003

How to Use Keywords, the ‘Magic Magnets’ that Pull Consumers
and Journalists to Your Press Releases

When: 3 to 4:10 p.m. Eastern Time

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009

Sign up for the killer press release teleseminar here.

Joan delivers a lot of value. You’ll get a recording of the call, handouts with step by step instructions and 2 videos. The call goes over basic keyword research to find out demand and competition. It is for beginners or those who have no or little understanding of keyword research, anchor text, etc.

The tweet I sent was clearly marked as an ad. I made $9.95 for the click (the advertiser paid roughly double that amount). Not bad. But what I liked more is that the advertiser went to my site and contacted me about writing some press releases. They become a new client.

Now I’m looking into Sponsored Tweets as an advertiser. There are very affordable options for people with large or very targeted networks (here’s a list – celebrity tweeters always come up first unless you choose to hide them. Type in a tag to narrow the list.). Example: Shoemoney (who charges $470.54 a tweet, which has obviously gone up). I believe advertisers can make an offer.

Here’s my Sponsored Tweets page so you can see what advertisers see.

You can write an ad, or let the person write the ad or let them decide. I would give them a tweet but leave the option open for them to change it. Why? To save time for those who want it to be quick and to let the person tweeting change the ad to fit their audience. Put it in their own voice. They must disclose that the tweet is an ad or it won’t be approved.

You can also leave the time open or ask them to send the tweet between certain times. I’d choose to send it out during a time range in the middle of the day.

Next I want to try this as an advertiser. I talked to Sponsored Tweets yesterday and learned more.

• They come up with a price per tweet but the person can raise that amount to whatever they choose.
• The average amount to pay is $15 per tweet. That would mean the person you sponsored gets $7.50.
• There are more than 12,000 people in the database. They have to have at least 200 followers and the account must be at least 4 months old.
• When you refer people you make 10% of what they make. Sort of like an MLM but only one level. If you liked this post, please consider using my link.

What I love most about Sponsored Tweets? It’s easy to use and a quick way to make money if you get an offer that fits your audience. You can get highly relevant ads out very quickly and with a lot less “know how” than Google Adwords.

What I’d like to know is what tags to use – like keyword research to see what 140 characters worth of tags I should put on my profile. The reason this system works is because there is so much transparency and choice on both sides.

If you have a new campaign I suggest giving Sponsored Tweets a try.

Have you tried Sponsored Tweets? What do you think?

Its pretty easy to get started, check out the video tutorial to get started: ** Note, this is my first ever video attempt, and I made it at 3 AM (cause I couldn’t sleep) Enjoy!

Go To: LinkedIn.com/Companies and log in

Click on “add a company” in top right hand corner

Fill out your info and wait for a confirmation email

Here is what the profile page looks like:

Check out all you can edit, and do (look at the right hand area in the middle)

It’s a pretty simple and easy process, and adding your business will get you more exposure, links, traffic etc.yada yada, but we especially love it for the reputation management and branding aspect of it.