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I’ve read two interesting interviews involving Guy Kawasaki today. The first one is a discussion about blogging with Guy interviewing Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net, in the other one Guy is interviewed by Lee Odden of the Online Marketing Blog, also on the subject of blogging and social media:
Excerpt from first interview:
Question: How much can a blogger, assuming she is working hard and creating good content, really make?
Answer: The vast majority of those who blog don’t even consider the idea of making money from their blogs. They blog for fun, to keep in touch with family and friends, as a hobby and as a result making money doesn’t enter their minds (and in most cases it shouldn’t because making money from personal blogs is an uphill battle).
When it comes to bloggers who are in it for the money, the sad reality is that most don’t make a lot. Last time I surveyed my readers at ProBlogger about their monthly earnings the majority were earning very little (49% said that they earned under $100 a month). Many of these are new bloggers (ProBlogger has a very large percentage of it’s readers in their first months of blogging) but unfortunately even many mare experienced bloggers don’t earn much despite working hard and writing good content. …
You’re no stranger to marketing and promotion and the “brand of Guy Kawasaki” is known world wide. What tips do you have for online marketers that want to stand out from the crowd?
The only tip that really matters is this: “Market something good.” That’s the secret. It’s very hard to market a piece of crap. It’s very easy to market something good. I believe all marketing is based on good products and services.
Yahoo has seen many ups and downs in the past weeks. After Carl Icahn launched a proxy campaign against the search engine company last week, it seems that Yahoo gets a chance to get back up again:
Reuters reports that Microsoft has proposed an alternative deal to Yahoo. Apparently, MSFT is not interested in a full acquisition of YHOO anymore, but there might be other ways to work together. Many believe a search advertising joint venture to be a likely alternative, because both companies are looking to gain on market leader Google. At least, a partnership could help Yahoo fight off Icahn’s proxy battle.
However, Reuters quotes an anonymous source saying that the announcement of a possible Microsoft/Yahoo partnership could possibly provoke quite a contrary reaction:
The software giant’s move on Sunday was likely to prompt the billionaire investor to press Yahoo to further pursue a possible alliance with Google (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the source said.
“Microsoft is trying to get the milk without buying the cow, and if you look at Icahn’s history, he has never been used that way,” said this person. “He does not want to see Yahoo pushed into some joint venture with Microsoft and is not going to be used to push Yahoo into it.”
News of CBS Corp. going to acquire CNet Networks Inc. came as a surprise, but the $1.8 billion deal has not been closed yet. Quite the contrary, because CNet could get a modified go-shop provision into its merger agreement with CBS. A go-shop provision allows the company that is to be bought to go out and look for higher bidders for a limited period of time, usually no longer than 60 days after the merger agreement has been signed.
IT expert to lead 1&1 web hosting - Andreas Gauger steps down after 13 years
Today 1&1 Internet Inc. announced Oliver Mauss has been appointed the new CEO of 1&1 Internet Inc., as well as of the company’s subsidiaries in UK, France and Spain. In his new position, Oliver Mauss is in charge of 1&1’s international web hosting operations. He succeeds Andreas Gauger, who decided to step down from his position as Chairman of the Board after 13 years.
Previously, Oliver Mauss worked for Vodafone Group for over 10 years, most recently as the Global Director of Business Product Marketing. Before that he held positions in product management and business development at telecommunication companies o.tel.o and RWE Telliance. Oliver Mauss holds a Ph.D. in Communications Engineering from the University of Aachen, Germany.
Andreas Gauger founded web hosting provider, Schlund + Partner in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1995. Three years later, 1&1 Internet acquired Schlund + Partner and in 1999, Andreas Gauger was appointed Chairman of the Board. Within a short time, Andreas Gauger has led 1&1 to become one of the world’s leading web hosts, by defining a standard for user-friendly and cost-effective web hosting solutions and by developing and directing 1&1’s successful international expansion strategy. With more than 10 million hosted domain names, 1&1 today is the leading provider for hosting personal and business websites.
As reported by AdAge, online advertising revenue reached $21.1 billion in 2007. This marks a 26% increase over 2006, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau’s and PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ annual report of ad spending.
This big jump in revenue pushed web ad spending past radio and, more surprisingly, cable. Cable ad revenue was “only” $20.9 billion. The often cited migration of advertising dollars to the Internet will continue in the future, possibly at an increased rate.
Apparently there is not only domain name squatting, also frequently referred to as cybersquatting or typosquatting, but username squatting too. Most companies do not open an account under their company name at the popular social networking sites, and that’s why about every well-known business name has been taken by users now infringing on the respective companies’ trademarks.
Yahoo’s board of directors responded to Carl Icahn, who has been going to replace Yahoo’s board in order to bring the company back to Microsoft for a possible merger. Roy Bostock, chairman of the Yahoo board, said in a letter to Icahn that Carl Icahn was wrong about the fact why Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo had failed and that he should therefore not be allowed to take over Yahoo’s board. He also said it was in the best interest of Yahoo’s shareholders to not allow Icahn and his nominees to take control of Yahoo, because Microsoft had abandoned the negotiations with Yahoo and there was no acquisition offer on the table anymore.
Yesterday Google added some new features to YouTube Insight, the free video analytics tool available to YouTube publishers. The most interesting feature is the demographics tool, which can display the view count broken down by age, gender and geographic location. This allows publishers to better analyze who is watching their videos, hence allowing them to create more compelling content to meet their viewers’ needs.
Just watched an interesting video post from ProBlogger on the future of blogging. ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse was asked what he thought would be emerging trends in blogging. He said that there were five important trends he had been observing, namely:
Multiple-author blogs
Multi-topic blogs
Blogs converging with other types of sites
Portal-like design
Indirect monetization
As you will see, the bigger domain industry blogs are already following some of these trends. For example, DomainNews.com and DomainNameNews.com are multi-author blogs, most domain blogs are converging with web 2.0 sites too, and a couple of bloggers are indirectly monetizing their blogs by offering their own services and expertise to readers.
Only a few days after BPHG Media launched the project for its one-word generic domain Prices.com, another company is planning to bring its domain to the next level. Time Inc. is going to relaunch its Health.com portal on Monday. The site was not much more than a so-called brochure site before, which means that it was barely more than the online destination of a Time Inc. health magazine and it did not feature enough original online content or web 2.0 features to compete with other popular websites in the lucrative health sector.
IT expert to lead 1&1 web hosting - Andreas Gauger steps down after 13 years
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