Nate posted to his blog a few minutes ago and I’m just reiterating it here. All of our crew at Ascent and Projective Marketing were a bit suprised at this one.
Our network admin sent an email to several Digital Signage companies earlier today. The email contained the following:
The new owners of DigitalSignage.com wish to do a hyperlink exchange with you. If you’re interested in gaining a link on our site for free in exchange for linking to us, please perform the following:
- Place a hyperlink on your site to any place on our site of your choosing (e.g. http://digitalsignage.com/blog, http://digitalsignage.com/content, etc).
- Ensure that the anchor text of the link is “Digital Signage.” If you would like, you can use the attached DigitalSignage.com logo.
- Send us an email at info@digitalsignage.com with the corresponding URL where the DigitalSignage.com link is located.
- Tell us what industry niche you represent. Examples include: hardware, software, networking, content, etc. Give us the reciprocal URL we’ll be placing on DigitalSignage.com for you.
We’ll place your desired link into our Bronze Partners page under your category and respond via email with the corresponding URL. Also, if you have a company blog, please include us on your company’s blogroll and add us to your RSS reader. We look forward to hearing from you.
All of the responses were positive except for this one from Motionstream, the operators of Digital Signage Universe:
From: Motionstream <lionel@motionstream.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: DigitalSignage.com Free Link
To: Digital Signage <info@digitalsignage.com>
It is plainly obvious to us that you are pulling information from the Digital Signage Universe Directory (You would not have gotten this email address any other way) in order to build your own Directory. While we can’t prevent you from doing this, we would strongly recommend that you make your directory “significantly” different from ours, otherwise we will shove a lawyer so far up you’re a**, you wont s*** for a year! Don’t say you weren’t warned, we are keeping a close eye on you!
Best Regards,
Digital Signage Universe
[edited for content]
I’m not going to say anything in response to this other than we gleaned all emails used from the Digital Signage Directory magazine (a magazine we obtained at the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas back in February) and the business cards I picked up at InfoComm.
I’m mostly looking for responses from others on what they think. So, what do you think?
I think it’s very unprofessional. It’s sad that we’re quickly finding out who to do business with and who not to do business with. This goes right along with a blog Nate posted a few days ago.
Well, those who’re familiar with the power and importance of blogging for pagerank and overall online goodness, must be familiar with some of the major blogs out there that feature articles about the digital signage industry. Blogs like Rob Gorrie or Adcentricity, Bill Gerba of Wirespring, Ronnie Guggenheim of Minicom, and Adrian Cotteril of Daily Digital Out of Home (say that ten times fast). My personal blog has had postings on the subject of digital signage for the past year as well.
There is a ton of great information on digital signage out there. One need to only look. I also just read a news blurb in the Digital Signage Magazine where POPAI is doing a digital signage blog that features several of the aforementioned industry leaders. I’m kind of excited for it. So, all those bloggers out there seeking to find the next river to float in the digital signage industry. Keep it up. I’m thoroughly enjoying the posts.
Digital Signage, is taking the advertising industry by storm. Within the last 3-5 years digital signage has made its mark, becoming one of the most effective forms of advertising world. With prices of computers and flat panel screens dropping, digital signage companies have now enabled any small business owner to benefit from the available technology. The ability to reach target audiences with digital signage has never been so easy.
Digital Signage has been growing at a rate of 44% annually and is surpassing all traditional advertising mediums. For example, digital signage is taking the place of traditional television advertising due to the increased use of the DVR (digital video recorders) and or Tivo’s. The ability for televisions views to skipping commercials after recording their favorite shows. This has eliminated the number of views of cable TV commercials, causing national companies to waist millions of dollars on TV commercials. National companies are now looking for innovative ways to advertise, which has lead them to set budgets directly focused on digital signage.
The digital signage industry is designing to avoid needless clutter, and to zero in on the end user. Known to advertisers as in home advertising. The digital signage screens advertise products and services for which the screens are located. For example, if you owned your own dental office you would be able to advertise your specific services such as lumineers or Invisalign. Increasing customer awareness in house, and up selling products and services at point of purchase has never been so easy. Digital signage screens focus on entertaining and educating those in waiting rooms, while ultimately eliminating perception of wait time.
Thus the question, why don’t more waiting rooms have digital?
I just read an interesting article that appeared a couple of days ago in the New York times. It was talking about the tracking devices that are being installed by TruMedia on the Adspace Network. They are rolling with a bunch of them on the Adspace Network across the country.
The devices are very useful. Essentially what they do is measure traffic and are able to tell what the gender is to a high degree of accuracy for people walking by the digital screens. The great thing is that the information is not only stored, but reported back so the company real-time. It is able to get an accurate reading of how many, who, what, when etc. for each screen locale. This makes the measurement problems for ROI and traffic common among digital signage networks decrease substantially. There’s one problem: people are skeptical.
It’s almost like the people who saw their house posted on Google “street view” and wanted to sue Google. People do not like to be invaded. And although the company claims that actual photographs are not taken and reported back, the digital screens seem like a type of “big brother.” So, if you’re ever walking by a digital signage screen and have an uneasy feeling like you’re being followed, don’t worry about it in the slightest. It’s probably just a crowd tracking device. I guess if you really want to mess with big brother you can just make faces. Who knows it might think you’re a woman if you scrunch your face together enough. Then maybe the screen will report back some lingerie images. Who knows. It may be worth a try.
I’ve been waiting for some stats like this for a while. Today, I stumbled upon them at aka.tv.
Research results from Prime Digital Media and Sigma, owners of the Wellbeing digital signage network in Australian pharmacies, are reporting an effective 20% sales increase for products promoted through the channel.
The results are based on a month long research study carried out by Galaxy Research and Sigma audited point-of-sale data. The pharmacies selected to carry out the research were spread geographically across Australia - and no additional point-of-sale promotions or catalogues were placed in the pharmacies while the research was being undertaken.
Sigma and PDM are one of the first companies in Australia to release tangible research about the effects of digital media advertising in Australia.
This is great news that will help to increase the viability and credibility of the effectiveness of digital signage. Studies like these are invaluable in the promotion of out-of-home media.
Do you remember the old rhetoric, “what’s in a name?….Everything!” A truism like that will not fade. It’s the same with today, except with keywords. When it comes to searching, it’s all about the keywords, honey. There ain’t nothing more important than relevant, keyword-rich, content, that webcrawlers and people both enjoy.
So, figure out what people are searching for in Google Trends or something similar. Or, go to Google Adwords and search for keywords there and find what type are being searched and who is searching for them. Once obtained, this information can be very valuable to any individual wishing to make a presence on the internets.
Now, let’s talk about these “key phrases.” You may say the exact precise key phrase or keyword over and over again in your blog entries, but so what. If you simply repeat the same phrase over and over, human beings aren’t going to want to read you. Worst yet, if you’re utilizing and placing keywords without putting in relevant hyperlinks (and, I mean relevant hyperlinks), then your keyword placement was in vain. So, in your attempts to increase page rank, make sure you’re sticking to the basics of optimization.
The Future of Keywords.
Who knows what will be in store for the future of the keyword. I think we are hitting an age when advertising and communication will all be done via a wireless connection on mobile PDAs. This is just a personal opinion. I predict that keywords via SMS will have just as much sway as standard keywords. Google Mobile is a great example of this. I love it. It’s such a great resource. Yes, short code keywords will continue to be a great resource but also a great cost for consumers.
We are, sadly enough, a society of piecemeal eaters when it comes to information. This is why companies such as Twitter have made such an immediate impact on the economy. Keywords are like political soundbites. They sound cool, but are they more than just fluff? I submit no. Because in the world of the keyword, people are all about short, sweet, and to the point. Even if the Google search bar were an inch longer, I still don’t think I’d fill it up with text. Keywords, and key phrases are so important. Let’s not forget. Happy Keyword placement everyone!
P.S. Can you tell how much keyword hyperlinking I tried to place in this post?
When it comes to riding in taxi cabs, I’m a foreigner. I think I did it once when a friend of mine was desperate to go to the mall with his girlfriend. As for me, I’d rather walk. I guess that just shows my frugality (or cheapness, whichever you prefer). Taxis, however, are a very highly utilized form of transportation, especially for the more affluent. Take the following statistics for instance:
- New York City has 240 million high income passengers per year.
- Those passengers gross over $1.8 billion (with a “B”) annually.
That’s a whole lot of clams! Now, let’s think for a moment about the possibilities for taxi advertising. We see ads on the top of taxis. But what about advertisements for the paying customer inside? This is where taxi digital signage will be so effective. Think for a minute of a small LCD placed strategically behind the headrest of the front seat of the taxi. Let’s hook that puppy up to an internet powered digital signage network.
Now we’ve got something powerful. Here’s the best part. These high profile execs riding in the cabs will also be able to mooch free wireless from the aircard powering the signage. The internet in this case is also supported by advertising. Boyah! So,
Taxi GPS
Wireless GPS devices also offer the cab drivers navigation and real-time traffic reports. Can you think of the benefits here? Of course, as the cost of gas continues to increase, this feature alone can save the cabbies boatloads over the annual aggregate. A Taxi GPS system also offers the taxi company tracking and time management tools for both drivers and vehicles. Taxi signage may not be a new concept, but it can be implemented easily and effectively as a way for taxi, digital signage, and advertising companies to increase their revenues. You can advertise on such a network, or establish your own.
I just read a super duper interesting article on All Things SEM. It talked about the viral, yet non-sustaining nature Twitter has created. Among the reasons for Twitter’s eventual demise are the following
- Twits are not valuable (after writing that sentence, I laughed…so true! The less Twits the better). The argument is that posts to Twitter, although entertaining, do not offer anything of value for the consumer reading them.
- Twits are transient. Emails give you a solid way to keep and communicate. Blogs allow you to come and go as you please and to get information by searching in a search engine. Twits on the other hand are too short for anything relevant and can be easily bumped and therefore unseen by other readers because of the next batch of Twits posted.
- 140 characters isn’t enough to say anything relevant anyway. When you have to send 20 SMS text messages to get your point across, it ain’t worth it!
- It’s a waste of time. You can find yourself going through ridiculous amounts of Twits and not realizing you wasted over two hours. The sad thing is that during that time you were reading, but nothing of consequence was in anything you read.
- Too many people. It’s impossible to keep up with everyone on there once the numbers get large enough. The argument is that, once the crowd talking gets large enough, you’ll only really pay attention to those you associated with previous to Twitter anyway. Too many people in a conversation will make you disinterested.
- You’ve a higher chance of being ignored when you post a response on Twitter than you do on a blog. This may be partly due to the aforementioned reasons. Whatever the reason, one way conversations simply about what you’re doing gets old.
Now, I can see from Marios’ point of view why these things may be true. I want to address a couple of them though and talk about how I think Twitter is beneficial. First, it’s viral and addictive. He gives the reason that it’s a waste of time. Well, so is television and 99% of what’s online. It doesn’t mean companies have not found a way to monetize those digital media mediums. I know plenty of people who waste hours a day on Facebook and yet Facebook is still worth billions according to investors. So, if “time wasting” on the consumers’ side means “lack of value” on the business side, we’re all in big trouble.
Second, too many people on there may be an issue, but it’s great for Twitter. Google released an article sometime ago where they talked about traffic being power. The more eyes you have looking at your wares, the greater chance you have for conversion and revenue.
Finally, just think for a second about viral, waste of time activities where money is being made. I wrote an article a while back about Twitter’s advertising testing. If they find a way to get people connected virally and use that virality to serve up some ads in the process, then it’s genius! Who knows, maybe Marios is right and maybe the model is not sustainable. Only time will tell if the Twits will last.
I remember watching an episode of Sienfeld where George is driving around New York looking for a place to park. I can’t remember who was with him, but whoever it was suggested that he just find a paid parking space. George jabbed back with, “that’s like prostitution. Why would I pay for something I could get for free if I just apply myself.” This applies well to backlinks to your website. Do Work Son I recently posted an article about the benefit of posting comments to blogs. In the article I spoke of the necessity of creating as many backlinks as possible for the spiders to pick up. This is where reading, and posting relevant content to high profile blogs becomes important. This is where the work is. So, if you’re interested in increasing your site’s rank on the major search engines, then start commenting. There is one problem, however. If the site you’re commenting on does not allow noFollow links. If this is the case, the spiders will not be able to archive your site’s URL in the search engine. This is a problem. doFollow vs. noFollow
dofollow A website can direct a search engine spider to follow a link that appears on it. The idea being that the target website’s ranking will influence the website indexed. dofollow attribute values are most often used on user generated sites whose traffic is not super high. nofollow A website can direct a search engine spider not to follow a link that appears on it. The idea being that the target website’s ranking will not influence the website indexed. nofollow attribute values are most often used on sites with user generated content, like user comments and blogs.
So, what can you do about noFollow links? Nothing really. You can try to avoid them as much as possible. How do you know if a site has a noFollow plugin installed? Well, if it’s a super high traffic blog, chances are it does. Some of the backlink trackers show whether or not the site that is linked to you has a noFollow plugin installed. The sad thing is that this usually does not change the fact that these high traffic sites still get just as many spamming messages sent to their comments folder. However, it does change the fact that your website will not be linked to the site you’ve posted on. In fact, as I was thinking about all this I just happened to read an article yesterday by Brian Chappell outlining the problem with purchasing links perfectly (I call this link prostitution).
The following are 9 reasons you should be worried if you are buying links:
1. You are buying links through a network
2. You are buying links in chunks, 3-5 at a time on one page.
3. You are buying all your links on sidebar, footer locations.
4. Your entire niche buys links.
5. Your site sucks, as in no one in there right mind would naturally link to you.
6. All of your links have perfectly, articulated anchor text that simply looks fake.
7. You are not a 300+ Million dollar brand name.
8. You are doing really, really well in the SERPS, and rank in the top spot for a majority of the money terms.
9. 70+ % of your sites traffic comes from Google organic results
So, while buying links may be unnecessary, link exchanging and blog commenting is very necessary. It’s just super important that you make it effective by ensuring the site you are on allows doFollow backlinks. Good luck and happy SEO blogging.
“Physorg has a paper comparing the cost of text messaging versus the cost of getting data from Hubble Space Telescope. From the article: ‘The maximum size for a text message is 160 characters, which takes 140 bytes because there are only 7 bits per character in the text messaging system, and we assume the average price for a text message is 5p. There are 1,048,576 bytes in a megabyte, so that’s 1 million/140 = 7490 text messages to transmit one megabyte. At 5p each, that’s $732.95 per MB — or about 4.4 times more expensive than the ‘most pessimistic’ estimate for Hubble Space Telescope transmission costs.” “Hubble is by no means a cheap mission — but the mobile phone text costs were pretty astronomical!”"
