Internet Marketing Blog

DC Comics Publishes In Digital

June 23, 2010 – 4:09 pm

Comic lovers now have another contender in the interactive media marketplace.  DC Comics, the publisher of several comics such as Superman, Batman, and the Green Lantern, is taking their collection online and into the mobile application world.  According to Douglas Wolk of Techland, they have inked a deal with comiXology for mobile applications.  They are also using The Playstation Network, giving themselves options to experiment with their campaign.  Some other interesting notes from Wolk’s article include:

Tiered pricing format:  Similar to book publishing, the digital comic book marketplace is a new frontier to test consumer demand.  Wolk speculates that the price range runs from 99 cents to $2.99.  Reports indicate that the consumer predilection for print in the comic industry will prevail, but a lower digital price would help attract tweens and teenagers not as privy to the culture. One writer thumbs his nose at the multiple price points, but it is a work in progress for print industry in general. Patience is in order.

Direct Market Affiliate Program:  The objective of affiliate marketing for DC Comics is not totally clear.  Wolk suggests that it wants to get merchants involved by urging application users to buy the print copy through a button.  It seems counterproductive for such an ambitious online advertising campaign, but noble.

Playstation Network Digital Comics: Is there a demand for inanimate comics on a game system?  Marvel has been doing this for awhile, but it seems odd to me.

All in all, the interactive campaign is ambitious, but may need some polish to truly reach its potential.  The comic book marketplace is also full of fastidious consumers who value tangibility in their search of products, like toys and past prints.  Can digital formats draw up another dimension?

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Marketing, online advertising | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner Marketing, comic books, Content Marketing, dc comics, dc comics goes digital, interactive content, iphone apps, Mobile Applications, new york interactive marketing agency, playstation network

7 Pillars Briefing: Affiliate Marketing

April 30, 2009 – 9:00 am

Posted by Arman Rousta
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, blog | No Comments »
Tags: Affiliate Marketing, cost per acquisition, CPA advertising, interactive agency, Interactive Marketing

Social Media Marketing: Lessons from a Matchmaker

January 8, 2008 – 12:41 pm

Match.com is the latest Corporation to try it’s hand at the the world of Facebook

Match.com’s latest attempt to generate a wider social media user base has made big news, but faces even bigger challenges. In what objective social media experts might call a match (har!) made in interactive heaven, Match.com has created a Facebook application which pulls user data from a Facebook profile and, with help from Match.com’s algorithms, identifies potential matches. 99 cents unlocks the user data and contact info for those matches (“Match.com Integrates with Facebook“).

The devil, or potentially devastating flaw, for this program is in the details. The application fails to stipulate whether it matches you with other Facebook users or other Match.com profiles. Then, when the application sets you up, it pulls little or no data from your profile. Email address and name are automatically picked up, but most meaningful data must be manually entered. It also costs money to contact potential matches using the application. As other Facebook application writers have discovered, wildly popular Facebook applications are intuitive, simple, easy to implement, and FREE.

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Posted by Arman Rousta
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Graphic Design, Social Media Marketing, Website Design, blog | 1 Comment »
Tags: application design, branding design, facebook, Match.com, networking, programming, social media, social networking

What Internet Marketing Activists Know About Marketing

December 3, 2007 – 1:44 pm

How do animal rights activists relate to your interactive marketing plan? Well, they may just have the secret for making your site a smash success in the virtual sector. Let me explain

Camille Hankins of Brooklyn, NY, runs an animal rights group, called Win Animal Rights (WAR). The group has made it a mission to close down animal testing laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences, and towards that end, they have pursued and protested professionals even slightly associated with the company, like the former VP of the stock exchange where its stocks are traded or the general council for a Huntingdon customer. WAR’s success at finding individuals to target, not to mention its very survival, is owed largely to the prevalence of cell phones and the power of the internet.

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Posted by Arman Rousta
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Website Design, blog, online advertising | 2 Comments »
Tags: Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, Interactive Marketing, internet, Internet Marketing, marketing planning, social media, virtual marketing

Cyber Monday: An eCommerce Holiday At Last

November 29, 2007 – 1:08 pm

It’s made a splash for online merchants across the virtual marketplace, but many still aren’t on board. Are you?

For the uninitiated, “Cyber Monday” takes place on the Monday after Thanksgiving. It is the internet retailer’s answer to the legendary discounts, high sales volume, and shopping frenzy of “Black Friday,” which has become as much an element of the holiday season as turkey on Thanksgiving and a tree for Christmas. Although the crowds willing to truck out at ridiculous hours of the morning to spend ridiculous amounts of money in an effort to get ridiculous savings make news every year, a significant portion of the population has no interest in battling cars, angry shoppers, and frazzled sales people for the “best deals of the year.”

For these people, who include my own mother and father, the internet community has developed Cyber Monday. Discounts offered on Cyber Monday may not be as dramatic as those offered on Black Friday, but they are significant enough to get renegade office workers, with Christmas shopping on their minds, to spend an hour or two on the first day back at work after Thanksgiving ordering gifts. Deals include 20% off select styles at jewelry site Ice.com, free shipping on toys at Walmart.com and Target.com, or discounts as deep as 30% off of GPS systems, televisions, and other electronics from retail chain Meijer’s newly built web portal.

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Posted by Arman Rousta
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Website Design, blog, eCommerce, online advertising | No Comments »
Tags: black friday, cyber monday, deals, eCommerce, Holiday Shopping, holidays, Internet Marketing, internet retail, online advertising, promotions

Promotions: Succeed Without Attracting the Nightmare Customer

October 31, 2007 – 3:29 pm

Ahh promotions: classic tool in the proverbial shed of the seasoned advertiser, bastion of customer relations, and possessor of the rare talent for making customers feel simultaneously like a pampered VIP and triumphant bargain hunter. They get people in the store, on your site, or on the phone, and will usually raise both revenues and profits, provided you haven’t given away the store

But there is a dark side to this classic force in the galaxy of marketing. Falsely advertised promotions, dud codes, and hidden expiration dates too often result in the rearing of that most feared of all animals: the angry customer. This nightmare figure of your public relations department can take a few different forms.

Frankenstein: The Loud Customer

On the bright side, Frankensteins have no qualms about unleashing frustration on those around them. They do whatever it takes to tell you what’s wrong, often leaving a scattered path of battered sales people and bruised managers in their wake. These customers are the real deal hunters who purchase because they’ve shopped approximately 250,536 different offers, compared all possible competitors, read every word of fine print (with a magnifying glass if necessary), and spent all waking moments of the past two weeks strategizing for how best to take advantage of your offer. They usually succeed in getting what they want through a combination of stubbornness and threats. I’m that type of customer. When a Bed, Bath, and Beyond rebate was advertised in a local paper after the expiration date, I called customer service and demanded my check. They graciously complied, and I commend their customer service system for it.

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Posted by Arman Rousta
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Small Business, blog, online advertising | No Comments »

Connecting Clients to Customers through Social Media Optimization

October 18, 2007 – 8:25 am

Every few years major changes take place on the internet and often times this is driven by the way the internet is used. A major shift in the use of the internet has been taking place. The shift is one of transformation from finding information through search engines and buying things through portals to one where people turn to other people for their recent in depth knowledge of an issue or experience buying a product.

The balance of power is shifting away from search engines and moving heavily towards social media companies. Many people now expect that a Search Marketing Industry Shake-up is Imminent. Google actually finds itself in a precarious position as a company attempting to protect old revenue streams resulting from search, while simultaneously moving into new social media territories that make Google Search as we know it obsolete.

How Does Social Media Marketing work?

If you had a good experience with a realtor, and a friend asks you, “Do you know a good realtor?” Odds are you might tell them about your experience and the name of the realtor. Offline this is as old as money, possibly as old as bartering, its called word of mouth. Online when a person shares their experience about a good or even a bad experience, its called social media marketing.

Maybe you have heard the funny spin on how you identify Marketing.

The That’s Marketing Analogy goes something like this:

• You go up to an attractive person at a party and say, “I’m Great in Bed!” -> Direct Marketing
• Your friend goes up to an attractive person at a party, points at you and says, that you are Great in Bed -> That’s Advertising
• You get an attractive person’s phone number and call them the next day, telling them that you are great in bed -> That’s Telemarketing
• You go up to an attractive person at a party, socialize pour them a drink, and flirt a little -> Public Relations
• You are at a party an attractive person walks up to you and says that they hear that you are great in bed -> That’s Brand Recognition

Now these can definitely get wackier than that if you want to see what a sales rep or tech support or even junk mail might be like in this analogy.

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Posted by Arman Rousta
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Blog Marketing, Email Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Website Analytics, blog | 2 Comments »

Virtual EcomXpo (E-Commerce Expo) Kicks Off Tomorrow

October 8, 2007 – 9:57 am

Tomorrow, is the start of the EcomXpo.  This is a virtual online trade show that takes place every six months.  Maybe your feet are weary from attending too many trade shows where you walk a concrete conference room floor for hours going booth to booth to booth picking up a bunch of junk and trinkets your kids don’t even want only to speak with actors or models that don’t know the first thing about the company they’re representing. 

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Posted by Arman Rousta
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Interactive PR, Social Media Marketing, blog, online advertising | 1 Comment »