Apple Talks To Verizon

Apple and Verizon are in talks of creating an iPhone type device for Verizon. The New York Times and USA Today have both claimed this product could roll out as early as next year. The device could be called the "iPhone lite" and be smaller and thinner than the current cell phone.

According to secret sources, this would be a device that's smaller than the Kindle however have a larger touchscreen and enable people to listen to music, view photos, and watch high-definition videos.

New AdWords UI a Hit

The release of the new user interface for Google AdWords is in most areas a large improvement from the previous interface. The question is, how easy will it be for AdWords users to transition to the new interface? Well, if you use AdWords Editor, the transition will be virtually seamless. The new interface is structured almost identically to AdWords Editor and gives more features with less clicks than the previous interface.

Some of the key improvements include

• Viewing all ad groups, ads, keywords, or placements at once - now you see all the keywords in your account without drilling through campaigns and ad groups, allowing you to quickly find that keyword that is driving up your overall conversion cost.
  
• "See Search Terms" button replaces the need to run a search query report. You can use this on selected keywords or all keywords and it returns all of the phrases searched that resulted in clicks. With the results, you can easily add phrases or add negative keywords to your list simply by clicking the check box next to each phrase.

There are a number of other improvements expected as the new UI continues to mature. All in all, I give the new interface a thumbs up.

The Twitter Beginner's Guide - - plus Meet the Founders of Twitter

We have been getting a ton of questions about how to Twitter. So we wrote the Twitter Beginner's Guide, Ten Tips How to Use Twitter for Business and Personal Branding.

For a deeper understanding of where Twitter came from and where they are going here are two recent videos from the Co-Founders. Biz Stone reveled that they are "Building Value and in the Future they will Build Revenue, with testing to commence this year"

Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone on Stephen Colbert's show:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Biz Stone
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Gay Marriage Commercial

Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams at the Amazing TED Conference:

What's Next on the Internet? I'd love to get your input. Please comment.

I am writing a new keynote internet marketing presentation and I'd love your help. What's Hot? What's up Next for Internet Marketing? What will we all be doing online next year?

As always, I'll credit you on our podcast, blog, presentations etc. for good ideas.

Here some of the themes I am working with so far.

- Everybody is Famous to 15 People (Social Media Micro Marketing)
- Everything Open Source
- Micro Communications (RSS, Twitter)
- Making Social Media Make Money
- Customer Service as the new Marketing Department (examples @RichardatDell, @NetSolCares)
- Free! (Free Software, Google Tools)
- Virtual Worklife (Meetings, Work, Training becomes virtual)
- Web Celebrities (Ashton Kutcher first to 1M Twitter followers, Obama’s Social Media Success)
- Video Video Video (video is super hot for communicating, branding, conversion, traffic etc.)
- Semantic Web (Computer artificial intelligence better finding information)
- Consumer Journalism (A Twitter picture broke the US Airways Jet in The Hudson River story)

Awesome Free Seminar - Find out what's coming next in Internet Marketing

The internet has become the essential hub for all business and personal communications. Sign up now for a FREE Webinar Thought Leaders Forum - What's Next in Internet Marketing on Thursday, April 30th at 12:30 EST to find out what is coming next in online marketing from some of the top names in the online marketing arena.

The All-Star Panel will include the following Internet Marketing Gurus:
- Jay Berkowitz, Keynote Speaker and Author of the Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing
- Rohit Bhargava, Marketing Blogger and Author of "Personality Not Included"
- Maria Harrison, Interactive Marketing Genius
- Jim Kukral, The Biz Web Coach
- Search expert Joe Laratro
- Multi-Million dollar internet entrepreneur David McInnis Founder of PRWeb and People Pond
- Facebook Goddess Mari Smith
- Web Semantics expert Richard Stanton, CEO of Bintro.com

What you will learn:

* Why is there so much buzz about Twitter and how can I make it work for me?
* What are top strategies for marketing your business online?
* How to use social media websites for business?
* What is the future for Google and search marketing?
* What are the best approaches to market your personal brand?

Click here to Sign up now for the FREE Webinar Thought Leaders Forum - What's Next in Internet Marketing on Thursday, April 30th at 12:30 EST.

Get on Google for Your Famous Name

Having trouble infiltrating the first page of Google for your name because you share it with someone a bit more notable? I'm sure the Lindsay Lohan that lives in Bryantsville, KY does. Don't worry Lindsay, by filling out a Google profile, you will be able to show yourself on the first page of Google when your name is searched.

Google is adding an 11th result to the first page of people searches. This consists of the name, a thumbnail mugshot, city, state, and company information of four people that have that name or one very similar.

Of course, according to Google, the goal is to allow people some control over their search engine presence. Thanks Google, I'm sure that getting more people to fill out Google profiles so you know even more about them personally is just a side effect.

Using The Right Avatar to Promote Your Personal Brand

When it comes to a having a social media profile, you can’t avoid uploading an avatar. An avatar is a photo that represents you. Majority of the time, the size of an avatar ranges from 125x125 or 80x80, but usually it’s in the form of a square. Most people don’t realize that it’s important to use an avatar, but it is very important.

It is best to use an avatar of your face. Also, if you really want to stand out, you can add something that also represents you, perhaps a color that represents you or your brand. If you want to succeed in social media as an individual, it's better to use your own picture in an avatar, rather than a company logo. A company logo as an avatar is best to represent the company, not so much a person who works in the company.

Not familiar with Photoshop but you have a photo you’d want to use as your avatar? There is a useful website that helps you create an avatar for the website you want to use it on. MyPictr.com allows you to upload a photo and crop it to your liking, while keeping the correct dimensions for the social media website of your choice. Popular networks include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace and more.

Optimize Your Landing Pages

When managing a pay per click campaign, monitoring click through rates is a good way to assess the effectiveness of your ads. Another important measure is conversion rate as it can be used to assess the effectiveness of your landing pages. Optimizing your landing pages is the best way to increase your conversion rates and lower your cost per acquisition. Here are a few tips to improve landing pages:

1. Relate the headline to your ad copy
   Something in the ad inspired the user to click on it. The landing page should convey to the user at first glance that they are in the right place.
2. Keep it simple
   Don't try to impress anyone with fancy graphics all over the place. Keep the page as simple as possible so the user is not distracted from the call to action. Outline the value proposition in a few bullet points rather than in paragraph form.
3. Use buttons with a strong call to action
   Don't use words like "Submit" on the action button. Instead make the button a call to action with a phrase like "Try It Now".
4. TEST
   Don't expect to launch the perfect landing page on the first try. Layout a few different versions with slightly different layouts, headlines, or calls to action. Test these landing pages using the same keywords and ad copy to see which one converts the best.
   

Do We Care About Newspapers?

Todd Defren ran an informal poll and started a very intellectual thread in his blog called Nobody Cares About Newspapers. Some of my favorite bloggers including Chris Brogan, Richard Binhammer and CC Chapman contributed to the conversation.



Most of us care about newspapers. However the function they provide is slowly being broken apart and assumed by other mediums. Here's a few of my thoughts about Newspapers and the Newspaper industry.

The internet has disintermediated (removed the middleman) for hundreds of industries or functions within businesses. Do you remember when you used to book flights through a travel agent? Or buy music at a record store?

Search engines (Google) and RSS feeds have disintermediated the delivery of news function of the newspapers. Every day a smaller portion of us read a paper newspaper and a huge portion get their news online or on our mobile device in a format we have customized for ourselves.

In his blog post, Defren mentions the pleasure of ‘taking his New York Times out to his deck’. The Amazon Kindle threatens to disintermediate the portability and readability of news. All that will be left for those of us over the age of 30 may be the nostalgic tactile feel of turning newspaper pages.

Chris Brogan highlighted the future of journalism in Twittering about Defren's post. The remaining asset the newspapers own is Trust (although this is constantly in question) an independent source of trusted journalism. I believe that in order to survive, the Newspaper industry must reinvent itself and nurture ‘authority’ and ‘trust’ and learn to deliver it in a Kindle/iPhone world.

Affiliate Advertisers Beware

Some shady tactics have recently been catching on among affiliate publishers to generate lead volume. If you advertise through affiliate networks, now would be a good time to ramp up your tracking efforts to make sure you are receiving quality leads.

Because of the high unemployment rate, people are looking very hard for jobs. Affiliate publishers are taking full advantage of this misfortune by providing job seekers with false hope in order to acquire their personal information. They are doing this by posting job listings on Craigslist and other classified ad platforms that require potential candidates to fill out offers as a "test" to get a job as a "website functionality tester". The forms they are given to fill out are in fact those of the advertiser, qualifying as a valid lead. Of course this fraudulent tactic not only hurts the advertisers by forcing them to pay for false leads, it also hurts the job seeker by wasting their precious job-hunting time filling out forms that will provide no benefit to them.

If you are advertising through an affiliate program, dig deep into your tracking system to see how leads are being generated to ensure you are not a victim of this popular new trend. If you are looking for a job, think twice before taking any "tests" to become a website functionality tester.

Google Chrome 3D...April Fools!

As a daily Google Chrome user, I was excited to hear about Google Chrome with 3D. That is until I tried to print out my 3D glasses and realized there were no lenses!

Maybe I was a little more gullible than most - but the 3D web browser proved to be a success, both increasing exposure and downloads of the Google browser. 

Users were prompted to download "Google Chrome with 3D" in order to bridge the gap between the 2D online world and the 3D real world. The page even features testimonials, screenshots of the browser and photos of users wearing the printable glasses. 

This made the page look legitimate and resulted in a ton of downloads of the special version of Google Chrome on April 1st. As more and more people caught on to the joke, the news began to flood the blogosphere, increasing Chrome's exposure worldwide.

You can read more about Google's Fool on the Chrome Blog.

Combine Twitter Search Into Your Google Search Results

Twitter Search is definitely useful, especially if you want to see what people are talking about on a specific subject, or even your brand. There are a couple of Firefox plug ins that allow you to integrate Twitter Search with your Google Search Results.

If you're a Firefox user like I am, you probably already know about the countless plugins that you can use to make your browser experience a lot better, efficient and easier.

There's a plugin called Twitter Search Results on Google that displays the 5 most recent tweets based on your search query. It shows up right before your search results.

There is also Google Twitter integration which is a script that shows up in its own area, like Google Images, or Google Blog Search.

Thanks Search Engine Journal for the heads up!

Firefox Takes Market Share in Europe

For those of you still using IE as your default browser, you may very well soon become a minority if the U.S. market follows the same path as Europe. With 35.05% of the market share in Europe, Firefox 3 is now the number one browser, beating out IE7, which now holds only 34.54%of the share.

The thought of Firefox taking over the global market share is still a long way away as Firefox 3 only holds 24 % of the global market share to IE 7's 41%.