Online Media Daily summarizes Next New Networks’ three keys to successful content production online.

Authenticity over slick production aesthetics
Making media with audiences, as opposed to for audiences
Not restricting the free distribution and spread of content

The article also suggests we should be “Drunk on experimentation”. The web is all about experimentation. The days of putting an ad online and “going with it” for a year are long gone.

Small business marketing inspiration is all around you, you just have to be alert to what is going on around you.

Macworld reports that mass hysteria over the release of the iphone has spawned a gray market for the coveted product. Ads on Craigslist include a $1,500 cash only pickup for the $499.00 phone and an enterprising individual seeking $80 bucks, beer and a pack of smokes for waiting in line all day.

The marketing…an article in Macworld, ads on craigslist, coverage on CNN, viral marketing doesn’t get much better.

96% of teens and tweens connect to a social network at least once aweek reports Advertising Age. Ad Age refers to a study by Alloy media marketing and indicates that the massive support of social networds is coupled with an ad-adverse audience.

Google announced on their adwords blog that they are expanding their pay-per-action Beta globally.

Advertisers who use adwords conversion tracking and receive more than 500 conversions in the most recent 30-day period will be invited to join the beta test, on a rolling basis..

You will be able to pay for completed actions that you define, ie; a completed sale. You can expect to pay more than you would for the regular adwords program so you better step up your ROI (return on investment) tracking.

I attended a 30 minute session on driving traffic to your website last week.

The entire presentation was built around Google adwords. In fairness to the presenter, 30 minutes is barely enough time for introductions, never mind a detailed presentation on Google, Yahoo and MSN. And the fact is that Google dominates the pay per click (PPC) market, so if you are going to talk aboout PPC, you have to talk about Google.

I was , however, suprised at how the presenter blew off yellow pages advertising and search engine optimization in the Q and A session.

The facts are that approximately approximatley 70% of search engine clicks are made on organic listings. Even if you don’t want to spend the money on SEO (search engine optimization), you should at least do the basics. Basic SEO info can be found all over the internet, just search for free SEO tips.

Print yellow pages is still the main resource for local searches. That’s right , print yellow pages. Keep in mind that results are industry specific. You may need a full page ad if you are an attorney but if you are renting computers, all you need is a listing or small space ad.

Don’t be fooled by someone who only sells only PPC or only SEO or only Yellow Pages™. Chances are they are looking out for themselves and not for you. Do your homework, take responsibility for your own business.

An online publishers association report provides us with insight into ad effectiveness: *

* 30s Top 15s. In two of the four advertising and brand metrics measured, ad length was the leading factor driving lift. And with each, 30 second ads outpaced 15s: ad relevance (30% lift using 30s) and brand consideration (23% lift using 30s).

* Quality Content Halo. The study reinforced the notion of a “halo” effect from website video content affinity. If the consumer had a prior brand affinity toward an advertised brand and they liked the adjacent video content, brand consideration jumped 61%. If the consumer’s initial attitude toward the brand was neutral or negative, brand consideration still rose 21% if they liked the video content.

* The Role of a Companion. The study found that static companion ads can play a valuable complimentary role. To lift brand awareness the combination of a pre-roll and a companion proved to be most effective.

eWhisper.net reports that Google Adwords now enables you to exclude up to 20 IP addresses.

Sounds great but there are some concerns you should be aware of. Internet service providers tend to use a range of IP addresses for all their users. If you exclude an IP address of a competitor, you may be excluding hundreds if not thousands of potential customers on the same IP.

Before you exclude an IP, you can check to see if the IP is dedicated to one company by going to DomainTools and checking the url of the domain. You can then do a reverse IP (think reverse phone look-up) and DomainTools will indicate if there is one or one thousand web sites on the IP in question.

Macworld reports that Equinux’s iSale 4.1 removes the agony of starting up an ebay store. The program allows you to create and monitor your own auctions without using your web browser.

iSale has several templates to choose from and more are available on the Equinux website. Macworld rates the product as good for beginners and intermediates but it may be a little slow for high volume users.

ClevelandLeader reports that ebay pulled their ads from Google earlier this week in response to Google planning an party to coincide with ebay’s live marketing event.

You can’t blame ebay for taking a position and having the courage to take on Google but keep in mind, it is ebay’s advertisers who get caught in the crossfire. The exodus of ebay ads on Google only leads to less ebay traffic for the small business advertiser.

Idearc Media (Superpages.com) can now put its advertisers content on a local search service provided by IllumiCell. You can view the IllumiCell’s corporate presentation in PDF format for an understanding of what they do.

In Canada, you can go to YellowPages.ca™. Check out: New on Yellowpages.ca™, IM: Poynt@YellowPages.ca™