We're talkin about Profits, not a game, but Profits.

From the dramatic prairedog to 'One night in Paris' to movie and TV shows, the Web has become a breeding ground for videos. Digital cameras, phones, webcams, and other devices have become the reel; anyone behind them is now an instant director and anyone in front is the 'star'. These videos make life great for bored patrons around the world. They also make me think twice about changing in dressing rooms or having a romantic encounter with a window shade open. TV shows have been created in devotion to the top clips found throughout the Web. It is an amazing thing to be able to find any 'how to' video across the Web, but just as deviant is the fact that you can look up pornographic materials through Yahoo or any other search engine. Yes, there are parental controls, but we all know those can be circumvented. Skinamax is now an afterthought to young pubescent boys. All of this has created a marketer's wet dream - a captive audience interacting with the medium itself. This is great, but how do we profit? Because that is what the U.S. is all about, Profits! Exposure!! Recall!!! At first marketers tried running ads at the beginning of the video. This didn't go over too well. Running the same ad that has been run on TV doesn't seem to work; hence, the invention of the DVR. So marketers are trying some different approaches. One is to have an ad run at the bottom of the video itself. I ask, "Would this work for a TV show or movie?" NO! If you want your product to be promoted in a video, then either create a video worth watching or have others use your product in their video. My personal favorite is the skin around the video. This is nice because it is simple and doesn't interfere with the video itself. It helps cut down on the excess clutter surounding websites and focuses in on just one brand.

I would like to address a comment about my last blog:

There is no general agreed-upon definition of art, since defining the boundaries of "art" is subjective. But I do ask the question, "Is art something that is created for the sole purpose of selling another product or service?" When Viagra makes it into the rock and roll hall of fame for "Viva Viagra"or when the ads at the bottom of this page make the Guggenheim, I will concede that advertising is art. For now we can classify it as "commercial art." This is art where the layouts and colors chosen are because they're more suited towards a demographic than towards what the "artists" have chosen for their mode of expression.

Meta blogging

I have recently added meta tags to my blog in hopes of converting my one reader (thanks, Nanu) to at least 3 or 4 readers. Meta tags help people find what they are looking for when using a search engine. Say, for example, I write about advertising a lot. I would use advertising as a meta tag, and then when someone is looking for a blog about advertising, my blog might come up. Here is an example of some of the code: You can add meta tags a couple of different ways. One can write the code themselves, but if you do not know html very well, then it's daunting and can be quite frustrating. The other avenue is to use a meta tag generator. This is easy and gives total control to the user. It is like filling out any other online request form -- simple. After the code is generated for you, all you have to do is copy and paste. Although, my code had to be altered a bit. I just had to add closing tags. This is useful for professional bloggers so that they may generate more traffic through their blog.

Google, Yahoo, and many other search engines send out bots every so often to read meta tags across the Web. So when someone searches and a tag is used, the engine correlates the meta tags to what the user is searching for. This doesn't mean the user will find exactly what he or she is looking for, but it definitely helps when it comes to the mass amount of content on the World Wide Web.

Another technique to acquire more readers is networking your blog to others across the Web. This is much like networking in the real world. If a respectable friend refers a friend of his to me, then I will trust that the third person is respectable as well. So when reading a blog you like, one is more likely to check the links associated with that blog. Although, if the blogger is a sell-out, then the links provided might just lead you to some site trying to sell you something by merely associated with the blog. This is why I would not sign up for Google's AdSense.

I find it deplorable that companies and advertisers try to use another's form of artwork as a way to sell their product that apparently they couldn't sell in traditional means. So they leach onto the bloggers because they have a fan base. Yes, the advertisements may have connections to what the blogger is talking about, but why would the blogger want to traffic readers away from his blog? To make that almighty dollar. If this is true, then what is really being written is no longer art but just another form of advertising clutter. This means that no longer does the blogger have a message other than to make money. I wonder what advertisement would be placed on my blog, a blog that criticises the advertisement itself? Maybe pop-up blocker ads. This leads me to my outro: Be more for the expansion of free ideas and less for the expansion of commercial speech.