Briefly Noted at Ad:Tech San Francisco

There's no real rhyme nor reason to the entries that follow. They're just products and services I found at Ad:Tech San Francisco on April 27, 2006 that interested me, some trends, and some products that might meet a need you have. These include e-commerce periodicals, a business plan change for Kanoodle, PPC bid management tools from analytics providers, phone call tracking by keyword searched on, Internet video convergence, local advertising helps, ad revenue providers, live chat 24/7 from India, and ad sales marketplaces.

I was searching for things that will be useful to small to medium businesses. Some of these products and services might be priced out of that range, but I hope that at least some may be useful to you.

E-Commerce Periodicals

I discovered a new periodical at Ad:Tech San Francisco. Similar to Internet Retailer (www.internetretailer.com), Multichannel Merchant (www.multichannelmerchant.com, formerly Catalog Age) is advertising-supported and available free in both online and print versions. Many of their articles are generated from news releases, but they include a number of feature articles helpful to online merchants. I encourage you to subscribe to both of these magazines.

Kanoodle Changes Business Plan

Once a second-tier PPC search engine service, Kanoodle changeds its business plan to offer sponsored links on high traffic content sites, such as MSNBC.com, MarketWatch, MSN, USAToday.com, WSJ.com, and CBSRadio.com. Too much competition, I'm guessing for them to make much money in the very competitive second-tier search engine PPC field. http://www.kanoodle.com

PPC Management Tools Offered by Web Analytics Firms

Another interesting trend I see emerging is Web analytics firms offering PPC ad management tools such as bid management and tracking. Omniture SearchCenter (www.omniture.com/product_tours/search_center) offers a PPC management tool for about $500 per month. ClickTracks BidHero offers Google and YSM bid management and tracking starting at $69 per month (www.clicktracks.com/products/bidhero/). Another company that now offers PPC bid management and tracking tools is DART Search from DoubleClick (www3.doubleclick.com/dartsearch/)

Phone Call Tracking by Keyword

If your leads come by phone they can be hard to track as to source. ClickPath, from Who's Calling, Inc., supplies unique, dynamically-generated toll-free phone numbers that can be set to appear on advertisers webpages so that the source of the lead can be tracked to the keyword-level. Data captured can include call conversion date, dialed from number (DNIS), dialed number, ad source that produces the call (keyword, ad campaign, banner, email, etc.), caller name, address, and phone number (if available), and a link to call recording (optional). (www.clickpath.com)

Prepare for Internet-Video Convergence

I've been aware for some time that with the increase of broadband to 60% of US Internet user homes, we'll be seeing the convergence of the Internet with TV. Now is the time for savvy online marketers to learn how to use video on their websites. I know that's on my agenda. At Ad:Tech San Francisco I met a company, NetXStudios in Las Vegas, NV, that specializes in online and offline video, especially short videos to run on websites (www.NetXStudios.com).

Local Business Advertising

Advertising for local businesses was represented at Ad:Tech San Francisco in booths by TrueLocal (www.truelocal.com) and LocalConnect (www.local.com).

Ad Revenue

I saw a number of ad revenue opportunities for content publishers. Here are just a few:

• "ADster.com Text Ads." Among the many ad networks, ADster provides a marketplace for publishers to sell ad space and for advertisers to buy ad space on a site-by-site basis.
• "HyperBidder Online Advertising Portal." Here's an auction-based online portal that brings together publishers and advertisers. Approved ads appear immediately on publishers' sites using JavaScript code placed on that site previously.
• "In-text ContentLinks," Kontera.com. Publishers using Kontera.com ad network have keywords in their content text activated as hot links to Kontera advertisers. Click-throughs result in cash to publishers. The difference here is hot-linked words rather than graphic ads.

Website Content

• "Mochila Media Marketplace," Mochila provides a clearinghouse for both publishers and editors for content that can be used on websites. Similar to a syndication service.

Linking Strategies

• "Text-Link-Ads.com." Company acts as a marketplace for the offering and sale of text link ads, ads designed to increase link popularity and PageRank from highly ranked sites. Flat monthly pricing.

Live Chat for Customer Service

• "UpSellit.com" provides SMARTagent live chat technology to create maximum customer sales interaction with the minimum of live agent interaction. When a customer abandons a shopping cart, a chat window can be launched to engage the customer. Vendor claims this tool can increase sales 5-15%.
• LiveSalesman.com, Cherry E-Commerce Services Pvt. Ltd. An India-based company provides up to 24/7 live chat and e-mail support for your website. Since this is chat, difficult to understand accents are not a problem. Price for a Live Chat support dedicated operator, 24 hours, 7 days a week is $1799 per month,  lower for a 6 month contract.

Domain Names

• "FabulousDomains.com," . Vendor of good, aftermarket domain names offers domain names for a minimum of about $800, and average of about $1200 to $1500.