Gamespot and Full Page Background Ads

One thing I’m noticing more and more is media websites running advertisements as background images on their websites. Above is an example from Gamespot. If you click on the image above you’ll see the page in all its widescreen glory. It is a pretty spectacular ad. I’ve seen similar ads on entertainment sites like TV Guide and the Superficial and think we’ll see more like this the future. They work for a number of reasons:

• Most people have widescreen LCD monitors nowadays but most websites don’t use the space. These ads fill that void.
• The ads are visually engaging and catch the eye much more than banners or Flash piece. People have gotten pretty good at figuring out where ads are normally located on a page and ignoring them.
• Ultimately, the ad is still in the background of the page taking up space that otherwise wouldn’t be used, so I think this makes these kinds of ads less disruptive than formats you have to mute or that cover over text you are trying to read.

I think these background ads should be deployed judiciously by sites. You want to break it out only on special occasions and make sure the advertiser is a perfect match for your brand. Overuse will lead to the loss of the wow effect the Gamespot ad achieves.

What do you think? Cool or just another way to steal your attention?

Some Things I’m Tired of Hearing at Conferences

I went to the New New Internet conference in Reston, VA last week. It was an enjoyable conference that I feel like I got something out of.

But, having been to a couple of tech conferences this year, I think there are some topics and parlor tricks that simply need to be retired They have entered the realm of cliche. So here’s my list of things that made me groan a bit and that I think panelists should avoid doing in the future.

Unless you are Jeff Jarvis, don’t mention Dell Hell. This example was mentioned during three consecutive panels at the New New Internet. Shockingly, I’d heard about it a few times before. Can we please find a new example? Please? I’d also avoid using Robert Scoble as an example of exceptional corporate blogging. His Microsoft work was mentioned on two panels despite the fact that he left there over a year ago. Can’t we find some new stories to tell?

Personally, I think panelists are most interesting when they bring their own experiences to bear instead of retelling anecdotes they’ve accrued from reading lots of blogs. That is why the Wine Library TV guy was one of the more entertaining panelists at the conference – he told his own story.

Please don’t poll the audience about anything. In four of the panels I attended, someone asked the audience a question and asked for a show of hands. Raise your hand if you have a blog. Raise your hand if you have a Facebook account. Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Twitter. Maybe I’m alone here, but I really, really don’t want to raise my hand anymore. Generally, the response you get isn’t going to change what you have to say anyway so why bother? As Chuck told me after, why make your audience answer clearly rhetorical questions?

Please don’t Twitter from the stage (or at the very least don’t talk about it if you are). Look at me. I’m crazy. I’m using Twitter on my cell phone while sitting on a panel.  I saw this in two panels, plus in another someone did the trick where he had someone call him during the panel with “news.”  Twitter has been around for a while now. People at these conferences know what it is. Most of the audience would rather have you focus on what you are saying than pounding away on your cell phone.

Frankly, I think I sort of deserved to listen to some of this stuff as I spent the first part of the conference sitting in the main hall listening to panels on topics with which I am already pretty familiar. I had a much better experience later in the day when I sought out panelists and speakers I hadn’t heard before talking about topics that were new to me. Chalk it up to lessons learned.

Newspaper Websites Getting More Visitors for Longer Periods of Time

CNET  had an interesting blurb a couple of days ago about newspaper websites–more people are using them!

"The number of people visiting U.S. newspaper Web sites rose 3.7 percent year over year during the third quarter, even as their print editions reported lower advertising sales.

More than 59 million people, or 37.1 percent of all active Internet users, visited the papers' Web sites during the quarter, up from 56.9 million a year ago, the Newspaper Association said, citing data supplied by Nielsen/NetRatings."

Check out CNET for a longer blurb and more stats . 

Startup Weekend: Can an Internet Company Be Built in a Weekend?

Startup Weekend is a project founded by Andrew Hyde, who came up with the idea to connect a "highly motivated group of small business entrepreneurs to build a community and company in a weekend."  Basically, Startup Weekend groups together web developers, designers, marketers, and entrepreneurs for a weekend to see what kind of Internet company they can come up with.  Groups have a weekend to complete their project from start to finish, which includes deciding on a concept and launching the actual project. 

From the various Startup Weekends that have been held throughout the country recently, it seems that the answer to my initial question, "Can an Internet Company be Built in a Weekend?", the answer is yes.  Most Some of the Startup Weekends have resulted in the launching of a website.  The more important question might be, "Can a viable business be built in a weekend?", to which the answer, judging from the sites launched by Startup Weekend, is probably no.

Here's a list of some of Startup Weekend's results:

VoSnap -Boulder team
Favoreats -NYC team
TipDish -Houston team
ScrollTalk -West Lafayette team
DeskHappy -Boston Team
Hola Neighbor -DC team
WorkPerch -Chapel Hill team 

These websites range from confusing without a clear purpose (TipDish and ScrollTalk) to founded on good ideas, but lacking in capabilities (HolaNeighbor), to just plain bizarre (DeskHappy).   

Continue reading “Startup Weekend: Can an Internet Company Be Built in a Weekend?” »

It’s all in a Name: 4 Hour Work Week

I'm at the New New Web conference in Reston and just listened to Tim Ferriss of 4 Hour Work Week fame speak during our chicken lunch.  His whole pitch is worth listening to but I was particularly interested in an anecdote he gave about how he came up with the name of his book.

4 Hour Work Week was originally titled "Dealing Drugs for Fun and Profit."  For a variety of reasons this wasn't going to fly with publishers or retailers.

Ferriss and his team came up with twelve alternative names and were pretty much deadlocked. 

Ferriss decided on the name by running a Google Adwords campaign.  He bought ads for relevant keywords for all twelve potential book titles and tracked which titles performed the best.  The clickthrough rate for 4 Hour Work Week was by far the highest, so that is what his book is called.

I think this is a smart and novel approach to naming.  Google Adwords as a cheap and real time focus group.