Archive: Opportunities
SOCIAL SPARK IS LIVE!!!
The first thing I want to say is how proud I am to be working for a company that is on the cutting edge of social media marketing. We have come a long way even in the short time that I have been here. And now the questions about our new product are starting to pour in.
The new Dynamic Pricing has really caused a lot of questions. How does it work? Why does it work that way? Is this better for the advertisers or the bloggers? Well, I will do my best to address all of these issues here. I do have a finance degree so, as Crystal says, that should come in handy!
How Does It Work?
It's simple supply and demand really. If there is more demand than there is supply, the price will change until there is equilibrium. If an Opp seems undesirable because it is offered at a lower price, no Postie will take the Opp. After a certain period of time, the price offered for the Opp will increase until someone takes the Opp. If a bunch of people rush to take the Opp (demand), then the price offered will drop back down. Advertisers choose the range they want to pay for each Opportunity.
Why Does It Work This Way?
We often had Opps that never filled in PayPerPost because they were offering a lower price for harder requirements (high word count, embedded pics, multiple links, etc). Advertisers simply did not know what to offer for certain kinds of Opps. We have added the dynamic pricing feature so that the advertisers will be able to offer a price range for every Opp. Therefore, the dynamic pricing system takes the guesswork out of pricing an Opp. Now, you simply offer a range.
Is This Better for the Advertisers or the Bloggers?
The answer to this question is .... BOTH. IT IS MORE BENEFICIAL TO THE ADVERTISERS AND THE BLOGGERS!!! Advertisers no longer have to worry about overpricing or underpricing an Opp. If it is over-priced, the price will drop to decrease demand. And if it is under-priced, the price will rise to increase demand. Bloggers now can decide if that 300 word Opp with four links and a pic is worth $5.50 to them. Or if it is worth waiting to see if the price will go up. Either way, the Blogger gets paid whatever they reserve the Opp for (as described in <a href="http://community.izea.com/blog/2008/04/dynamic-pricing.html#comments">Carri's Post</a>)
Just Remember: SocialSpark relies on Supply and Demand. If you have any questions about how this works, please send in a ticket by clicking on the 'Help' tab at the top right of your SocialSpark account.
Sometimes creating an Opportunity ("Opp") in the PayPerPost Marketplace can be a daunting task. And yes, this is a basic function but one that will certainly determine the outcome of your campaign. So we've decided to put together a few tips and tricks to creating a successful Opp. Hopefully it will either be 1) beneficial new information for you, or 2) a great refresher for those Advertisers who have been with us for a while.
1. What exactly are you looking for? Ask yourself this question each time you're creating an Opp in the Marketplace. "Do I want buzz about my new site?" "Do I want bloggers to review a product?" "Do I want to consider product sampling via PostiePacks?" Having a predetermined, specific goal will allow you to clearly relay that information to the bloggers so you, in turn, will get the types of posts you are looking for.
In Section 1 of the Opp Creation page you will go through and give the main details of the Opp. Most of the requirements are self-explanatory but there are a few areas that consistently hang-up Advertisers:
- Post type: There are 3 options: buzz, opinion and review. They are pretty intuitive -- if you want bloggers to review a product then choose review; if you want buzz about a new aspect of your site choose buzz; and if you want an honest opinion about a new clothing line then choose opinion.
- Tone: This is used in conjunction with post type. You can choose positive, negative or neutral. One very important thing to note: if you choose to have the blogger give their Opinions you MUST choose neutral. For true Opinions, Neutral is the appropriate tone. If the Positive tone is more important, you may choose Buzz or Review type posts.
2. The Opp Description. This is where you will describe what you want the bloggers to write about. There are a few key things to remember:
- Don't give the bloggers too much information. If you do they'll likely not visit your website and familiarize themselves with it. This is extremely important, particularly when you're looking for them to give their opinion.
- Be clear as to what you want, but do not tell the bloggers exactly what they should write. You want to give guidelines but not stifle their creativity. After all, it's their unique voice that you're looking for....
- Bullet points are always helpful. It gets your message across quickly, clearly and easy.
3. The next very important area in creating an Opp is Section 3, 'Targeting and Pricing.' Keep in mind the pricing for an Opp often correlates with the quality of the posts you get. For example, a $5.00 for a post with 5 links, an image and 300 words is not necessarily the most attractive opportunity. The more time-consuming and creative an Opp, the higher the payout should be.
4. CATEGORIES! Categories can often be an issue for advertisers and bloggers alike. (The first "Tip of the Week" feature was on the importance of bloggers selecting the appropriate categories for their blogs.) Remember, the categories are what the bloggers choose for their blogs because it is what they write about. For example, from a blogger's perspective, if I have a blog about cooking I would choose the category 'Cooking/Cuisine.' When creating an Opp we normally select at least 3-5 categories to get the niche that is most relevant to what I write about. If you don't care as much about what categories the blogs will be on you can keep all categories selected and get a little bit of all the blogs from our Marketplace.
5. Linking. Before making your Opportunity live make sure and verify your URL is correct and your anchor text is spelled correctly. This ensures the Advertisers are giving the bloggers exactly what they want and the bloggers are, in turn, putting what the Advertiser wants in their posts. After all, as an Advertiser you don't want an Opp with a dead link out in the Marketplace, or a post that has anchor text saying 'dogs' and linking to www.cats.com!
Interested in a Press Release Opportunity?
1. Please note when creating (or taking) a Press Release Opp, the Press Release that is included in the Opp MUST BE copied and pasted directly from the Opp into the blog post! So Advertisers, please realize, the Press Release should be an acceptable length. If the Press Release is 3 pages long it will likely not be approved because we cannot require the blogger to copy and paste that much material into their individual posts.
2. The Press Release must be an ACTUAL Press Release. Information about the Opp or what requirements the bloggers have should go in the Description, not the Press Release area.
3. This one is for the bloggers -- the minimum word requirement DOES NOT include the Press Release. For example, if the word requirement is 300 words and the Press Release is 200 that DOES NOT mean you only have to write 100 additional words of original content. You must still write 300 words of original content IN ADDITION to the Press Release.
If you have any questions about creating an Opp, feel free to use our new live chat feature. You can also visit the FAQs page for additional information. The "Advertiser Den" section of the IZEA message boards is also an extremely valuable resource for Advertisers. In fact, the first discussion thread in this section is titled "Writing an Appealing Opportunity for Bloggers."
** Special thanks to Junior Account Manager Crystal for concepting this post. **
Right now we're running an Opportunity in our Marketplace for Dymo printing solutions. They're the manufacturer of postage, label, and embossing machines. Coincidentally we (IZEA) have their postage machine and use it daily. We have the convenience of not having to worry about keeping stamps around the office, even though our local post office is only a block away. Most people, unfortunately, don't that that privilege. So, not only can you purchase a postage machine from them, but they also sell label makers. If you're anything like me (highly organized, borderline obsessive-compulsive) at home, you can even label your household items to keep them organized. My first thought would be using their label maker for a work shop in a garage. Or, if you're into crafts you could label all your little accessories. And, for those of you who have a home office this product would definitely come in handy. Of course, all of this is coming from a highly organized individual. If you chose to leave your garage and office space a mess, it's your privilege! ; )
Here's a link to their site, if you're interested in organizing your life.
For your viewing pleasure here's a couple of pictures of Veronique proudly displaying our DYMO LabelWriter Twin Turbo. Yes, we're up on the times!
The times, the are a-changing...and so is our system! We've been working far harder than Santa's elves to help make the Opportunity creation process more streamlined and efficient. If you haven't had a chance to look over the new features and capabilities, I'd be honored if you join me for a brief walk-through.
Remember that creating an Opportunity in the Marketplace is typically meant to release your Opp to multiple people. If you'd like to create an Opportunity for just one blogger, you can use PayPerPostDirect and hand pick your blogger from the PPPDirect[ory].
First, the Disclosure Badge. Since we do require disclosure from our Posties, you can create your own Disclosure Badge for the blogger to place directly in their post! This is not a new feature, but it's a great way for bloggers to fulfill the Disclosure requirement, while adding an extra link for you! I encourage you to use the Disclosure Badge, as it has been shown to have great effects for Advertiser campaigns!
Here is a previous blog post that Ted wrote, about the advantages of using the Disclosure Badge: http://advertiser.izea.com/blog/2007/10/disclosure-badg.html
Second, let's take a look at some of the segmentation features. Segmentation is the ability to filter your Opportunity to a specified group of individuals by certain factors such as rankings, location, categories, and blog domain. You can read a little more about the segmentation features offered here.
Currently, an Advertiser can target his Opp to the right bloggers by specifying a minimum average tack rating, excluding free-hosted domains, categories, and by location [geo-targeting]. The newest capability is the ability to not only get your Opp to the right place, but help reach your own goal of focusing on either SEO or traffic by way of choosing either segmentation through PageRank or RealRank.
I'll highlight a couple of the most misunderstood features:
Tack rating: Advertisers are able to rate a blogger based on the quality of the post submitted, in correlation with the given Opportunity description. In other words, if you choose a 4-5, which are the highest scores, you will be receiving posts from bloggers that fellow Advertisers have rated highly.
Geo-targeting: When you select a region or a specific country, you are limiting your Opp to bloggers currently living in that area. This is incredibly helpful if your particular business is well-known in that region because then you have bloggers who are able to provide better content since your service directly relates to them!
RealRank: RealRank is our dev team's newest brainchild. Basically, RealRank snaps a far better reflection of a website's actual traffic, and influence. It's formula is quite simple and is easily explained here. RealRank is far more accurate that Alexa, and entirely more reliable than PageRank, it's really all you need!
Remember, when creating an Opp, you can choose either RealRank, if your goal is geared toward traffic and page visitors; or PageRank, if you're seeking SEO.
Third, we recently added the choice of making your required links either followed, or nofollowed. Simply, when requiring a link, if you do not wish for search engines to qualify the link, choose the nofollow option. This causes search engines to ignore the link, so it will not count toward SEO. The links section also has a field for you to enter any links from your own metrics/analytics accounts on third-party sites.
I hope this brief look at how you can better target your Opp to just the right blogger has been helpful. Last, there are plenty of areas to get help with the system and/or your campaign. Here are a few links to help guide you.
Advertiser FAQs: http://payperpost.com/advertisers/faq.html
Best Practices: http://www.payperpostu.com/bestpractices.html
Advertiser Tutorials: http://www.payperpostu.com/advertiser.html
And, if you have any questions, please feel free to send us a note by clicking on the 'Contact' link at the bottom of any page from within your account. Thank you!
Later today we will be introducing a new blog category that our Posties and Advertisers alike can use. It is 'Autos' (for automotive). You may have noticed we've had several Opportunities in the past that focused on auto supplies, auto insurance, and even purchasing the right car. We also have many Posties with an interest in autos that they share on their blogs.
Now that topic has grown to the point within PayPerPost to need its very own category, and we're happy to bring that to you!
Advertisers, please remember: You don't want to start a new Opportunity right away and select 'autos' as your only category. Posties are getting access to this category at the same time you are, and they can only update their categories once every 30 days. So the Posties will begin using the new category today, but you'll see more and more folks using it in the weeks to come.
For now, it would be a great idea to include a few other categories along with auto if auto is your focus. But as many of you already know - it's often a good idea to include multiple categories. Keep in mind both the Postie who is writing the blog, and the readers who view it!
Thank you!!
I am pleased to announce that we have added geo-targeting to the PayPerPost marketplace. Geo-targeting allows advertisers to make Opportunities available only to those who reside in selected geographic regions. To utilize this new feature click Create Opportunity. When you get to the creation page section 3 allows you to make your targeting selections.
The targeting options are broken down into two categories. The first is general targeting by continent:
If you click "Show Area Specifics" you will see a break down by individual country:
This is has been a feature request for some time and I am happy to say it's finally here! We look forward to your feedback about this new segmentation option.
[Hey folks...this is Dan, not chicken hat Dan, but venture capital Dan. I managed to hack into PPP's new blogging platform (hint: Ted's passwords are names from his Littlest Pet Shop collection) and access the Advertiser blog. I wear various PPP hats -- advertiser, postie, investor -- so I'm hoping to hack into all the blogs eventually. Until then, I'll share some thoughts, perspective and experiments for advertisers here. Shhh...I think I hear Mark reconfiguring some firewalls or something...]
As an advertiser and investor, I draw a lot of analogies between sponsored search and sponsored social media. GoTo/Overture was the PayPerPost of sponsored search and pioneered the multi-billion dollar pay-per-click (PPC) search revenue model that funds most of the "cool stuff with no revenue model" that Yahoo, Google, MSN and others provide today. Early adopters of the two platforms were also similar -- with measurement-minded direct marketers leading the way for broad-based online marketer adoption.
Although PPP offers a broader ROI than sponsored search (like the branding benefits, viral opportunity and ROI growth over time from persistent posts), it's worth monitoring best practices in the PPC field for PPP insights. One that hit my inbox recently, was a MarketingExperiments (MktgExp) report on the importance of relevance in paid search campaigns. The folks over at MktgExp reported the results of two case studies:
1) Click-thru-rate (CTR) Impact of Ad Title Relevance, and
2) Conversion impact of Keyword Relevance
I'll leave the detailed process/results to MktgExp, but takeaways from each case study were:
1) The ad title that including the purchased keywords generated 147% more
clicks than those that did not, with CTR almost two and a half times
that of the next-highest treatment. For example, "Encyclopedia Britannica" had much better CTR than "Brittanica Sets" and "2007 Brittanica Set" for visitors searching variations of "encyclopedia" and "brittanica".
2) Purchasing indirectly related keyword terms yielded a higher CTR than directly related keyword terms.
However, the conversion rate decreased from an average of 0.8% for
directly related terms to less than 0.01%. So, despite increased CTR,
the indirect key terms performed much worse where it counts: conversions.
So, how could these results improve PPP ROI? It comes back to relevance: both in the opp description and the link text. Bloggers, readers and searchers are the same people, so the psychology of rewarding relevance remains. All else being equal, opp descriptions that are more relevant to your product or business may garner more interested bloggers (higher opp-take-rate, OTR). Sponsored posts driven by relevant opp descriptions and relevant link text may garner more interested readers (higher click-thru-rate, CTR). And, last, click-thrus driven by relevant opp descriptions and relevant link text may garner more conversions.
My experience has been that CTRs for sponsored posts are already significantly higher than banners and sponsored search. That makes sense given the reader's interaction with sponsored posts versus other online advertising. However, it never hurts to review PPC lessons to optimize PPP efforts. Relevance is relevant!
Guest blogged by Dan...an entrepreneur in venture capital clothing
Posties definitely prefer neutral opportunities. When we advertise PPP through our own system we make all our opps neutral. While we occasionally get a comment with a slight sting the overwhelming majority of Posties are fair, balanced and constructive. One of the great benefits of the PPP platform is your ability to gather feedback from those that take your opportunity. Think of it as advertising with the benefit of an online focus group.
I encourage you to read each post and leave comments on Posties blogs. Let them know you hear them and want to make your product, service or website better with their feedback.
