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If you are looking for free really cool Facebook banners, then you have come to the right blog. I have paid the best designer to create some facebook banners, and I received them today. The designer is Linda at Visual Impact.
I wanted them to be plain, with the facebook colors, and with one message only “join me on facebook”. The banners ended up just the way I was hoping for.
And now, if you like them, you can download them for free and start using them on your website. If you decide to spread the word, please link to this post and tell people to download the banners from my blog. This way, I might get a few extra hits (in exchange for me paying for the banners).
I hope you like the banners and that you can use them to add some extra friends, and by the way, join me on facebook.
Here they are (just right click and “save image as”):
250 x 250 px
120 x 600 px
468 x 60 px
125 x 125 px
Have you noticed the two thumbs on the Facebook social ads lately? They have been put there in order for you to vote on the ads. Click on “thumbs up” if you like the advertisement, or click on the “thumbs down” if you don’t like it (looks kind of like the thumbs at StumbleUpon)
When you click, you will receive a pop-up with several options. For instance, if you decide to click on the thumbs down, they’ll ask you why you didn’t like the ad, was it because it was: misleading, offensive, pornographic, uninteresting, irrelevant, repetitive or any other reason?
But will voting on advertisements help you?
If you decide to vote with thumbs down on advertisements you don’t like, what will happen?
You might not see this particular advertisement again, other people like you might not see it again (I am just guessing, but I think it will be related to which groups you are a member of). You might not see related advertisements again. If you decide to vote thumbs up, you might see more advertisements like the ones you voted on.
If you decide to vote, you will get more targeted advertisements. Advertisements that might actually make you buy or join something. Is that necessarily a good thing? Well, for Facebook it is.
And as soon as you vote “thumbs down” on one of the advertisements, it will get replaced by another (not related) advertisement. So, it’s all about getting targeted advertisements to you as fast as possible.
But what does this mean for advertisers on Facebook?
It means either that advertisers with poorly targeted advertisements or “bad” advertisements will have to pay a lot more for their advertisements to be shown. Or they may actually never get their advertisements shown or be banned from Facebook entirely.
Voting on advertisements sounds like a good idea, but I just don’t think of it as something people will be doing. Because think about it, why should we? One reason I don’t want to be participating (helping Facebook), is because I am not allowed to vote on many of the big companies that are advertising on Facebook.
Just take a look at the large banners, they don’t have any thumbs up or down do they?
Internal Tags:Advertise,banners,facebook,social ads,stumble upon
A few weeks during the year, it seems like the whole country is set to pause. Nothing is happening, all the stores are closed, and we’re supposed to be with our families doing nothing but cozy stuff.
This is how it has been (at least in Norway) for centuries, or so it seems.
What if you decided not to do what everybody else was going to do, what if you did what Seth Godin suggested, and…
“What if you and your team went against type? What if you spend the two weeks while your competition (and the forces for the status quo) are snoozing–and turn it into a completed project?”
It would be interesting.
The only problem is that I don’t really know if most people would be that creative or get as much done as if it was a regular week. Because, in the back of their minds, they are thinking about all the people (like their colleagues) spending the next week or two with their families or their friends, doing stuff that they normally can’t do (relaxing).
So, by going agains type, you might actually not get much done or would you?
It might all depend on how much you think of your work as a competition. If you are looking to crush your enemies, and you are just looking for a way to get a head, then this could be a great opportunity. But if you are working for a college (like I am), and 99,9% of my colleagues are on holiday somewhere, and it really doesn’t matter if I am working or not (sad, but true), then I think my mind would probably be somewhere else and not at work.
Internal Tags:college,holiday,project,seth godin
I have just bought a software called WriteRoom after I have been testing it for free for 30 days.
What is WriteRoom all about?
It’s a software for writing only, and it’s nothing like MS Word or other fancy word processors, or even most text editors. It’s all about distraction free writing. Actually, it’s rather hard to imagine what it’s about if you haven’t tried it yourself.
Before I tried it, I didn’t think a software like this existed. Now, it’s only me and my text, and I am not thinking about all the other distractions on the screen (like e-mail, surfing, chatting and Facebook or whatever else that usually comes to my mind when I see all the various icons).
What can it help you do?
Actually, it’s nothing more than notepad. Well, it might have a few extra features, but think of it as your text, not about the features it might have. Because the features, except for one, is not why you want to try (and buy) this software.
The secret is the distraction free writing. And the programmer behind WriteRoom (yes, one guy developed this amazing software, his name is Jesse Grosjean by the way), accomplished this by making it posible to do full screen writing.
A black screen with green text (you can chose the colors yourself - but I highly recommend using the standard options), is all you get. At first glanse it might look a little pre-historic, like what you’d expect from DOS (an operative system before Windows). But when you try it for a few minutes, or a few seconds in my case, I expect you to be amazed.
Will it really help you be more creative?
Because think about it, when you write, it’s not about the features really, it’s all about the text and the words you use. And there’s no better way to be able to focus on your words other than using a software like WriteRoom.
I believe that using this software will help boost my creativity to a whole new level. Now, I feel less stress, and I am watching the text more closely. In a way it’s more comfortable to write, and I am looking forward to get started (or continue) writing.
Now, there is only one problem with WriteRoom and that’s the fact that it only works for Mac. There is no version for windows, and I am not sure if there ever will be.
But I have found one similar software for Windows, and that’s the JDarkRoom. It’s completely free and it seems to have some of the same features as WriteRoom.
Take a look at WriteRoom today, and tell me what you think - will it help you be more creative?
Internal Tags:creativity,jdarkroom,word processor,writeroom
I am not sure how many months I have been thinking about testing HitsConnect. I am not sure how many months I have been thinking about why I would need a paid service to track my ads. I know that it’s been a while, and probably way more than a year. So it might not come as a surprise, but during the month of August, I am a paid member and I am using HitsConnect for the very first time.
I think that the reason why it took me so long before I tried it, was that I have always thought that HitsConnect should be used to track ads at Traffic Exchanges and not ”regular” ads. Now, I see that this is not really how HitsConnect works, even though the majority of its members are using it for Traffic Exchanges, and the owner and creator of HitsConnect is Robert Puddy, who is also the owner and creator of Advertising KnowHow (one of the top Traffic Exchanges).
What is HitsConnect?
It’s a system to track your advertisements, it’s a system that will help you find out if your advertisements works or not. They do this buy tracking how many times people click on each of your advertisements, and it tracks from which websites people click on your advertisements.
This way, it’s easy to see if people are clicking on your advertisements (banners or text links, or splash pages or whatever type of ads you have). You’ll learn exactly how many times your links have been clicked on. It’s easy to see if your advertisement works, and it’s easy to see if where you are advertising works. It’s not always your ads that are bad, sometimes it’s the e-zine, safelist or website.
It’s easy to do split testing. You just create to very similar ads, and track which of the ads that will get the most clicks. When you find the best of the two ads, you stick with the best one, and then you’ll create another one and keep testing. It’s all about testing to find better ads and better ways to advertise.
So far, I have been doing some testing. I have only been testing it on traffic exchanges so far though, but I have seen the potential. It’s really easy to use the system, and it works. You get detailed statistics on every click, and if you join as a partner (like I did), you can actually have the tracking code as part of your own url (you just have to host a php file on your webhost, and include it in your tracking url). Next, I will start testing to track how many clicks my banners (on this blog) are getting.
In the end, the probably most interesting part of the HitsConnect system is the way you can measure how much money you are earning from your advertising. You can add the cost of the advertisement, and you can add the cost of the product you are selling, and HitsConnect will calculate your profits (or loss) for you. It took me some time to figure out how this was done, but it was really simple actually. You just put a tracking code on your thank you page as well. The thank you page is only shown if a person has bought your product, or signed up for your newsletter or whatever action you wanted them to take. If a person ends up at your thank you page, it means success.
I am not sure if I’ll be using HitsConnect for months, but that’s because I am more into blogging than selling stuff on the Internet. But for people involved with affiliate marketing, and trying to sell (their own) stuff on the Internet through various ads, I really do recommend HitsConnect.
If this sounds interesting, you can actually start testing HitsConnect today for free (30-day free trial), but if you think you’ll need this system, then you should join as a partner today and get the much lower monthly price. That’s what I did.
Internal Tags:advertising,HitsConnect,robert puddy,Testing,tracking
I read a post earlier today about Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister of Norway. He had apparently just created a page on Facebook in order to promote himself and the labour party before the next elections.
He is not the first politician to create a page on Facebook, because they have been using Facebook to target young voters for a few years. He is the first prime minister in Norway to create one, but that’s because Facebook hasn’t been around that long.
Why has Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister of Norway created a page on Facebook? Is it just because he is targeting young voters?
It might be, but that’s not my concern. I want to give you a few tips on what he should be doing when it comes to marketing himself and the labour party on Facebook.
He should get personal
He should write comments, he should be answering questions. He could be adding pictures and tagging members of the party. He should create events, and be the moderator. If members of Facebook (and the media) discovered his personal involvement, it would have a huge viral effect and people would soon start to spread the word.
He should add twitter
It’s all about being personal, and by using twitter and combining it with Facebook. People would really get involved to be able to get updated on what our prime minister are doing. That would actually be really cool, if he would add tweets while he was attending conferences and he was bored. He would soon become a hero among the kids.
He should ask questions
A prime minister, and politicians in general, all they seem to do is answer questions from the public or asking other politicians questions. They never seem to be asking the general public or the voters any questions. Facebook is the perfect place to start a conversation. He should be asking people all sorts of questions; it’s less time consuming than doing it any other way, and it’s completely free.
He should write short
I am not sure if I have ever seen a politician answer any question with just a few sentences, it would be really cool if the prime minister of Norway could do just that. Start using the web how it should be used, and just write short posts, this way it would be a lot easier for ordinary people to respond.
He should join causes
I am not going to mention them all, but there are many causes you can join on Facebook. Everything from “save Darfur” to “Stop Global Warming” to “Down With Bush”, and several really weird ones. Now, the prime minister should start joining causes he believes in, and start supporting them. By doing that, people will find out what kind of guy he really is, and if he supports the same stuff as they are doing. It’s a lot easier to understand the causes on Facebook than reading articles in newspapers about what the prime minister is supporting.
He should create groups and/or become active in groups
There are many groups related to political questions in Norway. If he joined them, and took an active part of the conversation, he would soon get more attention and more followers. Not many politicians are doing this, probably not a single one from the government.
Internal Tags:elections,facebook,jens stoltenberg,labour party
Sometimes I just don’t get the people working at the local newspapers. After a great event, I seem to always end up with questions like; why do the newspapers exist and what are their missions? Because I would think that they must have a goal, some sort of plan for what they are doing. Or maybe not?
I am trying to figure it out, but I just don’t get it.
Remember the grand opening I talked about yesterday? It was probably the biggest story in our county this particular day. I am not saying that it’s a really big story, but there are usually nothing exciting happening anyway… that’s why.
But guess what? The largest of the local newspapers in our county, they didn’t publish a single word about the event.
From the image above (yes, it’s written in Norwegian), you can see that all this newspaper seems to care about is local sports (aka football/soccer). They also had a few stories of some interest for people living in this particular town, but I can’t remember the topics (I guess they didn’t really catch my attention).
So what am I really trying to say?
At the moment, I have not a single clue regarding how to get the local newspaper to write our story. Well, I have one suggestion… and that’s our press releases. They have to be very detailed and specific about this particular town. In the press release, why should focus on questions like why should the press come to our event, and why is it a very interesting event for people living in this specific town?
The problem so far, is that we have written a general press release, and sent this one standard press release to all the newspapers in the county. Next time, I think we’ll need to write one press release to each newspaper. That might be a lot more helpful, and it actually might get the local newspaper to write our story.
Internal Tags:football,news,newspaper,press release,soccer
Yesterday, we had our grand opening at the college. I am calling it the grand opening, because it’s probably the most important day of the year for our (any) college. It’s the day where all the new students are being registered as students, and it’s their first glimpse at our college from the inside.
I think that this might be our first attempt to create a Purple Cow.
Do you see the fortress below?
I think you do. This is where we had our grand opening this year. By the way, It was during the summer and not the winter as the picture is showing.
Usually, the grand opening is nothing out of the ordinary. To be frankly, they have been rather boring.
Untill this year, all new students (about 1,500) have been gathering in the gym, sweating and listening to several speeches and some local artists. I am hoping not too many of my colleagues are reading this.
The reason why we have been doing “the boring stuff” for years, is because we haven’t thought of it as marketing.
This year we did what we should have been doing a long time ago. We are trying to create a Purple Cow, we are trying to become remarkable.
We created a show for our new students. We did it at the fortress, with a celebrity host and a really cool and famous rock band. I think our new students had a really good time, and I think that they have a different view of our college now. Our college is way cooler than they thought (hopefully).
The problem with this way of creating a Purple Cow, is that it can become a very expensive lesson. It’s hard to create a better show next year without using more money. And several other colleges (our competitors) are trying to do the same, and some of them will create better shows eventually (maybe some already did this year).
Now, actually, I really don’t think that this can be called a Purple Cow, and the reason for this is that it’s really not related to our college and it’s probably not a way to attract students. Students won’t be attracted to something that has nothing to do with education or life as a student.
The grand opening might just be a gimmick, but at the same time, it will help spread the word of our college as a cool place to start, don’t you think?
Internal Tags:attract students,college,purple cow,show
Sometimes I think that the job I have is an almost impossible job. Because I am about to market a college, and attract more students. Hmm, that almost sounds like a very interesting job (ok, it really is an interesting job, but I have a few obstacles).
I’ll be brief about the problem; there are a lot of people who have strong opinions about marketing. The college is using a very small amount of money dedicated to marketing, and the way the college have been marketing itself in the past is the traditional way - like all other colleges and universities in Norway.
All colleges and universities in Norway act the same, pay for the same kind of advertising, and in sum; they are almost all the same. It doesn’t really matter if you attend one college instead of another one. There are usually not any prestige involved, or there are no way to say that you will have a better chances to get a really good job if you attend one college instead of the others. We are all the same (or at least almost the same) when it comes to education.
Now, how should you go about marketing something where there are a lot of competition and there are very hard to stand out from the crowd?
I am calling it ”the quest for the Purple Cow”, and I am going to tell you why. But first, I need to give you a quick definition of a Purple Cow (according to the one by Seth Godin in his book Free Prize Inside):
A Purple Cow is a product or service that’s remarkable. ”Remarkable” simply means that a customer is willing to make a remark about it. If you can create remarkable products, people will talk about them. If that happens, the word will spread and your sales will grow. That explains the success of most every fast-growing company of the last ten years.
Seth Godin is suggesting that we should put marketing in the creation of every product. And that’s actually something I have been thinking about for a while, a long time before I have read any book from Seth Godin.
I think our education is way to similar to the ones offered by all other colleges and universities in Norway. I am not going to be going into details here, but on (almost) all areas, colleges and universities in Norway are almost exactly the same.
I am thinking that making a purple cow might be really hard or it might actually be kind of easy.
Just by doing some name changes, we could end up attracting more students. We have the same study programmes as most other colleges, but if we make new cool names for them, we could end up with more people spreading the word (just a thought).
There are a lot of innovative stuff we could do, that people at our college wouldn’t think of as marketing, but in the end, it would help us attract way more students - so it really is marketing.
The problem is how?
Should I start thinking of creating one Purple Cow for the college, or should I create one Purple Cow for each department, or maybe one Purple Cow for each study programme?
Internal Tags:college,purple cow,seth godin,university
First, I am about to go to bed. I am really tired, it’s been a long day at work and I have been working my tail off the whole week. I am really excited about this weekend, I have no plans other than relax, and hopefully we’ll be camping again.
Now, I found something interesting a few minutes ago. This is a marketing system called “The Traffic Hybrid System”. I don’t know much about it, other than what I have been reading at their sales page. I haven’t received any notifications about it, and I haven’t read any reviews.
So, I really don’t know much about it.
The Traffic Hybrid System is interesting to me, because they caught my attention with the design. It looks like a design I have seen before, not sure where I have seen it, but I know that I have seen it somewhere. And they caught my attention by mentioning Seth Godin’s book “The Purple Cow”, that’s because I am reading it at the moment. A very interesting book, and I’ll get back to that one later.
They guys behind The Traffic Hybrid System caught my attention, and I like that. I am not sure if they are remarkable or not, but the only way to figure that out, is to buy their product, read it and test it.
Of course, I am not just interesting because of the design and because of them mentioning Seth Godin’s purple cow… that just caught my attention.
What really got me interesting was their explanation of what Traffic Hybrid System is all about, it’s an explanation using one sentence, and one sentence might be enough:
… this system is about having other people posting on forums in your industry promoting your products (or products you are an affiliate for)
It’s a system where they combine the virtues of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click advertising. And when I read this, I realized that I don’t have a clue about what they are talking about.
… so that’s what really got me interesting.
If you are interested, this is my affiliate link to The Traffic Hybrid System, but remember; I haven’t got a clue if this system works or not. Well, not yet anyway.
Internal Tags:Pay Per Click,search engine optimization,traffic hybrid system
