Crenk » sales

The Great Office War: Its Like Skermish But With Nerf Guns

Steven Finch — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:20:52 +0000

This is one of the coolest videos I have seen in a while.

iPhone Number 1 in Japan

Dean — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:08:40 +0000

Since its release, the international appeal of the iPhone was in question. Many questioned if markets such as Asia and Central Europe were ready to move away from traditional devices and onto the next generation of Smartphones. One such critique was made about the Japanese market, known for its home grown products with millions of their phones exported to the European and US markets down the years due to their reputation for technological innovation.

Now, it seems that the critics have been proved wrong after a recent survey concerning the iPhones popularity. According to the study carried out by BCN of over 2,300 Japanese retailers, the iPhone holds the top two positions in terms of sales with the 8 GB model having the number one position followed closely by the 16 GB model.

Furthermore, because the results of this survey were released before the iPhone 3G S burst onto the market, chances are that the iPhone is now even higher up the leader board.

These figures must be keeping the top dogs at Apple happy while the rest of the Japanese mobile phone market struggles due to the recession. A recent report carried out by Sky News found that the Japanese retail market is floundering as consumers tighten the purse strings. Now that Apple is planning future iPhones, Apple may be painting a bright future in Asia.

BuySellAds Stats Dont Seem To Show Correct Amounts

Steven Finch — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:45:37 +0000

I have been looking at our advertising page over at BuySellAds and have been wondering why stats over their estimates only 18,000 impressions when my Google Analytics says 51,000? I know with BuySellAds it take sometime to build up the stats, but our ads have been on the site for over a month and they still havent increased up to its real level.

Technorati Media Isnt Moving In The Right Direction

Steven Finch — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:57:35 +0000

I have been receiving a lot of emails lately from webmasters using Technorati Media as their ad network. Techn0rati is a blog search engine which launched an ad network back in June last year. At the time it was very big news, because Technorati was losing its way a little bit and also traffic at the same time. Thus, they launched Technorati Media which would open up a new revenues stream. At the same time Technorati purchased AdEngage which would be the backbone of the Technorati Media platform. AdEngage is a basic self service advertising platform which deals in CPC display advertising.

Anyways, Technorati Media launched their ad network with a lot of media attention and were offering some amazing CPM rates, in which was going to entice a huge amount of small and medium blogs. However, now since the economy is in a bit of a decline ad revenues have dropped but this is nowhere near the amount Technorati Media’s CPM rates have dropped.

I’m not too sure what Technorati Media is trying to achieve because using the current model they have for advertising, I’m sure they will be in a huge amount of trouble come the end of 2009. The economic crisis is not going to be fixed over night and it will take a couple of years to sort itself out, so Technorati please think of another advertising solution. CPC campaigns are great for advertisers because they get an instant return on investment for their money, but CPM is great for publishers because they can see a return on their investment. Technorati Media is struggling even to sell CPC campaigns even with some great sites on board, so this spells big trouble!

Disclosure: Im CEO of Adphilia which is a site representation company.

AIMcrm: Sales Leads Management At Its Best

Steven Finch — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:08:56 +0000

AIMcrm is an on-demand web-based software application to manage the handling of sales leads (essentially lead management). There is also the ability to sell leads (lead aggregation business). AIMcrm provides a highly customisable interface and is one of the most promising sales management software tools on the market today. Other key features within AIMcrm include campaign management , sales force automation, sales team management and CRM reselling.

I know AIMcrm is probably not as good as SalesForce or SugarCRM, but their allround software and interface can really aim to compete with the big boys in years to come. Im not too sure however if they should have gone with a paid model or actually provided the software free as does SugarCRM and ZohoCRM. This way they could just add an advertising script into the software in which could bring them a lot more revenues than just a subscription. Additionally, they might need to do a bit of work on their website and make it a lot more professional and a little less 90’s.

Apart from all that make sure you check out AIMcrm because they do currently provide a great piece of crm software. It might be free but then again it is a lot more affordable than SalesForce.

AppShopper: The Best iPhone and iPod Touch Applications Directory in Town

Steven Finch — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:22:25 +0000

Apple iTunes has always been so popular and with the launch of the iPhone iTunes has gone to the next level. Every single day Apple sells millions of dollars in the iTunes store just for iPhone applications. With so many applications being launched everyday how do you keep up? Additionally, I have always wondering how much money these applications are making developers and which applications are actually popular.

Today I stumbled across a great new site called AppShopper. AppShopper is a huge directory of all iPhone and iPod Touch applications and allows users to search through apps, find out how much they cost, and find out which applications are actually selling.

Additionally on the AppShopper blog they have great insights into applications within the app store and also all kinda of application related news there is. So if you are looking to easily find applications within the App Store, dont head over to iTunes itself, head to AppShopper.

Digg, Why The Hell Can’t They Sell Their Company!

Steven Finch — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:50:50 +0000

Digg has to be one of the biggest web properties currently on the internet, with one of the most loyal communities. However, they seem to be able to grow the community, add on new features, turnover good revenue figures and get millions of pageviews, but they simply can’t sell their company to anyone!

Digg has been trying to sell for the last 6 months and yet no one is actually biting. They currently have a Microsoft as an investor and running their ad campaigns, plus they have been in talks with Google for an acquisition, but how come they cant finalise anything?

Is it because the $300 million price tag they are after, it just too out of reach? Is it because the big conglomerates aren’t too sure how they are going to fit the Digg technology into their search engines or portals? Is it because Digg has such a strong community base, any acquisition will just kill the site?

Im hoping to find out why the average person think Digg cant sell.

Top Paying CPM Advertising Networks

Steven Finch — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:01:40 +0000

Over the past 6 months I have been taking a keen interest in advertising online. Most new ventures are trying to find business models that can sustain them online, but it is quite difficult to know where to start. Advertising is the main form of monetization on the web at present time, and with this being the case there are more and more advertising networks poping up. These networks range from affiliate networks, CPC and even CPM.

In this article I am going to focus on CPM advertising networks. CPM means cost per mille, so every 1000 times your ad is views you earn a certain amount of money. Below is a quick list of some CPM networks that might help new publishers gain some well earned money. Normally, rates can vary depending upon several factors, type of site, type of traffic, locations and more. However, these networks will definitely be able to help you.

PaidContent Sells, Who Is Next Now!

Steven Finch — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:53:39 +0000

In the last couple of day you might already know about PaidContents holding company ContentNext selling their company to the Guardian. It has been reported everywhere, like on Techcrunch, AllthingsD, HipMojo, Mashable, RWW, Centernetworks and more.

The price to be around the $30 million mark, quite high for a blog network. So with Ars Technica and PaidContent already selling out their companies, which blog will be next to get acquired. This is all just proving that blogging is slowly moving away from just personal views and becoming the new media equivalent of newspaper journalism. Does this also mean that in the very near future that all the advertising revenue that is still being spent on newspapers is soon to be heading towards Techcrunch, Mashable and RWW? Im really looking forward to seeing how this market grows in the future and who will be the dominant players. Will Mashable and Techcrunch remain at the top or will their readers slowly migrate to a new service?

Technorati Launch Technorati Media. The Blog Advertising Network

Steven Finch — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:17:16 +0000

Technorati, one of the worlds largest blog search engines has spent a long time trying to find a new model for their company and today I think they have launched a great offering. Introducing Technorati Media. Technorati Media is the new blog advertising network for anyone and everyone. The advertising network will not open fully for another couple months, but you can apply now and hopefully get in early.

Technorati has been testing their ad network for a while already and seem to have found some good results. The ads will be sold by CPM method, in which allow a little more security for publishers within the network. Im always interested when new blog networks enter the market and I cant wait to see what results come from this new network. Here at Crenk we have already signed up to this service, so cant wait to report to everyone our findings.

Radio One Has Signed 5 Year Advertising Deal With AllHipHop.com

Steven Finch — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:46:18 +0000

It has been reported that Radio One has signed a deal with AllHipHop.com to sell advertising on their site for the next five years. The agreement provides Interactive One, Radio One’s digital division and exclusive agreement to sell all of AllHipHop’s ad inventory. Advertisers who already run ads on AllHipHop will have more access to the Radio One system and also their advertising opportunities. Currently AllHipHop has over five million monthly users in which will lead to a good return for Radio One who are trying to broaden their reach in the African-American hip hop audience. Last month it bought social network operator Community Connect and launched NewsOne.com, an African-American news site.

Amazom Relaunches Latin Music Store

Steven Finch — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:18:53 +0000

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced the relaunch of its Latin Music Store, www.amazon.com/latin, with Earth’s largest selection of Latin music titles. Focused on delivering Tu Musica, Tu Sabor (Your Music, Your Flavor) to customers, the newly updated Amazon Latin Music Store carries nearly 140,000 unique titles and brings both English-language and Spanish-language content to Amazon customers. The store features nine categories including, Latin Pop, Latin Rock, Regional Mexican, Tropical, Urban, World, Latin Children’s, Latin Christian and Latin Jazz along with 23 subcategories.

Myspace Music To Compete Directly with iTunes

Steven Finch — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:22:03 +0000

Here at Crenk we have already reported about Myspace and their new music offering several times. It seems now that the launch is imminent. The LA Times has reported that Myspace will be launching their music offering as early as tomorrow. The new service will compete directly with iTunes and will be offering music downloads, streams, videos and mobile phone ring tones, along with related items, such as merchandise and concert tickets.

Stay tuned for more coverage about the launch in coming days.

Audioholics Launch Online Store To Commemorate Their 10th Anniversary

Steven Finch — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:52:54 +0000

Audioholics has commemorated their 10th anniversary with a bang and has launched their own online store front. This is a big step for the home theater review publication, the store will be the first of its kind to be built on the back of an industry-leading magazine.

Audioholics currently has an existing base of over 1 million readers per month and to leaverage this readership into purchasing some of the leading electronics brand should be a simple process that will lead to great success.

The Audioholics store is a partnership between Audioholics and Woodland Venture Holdings LLC. Funding for the project was lead by an undisclosed CEO of a large asset management company. Woodland Ventures operates some of the top e-commerce stores online in which currently serve a customer base of over 50 thousand customers per year. This is a great match for Audioholics because Woodland have ventures based in this online store market and they know how the industry works and operates. The store itself lists premium brands from all over the electronics industry, including Yamaha, VizionWare and APC.

Apart from the basics of an online store the Audioholics store will also included added features such as an email client, forum and a customi`ed help support. However, the key features to this new Audioholics online store is that it provides lifetime product support, free 3-year extended warranties, free shipping on most of it product lines, and all products carry a 30-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.

There is a real opportunity for Audioholics to leverage on either its strong readership numbers, great partnership with professionals in leading the industry (Woodland Ventures), or even on the decent amount of traffic to their website. Which ever way they approach this opportunity I always like seeing new companies in the online sales market, who can provide comÂ®Â®petitive price, premium brands and great customer service. If you are a bit of a techie and like to equip your home or workplace with high end electronics then make sure you check out the new Audioholics store.

Digital Music Sales Jump, But Overall Decline Continues

Steven Finch — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:48:59 +0000

U.S. music sales dropped another 9.5% last year compared to 2006 despite a 44% increase in digital track sales according to Nielson Soundscan.

500.5 million albums sold in various formats last year down 15% from 2006. Only 10% of album sales were digital. But the drop re-calculates to 9.5% when sales of digital singles are counted as 10-track equivalent albums. 844.2 million digital tracks were sold in 2007 compared to 588.2 million in 2006.

iTunes became the third-largest music retailer in the U.S. in 2007.

CDBaby and Snocap Break Ties: So Why Not Sign Up for RouteNote

Steven Finch — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:58:47 +0000

I have been reading various articles this week about CDBaby and how they broke their deal with Snocap. I have actually seen all of the CDBaby figures on how much their artist were selling on Snocap and the figures weren’t too bad. However if you are a music aggregator and trying to work with Snocap it is a little more difficult than just providing distribution to online stores. The issues with Snocap is the amount of time it takes to implement a widget store and which songs will need to be selected.

CDBaby is now offering for their artists to sign up with Snocap individually and receive the first year free. If however this doesn’t work for you then make sure you head over to RouteNote which will be launching in a few months and already has Snocap signed as a founding partner.Â RouteNote will also not charge any signup fees and can license your music for TV, Radio and Advertising at the same time.

The Rubicon Project : How Can I Get My Invite

Steven Finch — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:39:50 +0000

I was read ShoeMoney yesterday and he reviewed a new advertising product that I had to mention on here.

Welcome to the Rubicon Project. The Rubicon Project is a new product that has already received $6 million in funding and is based around the very competitive market of online advertising. About a year ago I had an idea of starting an advertising network based around an open marketplace, since then this has been done several times over and it seems when someone comes up with a new idea it is only a month or so before there are 10 of them in the market.

The Rubicon Project however is a unique advertising model that actually has ties with over 300 ad networks, including the big boys like Google, Yahoo and ValueClick.

The Rubicon Project ensures your website is making as much money as possible by optimizing it for not only the highest paying advertising company but also for demographic/geographical data.

Now unlike a few selected people I am still waiting for my Invite to their private beta. However in the mean time make sure you head over to the Rubicon Project and have a look at their 3 min. video.

Google Adsense Video Unit

Steven Finch — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:27:06 +0000

The word around the blogosphere today is the launch of Adsense Video units. Problogger broke the news last week and it is slowly starting to happen. The Google blog has said you can log into your Adsense account and then select Video Units, but I’m yet to see that option. Below I have added what the Video Unit will look like.

Much the same as every other Adsense unit in the market it looks like crap. The poor quality of banners and what they are promoting just makes the ad look pathetic. I have never understood why anyone would click on one of these ads.

RouteNote Signs with AudioLunchbox

Steven Finch — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:09:19 +0000

RouteNote has just signed a deal to provide our content on Audio Lunchbox. Audio Lunchbox will sell our content on their sites and services for the next three years. Audio Lunchbox has a licensed catalog of over 2 million songs in 79 sub-genres. Audio Lunchbox is the only service on the web to offer both a la carte and permanent subscription downloads side by side. Well thats what they claim.