Looks like nothing is safe from becoming an advertisement these days. A newly surfaced Microsoft patent application proposes to create ads out of human interactive proofs, also known as CAPTCHAs, those lines of fuzzy or distorted text or images used by websites to confirm that submissions are coming from real human beings, not automated online bots.

Microsoft’s idea, as depicted in the accompanying diagram, is to present users with a product image, slogan, or some other form of advertisement — then require them to type in the name of the product or related text to complete the human proof.

Microsoft says in its patent filing that the approach creates “an effective way for advertisers to deliver their message to a captive audience. Unlike so much web-based advertising that accompanies popular web portals such as search and news sites that users can easily ignore, here the user must actively engage in reading and understanding the content in the advertisement in the HIP (human interactive proof) challenge in order to identify the solution to the challenge.”

Photo by USPTO.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: Matt Callow

Bill Wyman:

The problem of the daily press in the U.S. is exclusively this: the collapse of its business model. That model used to be, plainly put, making money—a lot of money, oceans of money—delivering advertising on newsprint into peoples’ homes. Subscribers didn’t pay for news. Advertisers did.

Remember “shoppers,” the poorly designed throwaway publications filled with tacky little ads? Daily newspapers are high-end shoppers. They spent a lot of money on original content to class up the operation and give people a reason to ask for the ads to be delivered. Long before the web displayed the power and leverage of critical mass, newspapers benefited from it; once you got the franchise in your particular locale, you tried not to stir up trouble, because it just distracted you from time better spent cashing checks.

Some people liked the news, sure; most thought they were paying for it. And some papers spent more money on news than they had to. But the papers weren’t selling the news. They were selling ads and charging a lot of money for them because of one thing only: They held an informal monopoly on a societal convention whereby they deposited those ads—around which they wrapped some reporting, some of it serious, some of it fluff—on subscribers’ driveways.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Springwise:

Summertime is filled with opportunities for brands to show they care, whether by helping consumers find a place to change at the beach or by giving them a little cooling refreshment during a heat wave.

Targeting the latter option is Soak Media, a UK firm that gives out free bottled water to London commuters courtesy of on-bottle advertising.

Focusing only on the months of July and August, Soak sells advertising space on 330 ml. plastic bottles filled with Buxton water and then hands them out for free to overheated London commuters, who would normally pay GBP 1 or more for such refreshment. Soak’s own staff hands out the bottles from an ice-filled cart, after which time it estimates the bottles spend about 50 minutes in the average consumer’s hands.

The company also does specials including leaflet tip-ons, specially shaped bottles and sampling. Perhaps best of all, however, is that it donates all its profits to charitable causes.

Given the ongoing controversy over plastic water bottles, it’s not entirely clear that such vessels will be the right medium to focus on going forward.

Nevertheless, the last two heat waves saw a 20 percent increase in bottled water consumption, Soak says, so there’s no doubt consumers can use a little extra help staying hydrated.

Photo by Soak Media.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Sometimes the Internet messes up. Here are some ads that don’t really fit with the article next to it.

Photos by BuzzFeed.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: dailyinvention

When advertising to the public, it is important to grab their attention right off the bat to make them want and almost feel like they need what you are advertising. But many of us ponder how to create such an ad that will accomplish just that. Here are some helpful tips for making people want your advertisement that I came across on Open Forum recently.

• Rather than sell them on something, create an ad copy that is so enticing they will end up selling themselves on it.

Drag Me In Fast – No matter the medium, even a letter, grab me by the throat with a headline that I can’t pass up. Maybe you think it’s cheesy sounding, but you do read those tabloid headlines don’t you, you can’t resist. That’s what you’ve got to do to get me interested and maybe even a little entertained.

• Always make sure you are creating some sort of excitement by giving them a visual of what their life will be like once they buy this product. How much easier and more efficient things will be for them.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: How can I recycle this

I recently came across an article posted on Small Biz Survival suggesting that the yellow pages really don’t serve as much of a purpose for small businesses as they used to. The days of people relying on the yellow pages to find a company or service are coming to an end. This I would have to agree with. While every now and then I will open up the phone book to search for something, more times than not I remember from memory, call information, or look on the Internet because it’s faster and easier.

The yellow pages are becoming more of a way for the yellow book to make money off of small businesses advertising with them rather than a way for companies to bring in more customers. It’s a small expense to advertise in the yellow book which is why most companies still do, they figure it’s no big deal to spend that little of money.

There is also the guilt of knowing that your competitors are listed in the yellow book, so you almost feel obligated to do the same in order to meet the competition. But, when you think about it, how often do you go get that yellow book yourself and look something up? Mine are crammed in a cupboard somewhere collecting dust and usually only get moved when the new one comes in and I throw out the old one.

You’ll get next to nothing for your money, if you bite. The directory may or may not even be printed! These are so common, you can read about them at the Federal Trade Commission. You have to catch and eliminate them, and be sure they don’t make it into your regular bill-paying process.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: chaps1

In business today it is sometimes tough balancing the many sectors of our companies. Often times too much attention is paid to a few sectors that we consider important while the others are neglected. The problem with this is that ALL sectors of our companies are important, especially that of advertising. Look below to find some free solutions to your advertising needs found recently on Entrepreneur.com.

• Become the expert. Submit articles related to your business to the local paper, trade journals and professional organization’s newsletters. Choose a topic that reflects your expertise on the subject and make sure your business is mentioned.

• Sign up at a local college or even public building of some sort that offers classes to adults and teach an adult class in business. This gives you the chance to introduce yourself as an expert in your field to your surrounding community which enables them to advertise via word of mouth for you.
• Always take full advantage of free Public Relations opportunities. If your having some sort of an event at your company, take the short amount of time to send out some press releases to the public newspapers, televisions shows and radio stations in your area regarding your event.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Here’s a video tribute to him that includes his famous line and the openings of 30 of his TV commercials.

The commercials include:

• Liquid Diamond
• GatorBlade
• Gopher
• Ding King
• Handy Switch
• Vidalia Slice Wizard
• Green Now
• Hercules Hook
• iCan Insurance
• Kaboom
• Orange Glo
• OxiClean
• Zorbeez
• Quick Chop
• Big City Slider Station
• Engrave-It
• Fix It
• Mighty Shine
• Steam Buddy
• Awesome Auger
• EZ Bundler
• Vidalia Chop It
• Dual Saw
• Flies Away
• Jupiter Jack
• Grater Plater
• Mighty Mendit
• Mighty Putty
• Tool BandIt
• What Odor?

Which was your favorite?

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Jason Sadler has been selling the upper part of his wardrobe ever day of 2009 to companies that want him to wear a t-shirt with the logo on it. His pricing structure is very interesting though. He’s sold January 1st for $1 and is selling December 31st for $365. Every day in between goes for the price of it’s day of the year. I wasn’t to excited about that until I calculated (using Gauss’s method) how much money he’d be earning for the year: $66,795!

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Velocity Marketer and Velocity Marketer Hosting are proud to announce that development of system additions is moving right along.

In the past week we have added Velocity Marketer Advertising and have placed a bounty on new advertisers offering double your initial advertising spend up to $150. A purchase of $150 in pay per click advertising would net a $300 initial advertising budget across our network that includes 2 growing search engines, and a PR5 directory, Gr8t4Games, and several other programs both live and soon to be launched. We also have a great publishers program and your targeted ads will also appear on our free blog hosting and community network My Viral Blog. Visit Velocity Marketer Advertising here in a new window.

My Viral Blog is in pre-launch and starting to grow as new bloggers are signing on to get free blogs and community support. Boasting a growing training center focused on professional and niche blogging, with groups and friends, private messaging and more we are rapidly being established as the place online to host a free weblog. My Viral Blog is also an amazing training resource for home business owners and those blogmasters looking to earn cash from their blogs. Visit us here in a new window.

SEO Services launch soon.

We have begun work on the pages that will tell clients how to get a free quote and provide information on our search engine optimization services that have helped us reach PR4 or above in 6 months or less on our own sites and have clients enjoying high page ranks and tons of free traffic around the web. Prior to now we have not placed our SEO services out as a public offer and have dealt strictly on a one to one basis with select clients. SEO services will soon be openly marketed across the internet and you will be able to benefit from our expert services.

My Viral Business store will also launch soon.

MVB will offer scripts, training materials, software, Word Press themes, Joomla templates, Drupal themes, and website templates as well as exclusive advertising opportunities such as RRS niche syndication and so much more to the Internet community. It will also be the selling place for services such as our SEO or search engine optimization serviceand will allow affiliates to earn a finders fee for these high value products and services from the Velocity MArketer you have grown to love.

My Viral Business offers a free affiliate program but the real money is in becoming a Business Affiliate Member.

BAM members will receive 2 tier earnings from the affiliate program, a 40% discount on digital downloads items, 25% off their hosting accounts at Velocity Marketer Hosting and a free domain name. In addition every money we will send out a special edition newsletter with exclusive offers, first in opportunities, and a free download valued at a minimum of $30 a month. This discount club membership packs a punch for our business clients as you will save money on scripts, designs, software, and advertising, save cash on hosting services, get a free domain name, and also grab our monthly download with a minimum retail value matching the price of this exclusive membership.

The membership itself can bring added income to your business every month.

Business Affiliate Membership will pay the affiliate member that referrs the sale a $7.50 commission per BAM referred for as long as they stay active and paid in full. When a Bam referrs a Bama member they earn $7.50 commission off that sale but also earn monthly commissions off all sales made by that affiliate as well. In addition to membership comissions you also earn 25% commissions on all direct sales of products and 25% commissions when referred affiliates generate sales as well.

These are products that over 100 million website owners need daily so there are tons of commissions to be made and referring is as simple as placing a banner on your existing site or telling a business owner on your contact list how they too can save money on their personal use items while generating added income.

We are excited and hope to have My Viral Business ready to roll in the next few days. Visit us here in a new window.

Easy Search Live Directory update.

Easy Search Live directory is re-opened with a PR5 ranking and now has a free submission process provided that you link back to Easy Search Live. We also have low cost one way links and featured link listings as well. As always those of you who market your sites using article marketing can submit articles to the directory and those too have a very low cost featured article price to gain added exposure and more traffic to your websites. Visit Easy Search Live Directory in a new window.

Our network is growing daily with new customers, new advertising publishers, and more great features being added all the time. We aim to be your business partner from first day start up to online business of the year in your niche. Velocity Marketer has the power to help your business grow and to server every website from the mom and pop E-bay store to major corporate sites requiring multiple servers to run and maintain. All services come with our Velocity Cares customer service, maintained by live people who know the business of online business and website promotion.

Thanks for all you do,

Andy Zeus Anderson

Velocity Marketer Hosting and SEO