Yahoo: Lord Of The Middle Kingdom

Or maybe Carol Bartz is the Sarah Palin of technology. The two coasts might not "get" Yahoo, but the heartland/hinterland loves it, she claims. And she has numbers to prove the tall claim.

Eminem: The Relapse: Twitter

How Eminem's Marketing Team Is Using Twitter to Build Buzz By using Twitter to dispense short, often disturbing thoughts and links to multimedia components revolving around a mental institution, they've helped make the album the most highly anticipated hip-hop release of the year -- and set it up for a sequel in the second half of 2009. ....... Some of the tweets are behind-the-scenes updates leading up to the album's release tomorrow ("They are still editing my video") while others are seemingly non-sequitur paranoia ("There's no place to hide ..."), complete with links to images that suggest Eminem is in a mental hospital and/or rehab facility called Pompsomp Hills. ....... Other tweets have included a link to the album's cover, a mosaic of pills that form an image of Eminem's face; a screenshot of his upcoming paid iPhone and iPod Touch game set in Pompsomp Hills; a link to a blood-splattered video for his single "3 A.M." that's set in the fictional clinic; and a link to an interactive web experience that's set there as well. That a simple Google search reveals a just-amateur-enough-to-look-real website for Pompsomp Hills makes the narrative details even more discomforting for fans familiar with Eminem's recent real-life troubles with prescription drugs, which put him in rehab and led to his hospitalization for pneumonia in early 2008, as he recently revealed in a Vibe cover story. Omelet, a branding, advertising and entertainment agency based in Los Angeles, helped develop the Pompsomp Hills website, along with other facets of the nontraditional push. ...... The entirety of "Relapse" was leaked onto the web last week, and in it the rapper reportedly describes his problems in both blunt terms and twisted fantasies, bringing life, marketing and product full circle. ....... a trail of breadcrumbs to the album ....... Eminem.com reached 113,868 unique visitors during April, while the most popular of his tweets -- which linked to Therelapse.com on May 7 -- reached at least 41,704 people within just one week ....... Eminem was the most-talked-about artist on Twitter last week, the week before the album's release. ...... one of Eminem's fictional characters, Stan -- a dangerously obsessive fan -- has, in the web lexicon, morphed into lowercase slang for a diehard yet non-violent admirer. ........ "Twitter is, in a way, the world of 'stans' who now have access to artists" ......... helped him build up mystery around the record ....... The 'Relapse' campaign is very similar to how we would break out a major movie ........ skewer a number of women pop stars and make lewd references to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin ..... Twitter can be just as effective at drawing out mystery and building anticipation as it is at making bands and brands more accessible.

I thought I was a Paul Krugman friend, but guess not. I am still counting on the Cupcake Android expert part though. (Google Analytics Says I Am Paul Krugman Friend, Cupcake Android Expert)

I admit, it was going to be a marketing effort for me. Read a bunch of New York Times and Wall Street Journal blogs, and leave one liner comments for each blog post. Of course my comment would have a signature, this blog's web address. Looks like the moderators those places have been weeding out my comments.

Then I am like old media does not get it. How about new media? The Huffington Post, Mashable, TechCrunch. Huff lets you sign in with your Facebook account, and Mashable does Disqus. But then reading numerous posts on Huff, Mashable and TechCrunch to hit 1,000 page hits a day can feel mechanical. Reading and responding to tweets does not feel mechanical, takes less time, and is more direct. It is one on one. Instead of hoping for people to show up in the comments sections of big name sites and maybe click on that link, that is iffy. Why not go straight to the people? Kick out the middle man?

Now I feel I already have the solution and I was looking for far and wide. I have over 1,700 followers on Twitter and counting. (What Just Happened?)

I want this blog to hit 1,000 page hits a day. That would be 30,000 page hits a month. Mark Penn says at 100,000 page hits a month, a blogger starts making 75K a yar. That is decent income. I have a feeling there is a takeoff point. I am guessing once you hit 2,000 page hits a day, it then takes off. Word of mouth kicks in and then you can focus more on content creation and less on marketing.

For now I want 1,000 page hits a day. And I want to focus on my Twitter followers for marketing. If I could get to know 1,000 of my followers on Twitter, maybe I could hope for somewhere between 500 and 1,000 page hits a day just from that. Read and respond to their tweets, get to know people.

Content Is Queen, Marketing Is Princess

In my experience so far Sponsored Reviews is the best for blog post ads, so far my number one source of income at this blog.

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