According to data from Borrell Associates’ fifth annual local online revenue survey, newspaper-owned Web sites maintained a three-to-one lead over other local competitors in advertising market share last year, capturing 26.9 percent of the market.  

This is an article that sheds some light on how well local newspaper websites are doing.  It appears that many are figuring out how to capitalize on the local market by using a geo domain.  Although, many still do not own the key geo for their areas.  I found the video advertising stats interesting, and forsee this strategy becoming the new trend for online advertisements the same way we see ads on TV, but at a fraction of the cost. 

The survey indicates that video, the fastest growing segment of local online advertising, generated $363 million in 2007, with local online advertisers expected to spend $1.2 billion in 2008 (nearly a four-fold increase).  Newspaper-owned Web sites have seized a foothold in this area as well, with a 26 percent share of all local online video advertising - more than any other local competitor.

(Via MediaPost.com)

Advertising networks continue to do well and are becoming the preferred advertising avenue for companies trying to reach consumers on the internet.  One reason for the influx in spending is because of the competitive prices they charge to reach a targeted group of consumers across the network when compared to traditional advertising marketing on the internet.  It will be interesting to see how these networks evolve with technology.  Technology holds the key to the future methods of online adveritsing. Will these advertising networks revolutionize the internet in the years to come or is it just a trend that will come and go? In my opinion, I feel this is the beginning to the industry standard that is evolving, afterall, it is all about delivering performance to the advertiser for their dollars, not just spending their money.     

According to a report by Imran Khan, an Internet analyst at JPMorgan Chase, ad networks “are growing much faster than the general graphical advertising industry.” He estimated that the top 20 ad networks had earned $2 billion in 2007, or 14 percent of the display market.

The reasons ad networks are thriving are price and improved technology. Ad networks charge much lower cost per thousand ads served (known as CPMs), as low as $4 on an ad network with some targeting, compared with $40 and up for some ads on premium sites like MSN or Yahoo.

(Via NYTimes.com)

American businesses are coming to their senses, at least many of the major companies on the internet.  This past week, two major announcements were made on companies forming a networking alliance.  Gannett Co., Hearst Corp., the New York Times Co. and Tribune Co. have teamed up to create and ad network as a stand-alone company called quadrantOne.   Additionally, AOL and CitySearch announced they have formed a partnership to share advertising revenues.  Why have they done this?  To share each others local markets of consumers. 

It is becoming apparent to some of the major companies doing business on the internet that it is better to form strategic alliances and share percentages of established advertising networks, than having to compete and create a network of their own.  By teaming up, companies form a unified front and can dominate a market that will be beneficial to all involved in the network or partnership.  When you form a network or partnership of leaders in a market with the same goals and visions, growth of the network is eminent.   

The future of the internet is going to be combined networking associations for joint profit sharing.    Everyone wants access to local networks, everyone!  Local advertising is viewed as an Internet growth area, as smaller merchants and services grow more comfortable with the technology involved and realize the potential gains.

We are in great positions as geo domain owners as we are 100% focused on local.  There have been networks established for geo domain owners, all I can suggest is that you embrace them and take advantage of a unified front and benefits they offer.        

(via reuters.com)

This is as close as it gets to the futuristic movie ”Minority Report”, as Tom Cruise is walking past an advertising billboard on the sidewalk that scans his eyes welcoming him to the GAP by his name, and then offering clothes that he is interested in based off a previous purchase. 

Instead of scanning your eyes, your mobile phone will be scanned through GPS and aim promotions at you precisely as you walk by particular stores and restaurants participating in the advertising network.    

This is amazing technology that will be tested by CBS Mobile.  Consumers will have to opt-in to be apart of the service to prevent any privacy issues from arising.  It doesn’t get anymore local than this! Tie this in with geodomains and you have a complete LOCAL advertising network established.

Now imagine the power of geodomains working with this technology as consumers focus in on the areas they shop by nieghborhoods, cities, districts, etc. online before leaving the house. Could be a very powerful advertising network as you will be able to hit them up both in the house and on the street.  

So many LOCAL technologies being invented that go hand and hand with geodomains and we will see alot of this integrated into websites as this technology becomes affordable and embraced by consumers across the world. 

 (via NYTimes.com)

Location-based ads are of great interest to advertisers who have seen shoppers eschew traditional forms of mass-market advertising on television and in newspapers and magazines.

“The key is to add value,” said Cyriac Roeding, who runs CBS Mobile. “At the end of the day, if the consumer doesn’t win in this game, there is no game.”

Mobile phone users already see ads on Web pages. But with the CBS service, instead of a more or less random banner popping up on the screen, people who have chosen to participate might see an ad from a business in the neighborhood, even one within a block or two.

This year at the National Association of Television Program Executives conference, the hottest topic was online syndication.  The online video niche is starting to become main stream for TV stations, as old school media is starting to embrace video technology. 

Consumers are more mobile now, than any other time in history.  The amount of people who actually sit down and watch TV these days has descreased since the old days.  I know I probally watch about 1 hour of TV a day these days.  One reason is because I find the commericals very annoying and loud.  Additionally, most of the time you can find the shows you are looking for online without having to rely on your TV. 

Video advertising is going to be one of the new waves for local advertising in the coming years.  The main reason online syndication will be very successful is because it puts the power into consumers hands.  They will determine when it is best to view the show or content, not the Station.  This will include a new wave of personalized video commercials for consumers where they will have a choice of subscribing to.  It will be interesting to see all the new technologies that will be developed for website developers to implement into their websites in the coming years.     

(via NYTimes.com) 

This year at the biggest conference in syndication — where local affiliate stations fill their shopping carts with enough content to keep their schedules lively — the hottest topic was online syndication. In this emerging part of the market, stations buy syndicated programs to show on their Web sites, and they sell advertisements with those programs to local businesses.

Local stations know how to use their Web sites to deliver sports scores and updates on school closings, but they have shown little ability to lure viewers with original content or to convert page views into dollars.

JupiterResearch recently released their forecast for display advertising and search advertising to grow by 18% and 16% within the next 5 years.  This is an indicator for geo domainers to start focusing on these areas where businesses will be spending their money in the coming years.  Develop and implement platforms that will embrace these trends on your websites.  You will not go wrong if you follow the money.   

What I found interesting in the article is that the growth of online classified advertising within the next 5 years will only be minimal.  This may be a sign that consumers are bored with the current technology of classified ads after all these years.  Maybe, just mabye, Video Classified Ads will be the new platform to spark unheard of growth in this field.  We have seen a few websites from blog readers who are starting to see consumers embrace this new way of selling products.  

Will video ads be the the key to future growth for online classified advertising?  I think it will be, as everyone loves to showoff the things they have for sale.  There is always a story behind a product, to include employment opportunities.  Think back to the things you have sold throughout your life to individuals; were you eager to tell your story about the product you were selling?  

 The articles are good overall and help give you industry situational awareness.

(via DMNews)  (Businesswire article)

Local advertising, overall, is expected to increase by 13% in this time period, while online advertising as a whole is expected to grow by 12%.

Internet users are getting savvier when it comes to searching for local businesses online, the forecast stated. In addition, search engines are working to increase the quality of their local and zip-code-specific results.

This growth should not discount traditional media, JupiterResearch warned. Local advertising in traditional media “is not a dying market,” the report states. Consumers continue to rely on print materials for information on local businesses, the report said.

While the realestate market is in a state of crisis offline, the online realestate market is showing steady growth in revenue and traffic.  Just as we have predicted in the Geo domain niche, the realestate industry is finally starting to show statistics of success by moving advertising dollars online.  Advertising dollars are going to slam the internet during the recession as realestate brokers find it cheaper to move their complete inventory and sales staff online.  They started to do this a couple of years back, but they did not truly embrace it.  This time, they will have no choice but to embrace it because it is becoming to expensive to do things the traditional ways with sales slowing down.  

And after the dust has settled, they will say, “How did we ever do things without the internet and technology”.  The realestate industry will never be the same after this recession.  A large portion of the industry will remain online and mobile as the recession proves the internet is the only constant in business revenue in times of a recession.  The traditional ways of doing business will be as useful as a record player.  This recession is going to make tech companys innovate new realestate technology at warp speeds.  

The recession and housing bubble bursting is going to force realestate brokers and agents to realize the importance of targeted geo domains for their business.  I predict the lightbulb will turn on as consumers embrace the services and technology to get their realestate transactions completed online.  Alot will be learned by these professionals in the coming year.  In the next couple of weeks, I will be discussing the realesate market and targeted geo domains.  Collectively, I feel we can complete a whole chapter on this subject.  There is alot of interest from geo domainers on this subject.  I was waiting for news articles and stats to be published before discussing it, so we had a foundation to build upon.  The proof is always in the pudding. 

I may be wrong with my vision I made above.  Time is the only element that will confirm the future of the realestate industry online.   What are your thoughts?        

 (via NYTimes)

“In September, we thought it was maybe the beginning of a very long downturn,” said Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s chief executive. “But for whatever reason, the last few months have been very strong for us.”

Executives of Trulia, Zillow and Terabitz said they, too, were encouraged by recent results. Online real estate companies, they added, could be today’s version of the online travel agencies that flourished after the Sept. 11 attacks: a cheap alternative for suppliers looking to market a product that is suddenly in low demand.

In this case, brokers and agents have seen their marketing budgets shrink in lock step with their commissions as they struggle to sell homes.

“There’s no doubt that a lot of brokers are feeling some pain right now,” said Pete Flint, chief executive of Trulia, a real estate search service based in San Francisco. “They’re spending less on advertising than they were, but they’re spending a significantly larger portion online, because it’s cheaper, and it’s where the audience is.”

Mr. Flint would not disclose sales figures, but he said traffic was growing more than 10 percent monthly, “and revenues are growing much faster than that.”