This commercial was done for ikea and it really makes you feel for the lamp - spike did a great job on this. He made you think the lamp had emotions with out animating the lamp at all which is really hard to do.

I laughed so hard when i had first seen this commercial.  They do a great job keeping the continuity of their brand while making the commercial funny.  It is the evolution of the beer commercial - the dark ages of the wazzzzup commercials are gone.Dos Equis is also  using some funny but upscale comercials to brand their beer and engage their customers.

Not all great ads are created by professionals - some of the greatest commercials are created by user generated content. This was an ad that Luis and his friend Matt created for a Heinz Ketchup contest. They did not win but i think they should have.

Wow, This commercial is %100 on message and makes you think.This ad is one of the best i have seen for engagement and message.

Best Birth Control Ad Ever?

Yes, I think it just might be. I cant believe what they can get away with showing on TV. This is an European commercial and is not in English. It still works great and gets the message across.

Recently while doing a google search i noticed Google  was tweaking the information sitelinks shows  and it seems to be that they’re adding the number of comments to some sitelinks.

The first assignment its to create an elevator pitch for your blog.

“An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).” - Wikipedia

How to Write an Elevator Pitch for Your Blog

I’m sure there has been much written on the topic online but here’s some starting points that I use when doing this type of thing.

• Solve a Problem or Need - I’m a big believer in developing blogs that fulfil real needs and solve problems that people have. The problem need not be a big one (like World Peace) but you should be attempting to create something that people need on some level. Communicate this in your elevator pitch.
• Define Your Audience - who is your blog for? Who are you attempting to attract? IF your blog is targeting a certain demographic or type of person (and it may or may not) - include this in your pitch. If your blog is for teens, don’t develop a pitch for grandparents - target the reader you want.
• Be Clear - don’t leave people second guessing what you mean or interpreting jargon - make your elevator pitch crystal clear.
• Keep it Short - People have limited attention spans and capacity to absorb lots of information. Get to the point, eliminate unnecessary words and make it punchy!
• Stand Out - be willing to use humour or powerful imagery to grab the attention of those that hear your elevator pitch.
• Be Intriguing - your elevator pitch is unlikely to ‘convert’ people to read your blog all on its own - but it should entice them to learn more. You don’t need to say everything in it - but attempt to write something that is still in the mind of those who hear it long afterwards.
• Be Energetic but not Hyped - you convey more than just dry information when describing your blog - but you also convey what YOU feel about it. This is important - if you ‘pitch’ someone with language and a voice that is dry and uninspired you’re unlikely to convert anyone into a reader. Show people that you love what you’re doing, that you’re passionate and that you care about your topic. But don’t go too far and hype it up beyond what it is!
• Consider Using a Question - people are wired to answer and engage with questions. Ask them, even just rhetorical ones, in your pitch and you’ll hook people in.
• Be Ready to Expand Upon Your Pitch - at a recent conference I had someone come up and give me what seemed like an elevator pitch about their blog. It worked really well, they got me interested - so interested that I asked them to tell me more. The problem was that they didn’t really have much else to say about their blog. See an elevator pitch as a conversation opener - something designed to lead into further interaction with people. You don’t have to say it all in your initial pitch - but you should be ready to say more if people are interested

- Problogger

Here is what i have come up with more my elevator pitch

Is your business web site an effective marketing tool? Off the Fence helps business and bloggers build an online presence and understand the daunting world of new media.

So that’s my elevator pitch. What do you think? critiques or opinions would be great.

What is the best type of back links? a backlink that is on a high traffic page? an easy to get back link ? A relevant back link? Well all 4 are important. That is why directory submissions are a big waste of time and no one visits them and they are most likely not relevant to your site. You olny get the advantage of the link and no traffic. Why not kill 2 birds with one stone and use a try to obtain backlinks on pages with traffic. That way you end up with traffic and a backlink. The easiest places to get these types of backlinks are socialbookmarking sites, forums and blogs. Directories submissions and Reciprocal linking are out dated.

At KillerBlog.com, we try to give the best news and tips for entrepreneurs.

Tell us a little about your Company?
Startups.com Network is a network of business sites focused on offering services and content for a business audience.

Why did your Company Start Blogging?
We think blogging can be beneficial to both the writer and the reader. We started blogging in order to see what others are saying and to give our readers our take.

How long has your blog been operating?
I don’t remember the exact date, but we started putting it together the last trimester of 2008.

How have you used blogs in your business? How significant a role has
blogging played in your marketing efforts?

Blogs are constantly writing about the latest happenings in the startup world. We use blogs to stay up to date on everything that’s going on, and we use our blog to give our take on the subject. We don’t use blogging to market our own products, we use it to learn more and to provide entrepreneurs with the news and tips they need to succeed.

How do you track the ROI of your blog?

We track traffic through Analytics, but other than that, we don’t mind too much. I don’t want to sound repetitive, but blogging for us isn’t about getting the limelight to shine on us, it’s about learning along with our audience.

How has blogging impacted you professionally? What rewards have you
achieved as a result of blogging?

All team members, myself included, have noticed that since we’ve been blogging, we don’t find it that hard to stay up to date on current startup events. By doing research for our articles, we’ve stumbled across great blogs and bloggers that have taught us many things we then put to use on other tasks.

What blogging platform did you use to start with? What are you using
now and why?

We use Wordpress. It’s very flexible and it allows us to focus on the important part of blogging: the writing.

What advice would you give to a new company trying to blog?
Nowadays, everyone is blogging. Don’t do it for competition’s sake, or you’ll be disappointed. Try to learn as much from your blog as you want others to learn from reading your articles. It’s about growth for you and your company, not just getting a million visits every day.

Is there any blog that you look up to and model your own company blog on?
Most tech blogs are similar. We try to stay true to ourselves and avoid looking at the competition too much. By doing that, we are able to focus on writing better articles.

Where do you see your company’s blog in 10 years?

10 years is a long time, especially when you’re talking about the internet. Think about it: 10 years ago, most of the sites you read today weren’t even around. So, to sum things up: no comment.
How many hours a week does your company spend on blogging and blog promotion?

We spend an hour or two every morning. We find that by writing a bit in the morning, we are able to clear our minds and be more productive with other tasks.

Do you promote your blog on other social websites such as twitter?

Of course. Twitter has changed the way we communicate. It’s about what’s going on now. You don’t wait for Twitter to index you, like you would with Google. Twitter is dynamic, and that’s great for blogs.
If so how do you use twitter to promote your company?

We pump our RSS feed through Twitter, and we interact with our readers who like to comment using the microblogging service. It’s a great way to see how well your articles are liked, since you get almost instant answers.

I will continue  to blog  and  I hope you will continue to comment.

Our main goal when blogging is to increase the amount of visitors reading out content, clicking on referral links, advertisements or buying services or products from your blog.

Social Book marking can be a great way to promote your blog. Sites such as Stumbleupon and Digg are great places to get your article in front of thousands of users. In order to be successful on social book marking site you need to get involved in the community and olny promote quality content.

I would also get active in any communities withing my niche - such as blogs and forums. People in these communities will be more likely to be interested in your site. If you post comments on some one else’s blog they will generally come and post on your blog. Just like the real world it isn’t what you know it is who you know. Build solid relationships with other authoritative people/sites in your niche and you will be successful.

Writing guest posts on other successful blogs will get you blog extra exposure that you wouldn’t normally get. If money is of no concern you can get your site reviewed by top sites in your niche or buy advertising on them. Linking to other  bloggers can  flatter them and will make them more likely to link back to you.

Creating relationships and getting our blogs in front of as many eyes as possible is our goal - does any one else have any ways to get more promotion or promote their blog?

You will need to evaluate your competition to see if you can compete.

1. Evaluate meta tags for keyword density
2. Evaluate on site optimization
   • keyword density
   • heading tags
   • bold tags
3. Evaluate links
   • amount of links
   • quality of links
   • anchor text in links

Here is a list of a few of the highest paying niches. Not the highest paying keywords but the highest paying niches.