I could be selling your click

Did you know that, right now, I could be selling your view of my blog?  If I so desired, I could have my page loaded with ads screaming "Click here!" and "Loose weight now!"

Well, you're welcome— cause I didn't.

Google, being the innovator it is, invented this nifty system of advertising call AdSense and AdWords.  Together, the system brings together advertisers and publishers to sell relevant ad space and — hopefully earn some clicks.

AdSense is targeted at the publishers, like me.  I can tell Google, "Please sell this box of space on my page to a relevant advertiser."  I could give them keywords, identify some hated competitors and then get the dough rolling in.

With my 20 views a week, the likelihood that anyone would want my space is pretty low, but a girl can dream right?

If there was anyone interested though, they would go through AdWords.  AdWords allows advertisers to go in, pick keywords and then bid on how much they want to pay — say 15 cents for the word blog.  The auction continues until someone outbids the others and that advertiser gets top priority.

The advertiser sets a start and stop date and puts their ad on however many pages.  Compare 15 cents per click, to a $5 million dollar Super Bowl ad.  Well maybe the Super Bowl ad will get more exposure, but how do you know?  That's the beauty of online.  Your every click is tracked and recorded … actually that's a little concerning too.

AdWords does not end just on websites.  It also works for search engines, like Google results pages, Bing and other lesser-known sites.

The exposure may rotate, but you can get your ad up and out there on a tight budget.  We may hate ads, but advertisers certainly love us.

The exposure may rotate, but you can get your ad up and out there on a tight budget.  We may hate ads, but advertisers certainly love us.

So the next time you see an annoying ad online, think about the work it took to get there and know that just a click can cost money and also earn money, regardless of what you do after the click.

"Are you the one?"

"Are you the one?" is yet another MTV reality show with too much drama, fighting and sex. However, MTV has done something new to make viewers actually care about following this over-dramatic new show.

The show features 20 people: 10 men and 10 women, all in their early 20s. The catch is that each person has a "perfect match," so theoretically there are 10 perfect couples in the house. The matching is based on compatibility testing, interviews with family and friends and personality matching.

If the 10 perfect couples can find each other, they win $1 million dollars. If not, they walk away empty handed and without their "perfect match."

The show is one season long, with ten episodes to find the perfect matches.  Each episode, the couples send in one single couple to a "truth booth," which tells them if they are a match. They also pair the rest of the participants up and tell them how many matches are correct, but not which are right and which are wrong.

It sounds silly, but you'd be surprised how much it pulls you in. You watch couples come together, only to be ripped apart in the truth booth. Women steal men, men steal women, it gets dramatic. Throw in a few episodes where exes come reveal embarrassing secrets and you've got the typical MTV show.

I'd never have watched this show if it wasn't for my roommate, but here I am, pulled into the sexy, angsty show.

So where does the digital promotion come into play? The show offers viewers tantalizing secrets if they participate online, Tweet out to the producers, or take online polls to vote who should be sent to the "truth booth."

This sort of advertising gives the show an edge: it makes viewers care. When you watch you're turned into a detective. If you care enough, you can Tweet an "Are you the one?" message with specific hashtags and learn who a perfect match is before it is ever revealed on the show.

For now, we are about five episodes deep with only one perfect match. It's no "Walking Dead," but it does have its dramatic moments.

The show also offers inside interviews with cast members, links to music featured on the show. The website also has an "Are you the one?" Facebook application that will find the "perfect match" in your friend list.

For the dedicated viewers, this sort of promotion plasters their show all over Twitter, Facebook and other popular social media sites.

Maybe MTV hasn't improved their quality… but they have improved their promotion tactics rather effectively. Anyways, who isn't interested in fistfights, booze, attractive men and women and random one-night hookups?

The Walking, Talking Dead

"The Walking Dead" is a fabulously gory and entertaining show. On its fourth season and running, the show has created an entire franchise, a loyal following and a handful of branch-off enterprises.

The show, originally a comic for adults, was adopted for television in 2010. Shortly after, in 2011, producers created "The Talking Dead" hosted by Chris Hardwick.

The talk show is entirely conversation based, which may sound boring, but was actually a genius move on the part of AMC.

The show allows viewers to call in and ask questions, Tweet questions and comments and answer polls online.

On several occasions, this show has dominated Twitter with trending hashtags and blown up the social media world.

AMC drew in dedicated viewers in the most effective way possible: by creating a two-way model of conversation. Viewers are flattered into obsessed fandom and producers are driving up their viewership.

What better form of digital promotion?

In addition to the show, the franchise now includes online games on Facebook, console games for XBox and PlayStation 4 and even websites where viewers can create "zombie-proofed" Hyundai vehicles and applications where you can turn yourself into a gruesome zombie.

AMC took a gamble on adding a horror-genre show, but skilled promotion has powered it to a top spot and a fan-favorite among cult television shows.

Sochi has finally reached the 21st century...

With an 11-hour time change from Denver to Sochi, Russia, it's no surprise that NBC had to make some changes to Olympic coverage.

It seems ridiculous, but NBC has finally discovered streaming and On Demand viewing of olympic events. While they've kept primetime viewing, the addition of independent viewing has changed the game for NBC.

While viewers could always rely on Twitter or other news sites to fill them in on the winners, seeing it on television is always the best part. A news article can't explain each performance of figure skating in detail, nor can it tell you how snowboarder, Sage Kotsenburg looked flying through the course during his gold medal slopestyle run.

It may have taken the networks a few years, but everyone is finally on the same page with free, streaming recaps of events. 

Maybe you're awake at 3 a.m. for the live broadcasts, but I'll bet most of us aren't.

Even if all you care about are American gold medals, you can still turn on the Olympics and watch us win at your leisure. 

Thanks, NBC, for finally giving us the chance to watch when, how, and what we please.

The ultimate commercial retail: Super Bowl advertising

Most football-invested Americans watch the Super Bowl, and let's be honest usually the rest of us do too.

For many, the interests lie not in the game itself, but in the breaks in between. Americans love Super Bowl commercials.

As viewership skyrockets year after year, advertisers know that the big game is some of the most valuable retail they can buy all year. That is, if they can afford it, since a 30-second ad costs about $4 million dollars.  However, the big businesses still roll out the cash for Super Bowl fame.

Having a spot during the game was enough to boost a business. In an evolution of its own, a Super Bowl commercial has become far more, thanks to the internet.

Recently, advertisers and the NFL have pre-loaded their commercials to show online at various sites. On the Super Bowl website, viewers can watch commercials just for fun.  Since when do we watch advertisements for fun?

A ranking system on the website gave each ad numerical rankings and a number of views.

What better real estate could an advertiser ask for? Not only did millions of viewers watch the commercials during the game and after when they aired, but they also averaged about 100,000 views online. That's broadcasting power.

Even after the game, views continued to rise. Websites asked for votes and comments, making the commercial portion of the game into a competition as well. USA Today even broke it down by winners for each quarter in their "Super Bowl Ad Meter."

Days later, the buzz continues.

In an era when DVR allowed us to skip over unwanted commercials, viewers are now seeking out the content they want to see. We are even giving these brands a valuable feedback mechanism, which they will doubtlessly use to improve and streamline future messages.

It seems that, by giving viewers a choice, we have brought them back into the fold — voluntarily.

The best digital promotion is free-will and it seems the Super Bowl is getting that down to a science.