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What is The Future of Wearable Technology?

Google Glass - What is Wearable TechnologyYou may already have heard the term "wearable technology" already, if not, prepare for the torrent. It's on the verge of becoming an integral part of our lives. What is it? It's a broad term that refers to technology that can be worn as clothing or an accessory that incorporates advanced technologies.

The technical term for wearable tech is "Augmented Reality". For the rest of us it simply means technology that fits seamlessly into our lives in a form that we are already familiar with like eyewear, contact lenses (yes, I'm not kidding), a watch, a wristband, clothing, jewelry or an accessory.

Is this for me you ask? Well, I believe that there will be one or several devices that will resonate with you. Why Not? Think of everyday applications where you normally turn to your smartphone, tablet, laptop or a single purpose device and re-imagine them as part of something you already wear.

 

Say, for example, your goal is to shed a few pounds. You can turn to a simple wristband like Nike+ Fuelband that incorporates an accelerometer that measures your movement and converts it into calories burned. You set your daily goal, put it on and it tracks your activity which you can see on the band's display along with distance travelled and the time. Your smartphone will give you more data so that you can track your progress over time.

 

How about something that all smartphone users can use: a convenient way to charge your phone during the day. "Power Pocket", a prototype uses body heat to generate an electrical current that will charge your phone. Surely it makes sense to slip your phone into your back pocket to charge it rather than duck into a coffee shop to try to find that coveted outlet where you have to sit around and wait for it to get some juice?

 

Some of us still wear a watch that will tell the time and may have additional functionality such as a calendar, lap timer, interval timer and an alarm. Take that a step further by adding Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and a more advanced computer that will enable it to run mobile apps, communicate messages, record or playback sound, take, or show a photo and video and you start to see the potential. The memory could be stored in the form of a removable SD card that we already use in cameras. Push it even further and add in GPS, a heart rate monitor, a way to view your social media, make a phone call via an app, tether it to your smartphone and you see the departure from a simple timepiece to a wearable technology with an abundance of useful applications.

 

Now imagine a pair of glasses that can take a photo by tapping the arm or simply telling it to "take a photo", record a video, send a message, share what you see, get directions, ask for a translation or to ask Google anything... all while remaining hands-free. Google is in the process of developing a prototype called Google Glass Explorer Edition which will do all these things and likely much more when it becomes commercially available in 2014. Have I grabbed your attention yet? No, here's a video that will show you a really fun everyday use for Google Glass in under three minutes: http://youtu.be/O9aNzzWv_iM

 

Photo Credits: Google Glass

Record Video from your Google Glass

Record Video from Google Glass

 

Talk to friends on video with Google Glass

Talk to friends on video with Google Glass

Google Glass GPS

Never get lost again with Google Glass GPS

Check flight times with Google Glass

Check flight times with Google Glass

Google Glass in Color

Google Glass Hardware - Five color options.

The potential applications for wearable tech are remarkable. We have become so attached to our current devices that it looks like a reasonable assumption to make that we'll be wearing them soon. Of course we are so used to outstanding industrial design from companies like Apple that these new prototypes will have to undergo a serious makeover before we're all salivating at the prospect of owning one or more of these devices.

 

In the meantime entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, visionaries, designers and developers around the globe are engaged in exploring the potential uses in healthcare, wellness, lifestyle, computing, communication, security, safety and fashion. Analysts predict that wearable technologies will be a monumental $30-50 billion market within the next five years.

 

Visiongain forecasts that the market will already be as large as $4.6 billion by the end of this year.

 

Useful links:
What is Google Glass
What is Scope
What is Seebright
What is Innovega
What is Glass Up
What is Pebble
What is Sourcebits
What is Investopedia

 

Conferences:

 

Now for the pressing question. How do you think wearable technology will affect the future of digital marketing?

 

Content Credit: Aftaab Gulam, Wearable Technology Specialist

Google Affiliate Network Shut Down - Now What?

Google Affiliate Network Shut Down GAN's GoneThere has been a feeding frenzy since Google announced the closure of their affiliate network last week. Merchants, affiliates, networks and agencies have been in a mass turnover period while they figure out what to do and how to help each other.

We have been working with several companies with their changeovers in the last few days. Many merchants are going to Linkshare and Commission Junction, while others move to more niche solutions.

We've spoken with several merchants who are grateful to have alternative options outside of the obvious few, because in a time of change, comes a time for opportunity and advertisers need to be careful they are making the right decisions long term.

The opportunity for further program optimization and growth, along with potential savings for higher profits, and new profitable niche partner relationships is fantastic right now. But GAN merchants need to be clear on what they are trying to accomplish from their program before they make a big move.

Our team at All Inclusive Marketing is about identifying the smartest opportunities for change in order to improve your affiliate program before, during and after this transition period to focus on savings and higher profitable growth potential. 

If you are a merchant looking for support, we're here to help transition you in the smartest way possible, not just the most obvious. We have partnerships with all the major networks, but also a lot of the smaller niche groups that could actually mean higher savings and more strategic partner relationships with you resulting in more profits and growth potential.

So what are your next steps:

1. If you have found an alternative and you got a deal, that's awesome, well done! But it's not over with that one change. Look at what new opportunities there are for improvement and growth while people are open to change, and while you are flexible enough to make different decisions that could massively benefit your organization's bottom line.

2. If you have an agency that you already work with and are looking for new geographic target groups, that's ok, we can still help! We have several clients who already work with other agencies and work with us to penetrate into international market segments such as Canada, the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia other agencies either don't have time or expertise to move into. We have partnerships with many international affiliate networks to offer additional savings and new customer segment reach.

3. Let's say your comfortable with CJ or Linkshare and you have internal account management with them - great! They know their network better than anyone else. However what about the opportunities outside of their network they don't know about or can't get into? What about working with their (or your) internal team to focus on new affiliate recruitment opportunities, or partnerships that take the mundane tasks off your hands so you can focus on building relationships with your affiliates and negotiating better placements on sites resulting in increased sales? These too are areas we can help.

4. What if you're "set" in all these areas? Awesome! But how about using tools to become more efficient and effective now? What about working with cross channel strategy to not only increase affiliate sales but every marketing dollar you spend in other channels? There is opportunity to improve program performance and cross channel sales - and we have the tools, systems and team in place to help you elevate your program, whether you're working with a network, agency or in house manager already.

This is a phenomenal opportunity to make some positive change that could forever push your affiliate program forward in a better direction. If you'd like to speak about your affiliate marketing strategy, selection on new network, affiliate recruitment efforts, tools to help you become more efficient or how to get more from your online marketing efforts as a whole, contact us and we'd be happy to offer a free consultation on what to do before, during and after your move from Google Affiliate Network.

Google Mobile Opportunities for Publishers

Google AdSense on your Mobile DeviceThis week I'm blogging about Google AdSense and various opportunities for publishers across multiple platforms using Google's suggestions from their Google AdSense in your City series.

The third part of their invitation only session in Vancouver last week covered essential mobile marketing tips and strategies for publishers and small businesses. Here are my notes from the session.

  • Get a mobile site once your website gets 10-15% of visitors through mobile devices.
  • Know how much traffic you get to your site through your analytics.
  • By 2015, Mobile Users will Surpass Desktop Users.
  • In the next 18 months, 15-30% of traffic to your site will come from mobile.

What’s your Mobile Strategy?

  1. Replicate Top Content (retain mobile users that want to access content on the go) ie: CNN
  2. Add unique mobile content (provide additional utility to engage with your brand on the go.

Tip: use Google analytics to find out where your visitors are spending all their time on your site then transition that over to mobile.

Mobile Site Best Practices

  1. Use mobile site redirects
  2. Minimize scrolling, pinching and zooming
  3. Simplify Navigation
  4. Design Pages to Load Fast
  5. User Analytics to Learn and Iterate

Test Your Site @HowToGoMo.com

Google’s Mobile Offering

  • Google AdSense for Mobile
    • Text and Image Ads
    • CPC and CPM pricing
    • Recommended Sizes: 320x50 & 300x250
    • Performance reports: Adsense for mobile content
  • Admob (App) for Mobile Apps
  • DoubleClick DFP – can use for mobile ad management.

Don’t place more than one Google AdSense ad per screenshot. No more than three ad placements allowed per mobile page.

Tip: You can build a free site with DUDAMOBILE – They will do everything for you.

Creating your Mobile Site – Things to Consider

Service Type

  • Do it yourself
  • Find a vendor

Cost

  • Free
  • Monthly
  • Annualized

Time to Build

  • 1 Day
  • 1 Week
  • 1 Month+

Check out your existing Google analytics to determine how quickly you need to get a mobile site up. If you’re in the 10-30% range, now is the time to consider getting one up!

Top 10 AdSense Tips from Google

Google AdSense Sample

Google AdSense Example

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Top AdSense Optimization Tips presented by Google AdSense in Your City with friends James and Arlene Martell. I found it quite advanced but extremely useful for those at an intermediate to advanced level of Google AdSense.

Here are my major takeaways from the first part of this three part series:

 

What Drives AdSense Revenue?

  1. Revenue Per 1000 Impressions (RPM)
  2. Click – Through Rate (CTR)
  3. Volume of Impressions (Page Views)

Revenue = # of impressions / 10000 x RPM (25,000 x $2 = $50) + # of clicks x CPC (1000 x $0.05 = $50)

 

1. Sizes

Use wide ad formats opted in to text & image in these sizes

  • 728x90
  • 300x250
  • 336x280
  • 160x600

Google suggests to run both image and text advertisers.

 

2. DIV Tags

AdSense loads the highest paying ad first. Therefore check your CTR and place a DIV tag right below the body tag if another ad has a higher CTR: <div id=”ad1”>insert ad code</div>

 

3. Filter with Caution

Blocking ads and advertisers results in less competition in the ad auction and lowers CPMs

Case Study: OES.org

Opting – in to text and image ads, upgrading to wide units helped increase AdSense revenue by 40%.

 

4. Color Blending

Blend ads with your content. AdSense ads are labeled with “Ad Choices”. People who change the colors to match the colors of their site usually have a much higher click through rate.

 

5. Improve AdSense Targeting

Users are more likely to engage with targeted ads. Fill your pages with compelling content first. Check your robots.txt file. Remember the AdSense crawlers reviews keywords, keyword frequency, etc.

 

6. Coverage

Add up to 3 AdSense ad units and 3 link units on every page. Do not post more than three ad placements per page.

 

7. Link Units

To note: Links Units get monetized on the second click (not the first).

 

8. Search

Earn revenue through Search Ads (Google Search Box). If you don't have a search box on your site, this is a good way of further monetizing it.

 

9. Traffic

Increase your number of ad impressions

  • Add the Google +1 button and engage with social media
  • Create high quality, original and fresh content
  • Build a site your usuers love so they will return

www.google.com/webmasters

  • Use Google Webmaster Tools
  • Follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines
  • Read the Google SEO Getting Started Guide

 

10. Other Tips and Tools

 

Additional AdSense Tips

  • Place ads near your content. Above the fold and embedded in your content.  Make sure it compliments your content. Monetize bounced traffic. Text wrap your content. Break-up large sections of text with these ads.
  • Place ads near navigation – think about how users navigate your site. Top-level navigation and side level navigation work great.
  • Place your ads where users will see them. Check out the Google ad Center called “recommended layouts” which gives lots of examples of best placements of ads, specifically on forums and blogs. Hint: Forums’ top performing ad is the 728x90.
  • Take a unique snippet of ad code to measure performance of both. When you set up ad placements you can set up distinct tracking on those too.
  • Know your Performance Reports - when you’re using the ads unit tab, switch to “matched queries” so it’s most accurate)
  • Always consider user experience when placing ads. You can follow these tips but if the standards don’t make sense for your site don’t feel you have to do what Google recommends. Test for your own site performance and user experience.
  • Use Google’s “above the fold tool” (in Google Webmaster Tools) to help them evaluate where you should be placing your ads.
  • Check out DFP (DoubleClick for Publishers) Small Business – Google’s Free Ad Server Network.
  • With AdSense you can only run three hard coded ads at one time, unless you’re using Google’s DFP that is running ads through another network.
  • Google allows affiliates to use as many ad networks as they like as long as you do not overwhelm the user.

 

Stay tuned for two more posts from this three part series. To come: Google's DFP Solution for AdSense and Mobile Best Practices for Merchants & AdSense Publishers

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