Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make Charlotte BarCamp 3. I have too much going on and need to spend the weekend catching up on some things. I’m looking forward to spending some time with my wife and other personal endeavors, too.
However, I had a fantastic time meeting people and presenting various topics at the first two.
At Charlotte BarCamp 2009 is where I gave my first presentation on “How to Make Money Online”. It was the 2nd most highest voted session of the day. That was back in January 2009 and the Twitter session was the only one that beat it. (I was on a little panel with Jason Keath and Lisa Hoffmann for that panel. Those were the early days of Twitter.)
At Charlotte BarCamp 2, I gave a new presentation on How to Market Anything Online. I have not posted that one online yet. But I will someday, I’m sure. It also was the 2nd highest voted session and had a huge turnout.
I hope you all have a great time this weekend. I hope to see you at the next one. They seem to come around twice per year now.
If you have the time available, Charlotte BarCamp is a great way to meet new people and learn new things free. Enjoy!
Just as a reminder, Brandon Uttley and I are teaching our Social Media Marketing class next week on Thursday and Friday. You can read the details here and register here.
The class will be held in our new facility in Huntersville, NC. I’ll have more pictures and details of the classroom soon. (It’s really nice.)
With all the excitement and press going on about the iPad, you may have missed the big announcement yesterday. But if you are involved in any way with Internet marketing, this is a HUGE one. In my opinion, it is the biggest news we have heard this year in online marketing.
Apple has created it’s own advertising platform for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. It is called iAd. This is not just a method for showing ads. It is a full-blown advertising platform.
This has the potential to be as big or bigger than Google AdWords!
Think Google AdWords – for apps.
Does Google AdWords makes a lot of money? Uh… Yea! Facts are, 98% of all revenue for Google comes from their AdWords advertising program. In other words, it financially supports EVERYTHING Google does… Google search, Gmail, Docs, Apps, Wave, Chrome, Blogger, Picasa, News, Books, Maps, Earth & Mars, Buzz, and everything else.
Google has a market value of 200 Billion USD! Almost ALL of their money comes from Google AdWords. It’s why Microsoft is promoting their search engine (Bing) so hard. They want a piece of that huge money.
But Apple has taken a different approach. Instead of gunning for advertising on SEARCH, they have built an entirely different advertising platform. Their advertising platform will be for APPS, which is even bigger and more profitable than SEARCH.
Steve Jobs thinks so. (He may be right.)
If you have not watched the Apple 4 Event yesterday, you need to – right now. You will hear him speak very directly about how the future is mobile. And on the mobile phone, it’s not about SEARCH, it’s about APPS. (He’s right.)
In it, Steve Jobs does the math to show the opportunity for 1 BILLION ad impressions per day, using his new platform. Why? Google is known to perform 1 BILLION searches per day.
Coincidence? I doubt it.
With this new platform, instead of competing with Google AdWords, Apple has made their own platform that will be just as large and just as profitable.
Think Facebook or Twitter have an opportunity to monetize with Ads? What Apple is doing will blow it away. Keep watching the video and notice the interaction and video that is involved in the ad. This thing is HUGE.
I’m not an Apple fan-boy.
For my regular readers, you know I’m not a big huge fan of Apple products. However, I do love my iPod Touch. (I also want an iPad. They look cool.)
But this advertising platform will be the primary advertising tool for iPhones, iPods, and iPads. It is a HUGE opportunity. I strongly suggest that you start paying attention to this space if you have not already.
If you are a blogger, content creator, online marketer, or sell anything online… This is your chance. Don’t blow it.
If you don’t have a simple iPhone app already, go make one immediately. You can use a simple service such as Mobile Roady to get going quickly and cheaply. Start getting users and be ready to either put ads on your app or get people to download your app by advertising it on other apps.
For those of us that look back longingly at the “good ole days” of getting very cheap advertising on Google AdWords (and Overture), this is your chance. Get in early to this new platform and it will likely start out cheap. Capitalize early, because it won’t last long. Prices will rise fast.
Over the last few days we moved our office from Cornelius to Huntersville, NC. We really enjoyed being with Andy Pipas at Pipas Chiropractor since June 2007. But this opportunity was too good to pass up.
Our new location is about the same size but offers very high-end professional training rooms for no additional cost. The main reason we moved was because it was too good to pass up. (This place is REALLY nice!) So now we’re here for a minimum of 15 months.
I can’t wait to share the pictures with all of you, but I can’t find my camera yet. I’m pretty much unpacked, but it took several days to get everything moved and setup. All four of us are now up and running.
At the same time as the move my designer got sick, my lead web guy went on vacation, we transferred our e-commerce sites to dedicated hosting, and I’ve been in discussions with two amazing businesses for projects that are extremely interesting. (One is for an iPhone app and the other is for social media with a very large company.) I’m also still trying to drive my current internal project with full force.
Today is Friday. I’m very ready for the weekend.
(I’ll get some pictures posted of the new place soon.)
Think Google AdWords – for apps.
Steve Jobs thinks so.