We’ve had a wonderfully busy week so far at Affiliate Summit East, and we can’t wait to enjoy the hustle and bustle of LeadsCon tomorrow. The show’s been incredibly busy with a lot of business being made and a lot of ECN credits being given out!

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to release the results of our new survey of lead gen professionals. In the survey’s key finding, 20.3% of respondents noted that they consider 3^rd party opt-in email campaigns the most underutilized method of lead generation. Other findings include that 36% of lead gen professionals have utilized 3^rd party opt-in email campaigns either now or in the past, and 35.9% believe that Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search campaigns are the most effective lead gen method.

We absolutely love visitors, and would be happy to discuss our survey results along with any of our multiple integrated programs including PPC, Remarketing, email marketing, and display advertising! Come visit Carolina, Irina, Maricel and Narine at our Affiliate Summit East booth #306 today or visit us at booth #200 at LeadsCon!

-The Advertise.com Team

According to a new Pew Internet survey, 92% of online adults use search engines to find information on the web, and 59% of them do so on a daily basis. This puts search at the top of the list of most popular online activities, but it’s not alone! Among online adults, 92% use email, with 61% using it on an average day. Since PEW started measuring adults’ online activities in 2002, search and email have consistently ranked as the most popular.

Even in 2002, eight in ten adults were using search engines, and more than nine in ten were emailing. The table below shows how these two activities have compared over time to some of the other popular online activities.

Obviously the internet population has grown substantially since 2002, so the overall number of email and search users has increased. In January 2002, 55% of all Americans said that they used email and now that number has grown to 70%.

Naturally we’re happy to hear about healthy search and email numbers. Search is a fundamental element in Advertise.com’s business, and increasingly email is as well. The Advertise.com Email Content Network (ECN) introduced earlier this year connects advertisers with millions of consumers who have opted-in to receive email offers in categories that interest them. Our ECN is ideal for advertisers looking for incremental traffic from users who are prequalified to receive relevant offers and updates.

Can’t wait to see next year’s numbers. Thank you, Pew!

-The Advertise.com Team

To celebrate our move to our new office we had a Karaoke night at Skinny’s Lounge for an evening of food, drinks and songs/laughter!  There’s nothing like a rousing night of singing your favorite tunes to level the playing field and unite everyone together with gems like Livin’ on a Prayer, I will Survive, Baby Got Back and Oops i did it Again. Speaking of which, be sure to catch the video below of our CEO Daniel Yomtobian singing the Britney classic.

With July 4th a thing of the past, summer is in full swing. For us that means we’re hitting the road!

If you’re in New York this August, look for us! The Advertise.com team will be at Affiliate Summit East 2011 August 22-23 in NYC at the Hilton New York.  It’s the best show for anyone interested in affiliate marketing.

Fresh off of Affiliate Summit we’ll be exhibiting at LeadsCon East for the online lead generation and customer acquisition industry. It runs August 24-25 also at the very same hotel: The Hilton New York. At LeadsCon we will be featuring our Email Content Network, an ideal source of high quality leads for almost any vertical.

Recap:

Affiliate Summit East
August 22-23 @ The Hilton NYC
Meet Market Table #95
Booth#306

LeadsCon
August 24-25 @ The Hilton NYC
Booth #200

To schedule some time to meet at either show, please email us with your contact details and a good time for you to stop by our booth to chat.

Here’s to a fantastic summer…and awesome online campaigns!

–The Advertise.com Team

Our CEO Daniel Yomtobian recently wrote an article for iMedia Connection that discusses ways to combat banner blindness. He discusses how, when targeted correctly, online ads can help us save money, research products, update us on our favorite brands and lead us to new ones we like. Dan also points out how, contrary to popular belief, Facebook isn’t immune to banner blindness. Rates at which users clicking on Facebook ads designed to generate fans are starting to decline—even as they become more expensive. We thought it would be helpful to outline Dan’s main pointers to keep in mind:

• Flash banners give you the ability to have 15 seconds of animation. Use them to convey your message effectively, not purely for distraction.
• If someone has shown interest before, don’t give up but use remarketing. Remarketing helps consumers see banner ads that are more relevant to their interests.
• Help your audience get to know you better. Tell them how you differ from the competition and highlight your advantages.
• Give people what they want by including enticing promotions and offers. If you expect someone to click on the banner, you must give them a compelling reason.
• If ad creative design is boring, you’ll know it. Mix it up to really stand out and capture attention.
• Stick with online advertising. Most people spend hours per day surfing the net, with banners loaded onto pages where the users are looking at personally selected content, with no ability to fast forward or remove a banner from a page.

Dan makes it clear that when targeted correctly, banner ads are a very cost efficient way of linking you to your customer. Advertisers with vision and creativity achieve great engagement and branding value by going beyond banner blindness and running banner campaigns with highly targeted and enticing content.

-The Advertise.com Team

Congratulations to Jeff Giles of First Impression Interactive! Jeff attended our 10th Anniversary party at ad:tech, had his picture taken, tagged himself on our Facebook page and is walking away with a brand new iPad! We’d like to thank everyone who participated in our Facebook iPad giveaway. Keep your eyes out for even more promotions and giveaways to come!

-The Advertise.com team

Our 10th Anniversary Party is fast approaching, and we’re counting down the hours! We believe that there are many reasons everyone else should be, too. We’ll send one lucky attendee home with a Vespa, the popular Italian motor scooter. For a chance to win this Vespa, be sure to bring an extra business card for the drawing at the party. Also, an iPad giveaway promotion via our Advertise.com Facebook page gives our attendees more chances to win!

To enter the iPad promotion,  start by having your picture taken at the party. After April 13^th, visit our Facebook page and simply “Like” Advertise.com. Then, find your picture in the party’s photo album and tag yourself. Once you tag yourself you’ll be entered into the iPad drawing to take place on April 26^th.

The party is tomorrow, Tuesday, April 12^th, and will start at 9 p.m at Ruby Skye. The event will feature DJ Carvalho, a laser show, hosted bar, and live dancers. All you need is your ad:tech San Francisco badge for admission. To RSVP, click here.

Make sure to show up early, as we have almost 1,000 RSVPs!  Believe us, this is one ad:tech party you DON’T want to miss!

–The Advertise.com team

As most of you may know, this week Google announced the +1 button to rival Facebook’s Like button. This new innovation launched on Wednesday as a part of Google’s search engine, allowing you to “+1” the ads and search results that you like.

It comes as no surprise that the Internet is evolving with social media, enveloping everything around us.  We’ve come to expect social data wherever we are. We want to know what our contacts are thinking, how high they rated the products they’ve used and what their recommendations are before we even start our research. It makes sense that Google would release something like the +1 button, but there has been no mention of what social networks these +1’s will be linked to. Is it just your Google account?

Also, if Google’s goal is to make the quality of advertising better by rewarding ads and listings with higher +1’s with cheaper advertising, this will be a huge disadvantage for smaller and lesser known advertisers. If a user has never been to a company’s site, how can they award a +1 to the ad or listing before visiting the site? Are they expected to press the back button? Honestly, Google knows that listings with familiar faces will receive higher click through rates, so why not put a +1 button next to company listings so users can +1 familiar companies so friends can see it? We think it makes sense… for Google and larger brands.

What are your thoughts on Google’s +1 button?

–The Advertise.com team

Ten years and 9 billion delivered visits later, we’re having a party! Join us in celebrating 10 years of success during ad:tech San Francisco. The party, which includes a hosted bar, will take place on Tuesday, April 12th, beginning at 9PM. The party will be at Ruby Skye, San Francisco’s #1 night club. All that’s needed for admission is your ad:tech badge!

This blowout will feature DJ Carvalho, live dancers, as well as Vespa and iPad giveaways.  Don’t forget to bring your business cards to enter!

To RSVP for this once in a lifetime event, click here.

Our all-inclusive event at the hottest club in San Francisco makes this an event you really don’t want to miss. We look forward to seeing you then!

–The Advertise.com team

As you may recall, we announced our Email Content Network (ECN) back in January. To recap, ECN connects advertisers’ ads with millions of consumers who’ve opted in to get email updates from our high quality publisher partners in categories of interest. The new network is geared towards advertisers looking for extra vertical targeting for their campaigns.  For advertisers, the ECN expands the potential audience for their products and services by making consumers aware of brands that interest them.

At the same time ECN is attractive to publishers because it ensures profitable campaigns with competitive cost-per-clicks.   So far, we’ve received great feedback on our new product from advertisers and publishers. Take a look at early comments from our publisher partners:

“In the short period of time we’ve been working with Advertise.com, they’ve quickly become one of our favorite partners. They have built some very competitive and high converting offers, and they’re very responsive and easy to work with.”

– Proffiliates Inc.

“I normally do not make recommendations. However since I have been mailing at Advertise.com I have seen my revenue increase. My account manager was super helpful in getting me started. So I say… give ‘em a try.”

– Anonymous publisher

“We have been a publisher with Advertise.com for over a month now. The CPC payouts have been among the highest and most consistent in the industry. The Advertise.com pub team is very easy to work with and they help with any issues. I would recommend any publisher looking for a new Network for offers to give Advertise.com a try.”

– Tam Nguyen CEO at Inbox Media LLC

We live to serve our advertisers, but our publishers partners also need to be satisfied to achieve this and it looks like we’re on the right track.  Stay tuned for more comments as they roll in…

–The Advertise.com Team