Sean Blanda's blog

SXSW: News apps outperform games

According to Flurry, the average news mobile application session clocks in at ten minutes – even game apps don’t do that.

The mobile analytics company was one of four panelists at the “App-vertising” panel here at South by Southwest. Representatives from Foursquare, I’m Big in Japan, Flurry and Mobile Behavior gathered to talk about the next generation of mobile advertising with a focus on the $4.2 million downloadable application market.


4 reasons Facebook should be your next CMS

First Facebook pioneered the concept of a “news feed” for friends. Now, the social networking giant is about to strike again with its upcoming roll out of Facebook Credits, an online currency to purchase digital goods. 


Back to the drawing board

After I filed my piece detailing my experience as a Demand Studios writer, I was discouraged that I had to leave the reader hanging as I had yet to get my story approved and published.


4 tools to kickstart audience development

The average American spends 66 hours a month online. While publishers can't make readers spend all of that time on their webpages, they can make sure readers are engaged with the brand, even if they are spending time on another domain.

However, it will require a few helpful tools:


Will the iPad “revolution” leave behind small publishers?

Today Apple announced that the iPad will drop on April 3rd and preorders will be open next week.

For many publishers the exact date of the device’s release is irrelevant as they already were approached by Apple months ago and will be completing their iPad offerings in the next few weeks.


5 editorial performance enhancers

When editors and publishers discuss ways to improve editorial, too often the solutions are complicated and take weeks. Sometimes, all we need is a quick shot in the arm.

Thankfully there are lots of plugins, scripts and APIs available to help give your content more depth. And best of all: most take less than an hour to install and cost nothing.

Here are our favorite quick ways to enhance your editorial process:


Building the ultimate online sales rep

If you think the content game has been rapidly changing, try being in sales. While editorial staffs get to dream up new ways of delivering information, it’s the sales staff that often has to figure out how to monetize it.


Three free servers to kickstart your ad sales

For new or small publishers, navigating the myriad of advertising server options can be tough. There are dozens of vendors out there, and most require a back-and-forth sales process, a high monthly fee and a bit of research.

However, If you want to just get your advertising operation off the ground without significant technological or financial investment, here are our favorite options for bootstrapping your ad serving:


Why Silicon Alley Insider is the Hooters of the Internet

Let’s get something out of the way: I absolutely enjoy reading Silicon Alley Insider. Its tech and media stories often find their way into our Daily Buzz email and the publication is big part of my morning Google Reader binge.

However, after reading the site for a few months I’ve noticed the publication often relies on the shameless use of women and sex-related headlines to drive pageviews. 

A few examples:


Blip.tv triples CTR with interactive ads

When Blip.tv started implementing interactive online advertisements on its videos, the company began to have a trust problem.

"It is not uncommon for clients we are working with to call the third party stats provider and ask for verification of the click-through rates," says COO and co-founder Dina Kaplan. 


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