AOL has launched When.com, an online guide to local events. It looks like a great place to scout for weekend activities in your area, or places to go or events to enjoy at any time. PC Magazine notes of the new service: “It’s powered by Zvents, a local search engine behind hundreds of Web and mobile partners, featuring event listings to promote local businesses. When.com will derive revenue from online advertising sold through AOL’s Platform-A service.”
With new evidence from Online Publishers’ Association showing branded environments are much more effective venues for online advertising than directories and portals, many directories come more into focus as SEO-only spends. How do you measure their effectiveness? What role do they play in your advertising or the advertising you recommend to clients? Has this changed in the last year or so? A lively discussion would be fun!
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Abigail Hamilton is a professional with over a decade of experience in small business, enterprise, and business-to-business design and marketing. She loves writing for the Web, creating and maintaining brand identities,…
Seattle Weekly just did a story about the company behind Sound Publishing, a large NW newspaper group for which I used to be Corporate Art Director. The Weekly covered the business model really well, including an acknowledgement that many people find it to get a free paper that is delivered-to-your-door-whether-you-like-it-or-not, full of massive amounts of chain store circulars and coupons that need to be recycled.
The story also mentions how the company doesn’t consider its online properties to be as important as its print titles. I think this is reflective of how hard it is for veteran print salespeople to sell online…
