Charles Lau dot Com

It was a good combination of adsense referrals program to be part of the whole Adsense program of showing Google Ads on our blogs and websites.  However, Adsense Referrals Program is retiring by end of August 2008.  This means that we have to remove our no-longer-working links from our websites.  And in place of Adsense Referrals Program, Google is using Google Affiliate Network (part of the integration of DoubleClick).

In other words, we have to change our links accordingly to be part of Google Affiliate Network.

Well, I thought they could have integrated DoubleClick into part of the Adsense Program since it will only make it stronger.

Probably they wanted an easier reference of the naming convention to be part of Google network.

Well, let’s take a look at the following terms:

Google Adsense - Make money from ads

Google Adwords - Buy Google Ads

Google Analytics - Analyse your site

Google Affiliate Network - Make referral sales

Yes, it does make sense to call it as Google Affiliate Network.  It can be confusing to called it as “Google Adsense Referrals Program”.  After Google has acquired DoubleClick, they must have thinking of how to position this to their strength.  And they might as well rename the whole Google naming for it.

Think about it. Google does work like Microsoft nowadays.  Google is dominating the whole Internet, just like Microsoft is dominating the desktop market.  Both are acquiring useful (or I should call it threatening?) companies for their usage, or to let it rot…

Hopefully, this is not going to hurt any new creativity or entrepreneurship.  It seems like many companies has been trying to create buzzing websites with no sign of making profits at all for the last few years. They could be working towards permission marketing arena, or probably waiting for Google to acquire them sooner or later… Everybody has been talking about how Twitter is going to make money online, while ZDNet suggests that Twitter could become the next PayPal.

I have been researching and working on starting Internet marketing on a corporate level. It has become dawn to me that corporate companies tend to know a lot about Interruption marketing just because it is more scalable. To a certain extend, interruption seems unavoidable since that’s the first approach to any stranger out there. But these companies have obviously overlooked one point which make them part of the same world out there.

Every company is very driven by sales. It is the only way which makes or breaks a company apart. Everybody wants to make easy money by working for a big company, trying very hard not to lose and in the end, they made their lives miserable. Whereas those people who are very motivated in a company, are those who are trying very hard to WIN! There’s a great difference between these two phrases. I do realize that most of the people are working very hard not to lose. And that’s because they think of working as a chore more than a satisfaction.

While the sales team are very motivated to win because they are very driven by their commissions, the fixed salaried personnels are trying very hard not to lose.

The reason why this point is mentioned is because the interruption marketing has made in measurable for a company to grow consistently. Though the profits may not be as huge because of the enormous expenses on interruption marketing, it is sufficient to keep a company alive and growing.

In the big companies’ world, they only think of how many people they can interrupt in order to make sufficient sales. The huge leverage on the TV advertisement has made it possible to interrupt more than half a million people. The huge leverage on the newspaper advertisement is possibly interrupting about half a million people in just one day. (Singapore’s estimate)

It is like wearing properly in a shirt and tie with pants, and start approaching every girl in a pub for a wedding proposal. Once he is done, he will have a very small percentage of people who likes him. So that’s measurable to him. And he will keep on approaching in other pubs. And when one pub returns no result for him, he will start to blame on his tie not straight, his pants not ironed properly, or probably the girls (market acceptance) are not interested in him (product). (Story extracted partially from Permission Marketing (affiliated link), authored by Seth Godin)

Permission marketing still requires to take one small little interruption to the strangers, and provide huge leverage because of its probably viral effect. There is no choice since it is the only way to say “Hello” to any stranger. But permission marketing is more likely to win. Taking the same example as previous paragraph, this same guy starts to focus on a certain girl to date her out, understand her better and making communication to work. That’s when the permission is granted for further progress, instead of talking about number game.

Have you wonder why some people don’t seem to work better in sales? When they faced a rejection in sale, they feel sad about it? That’s because their sales managers have probably told them “So what? Next! It’s all about number game…” And if they could catch the ball about interruption marketing, they will start to believe in this system. And those who couldn’t catch the ball, thought that they are not qualified as a sales person. Well, if only they know this thing called permission marketing…

I believe any company in Singapore really hoped to have the same kind of “marketing exposure” that Mas Salamat Kastari had. His photo is basically everywhere in Singapore. If you have come to Singapore recently, you would have seen his photograph for at least more than once. It has already become a norm to see his photograph. For the first time in my life, I have never seen such a “Wanted Man” photo posted like this before.

I happened to see a parody of it recently. It is no surprise that any marketer would have thought of leveraging on such an exposure that he could actually create a buzz himself. I saw this “wanted list” at the Orchard car park when I was parking my car opposite Orchard Cineleisure.

This paper is definitely not incidental. He might have thought of doing this interruption marketing many years ago. But with the continual pursuit of Singapore’s most-wanted terror fugitive, this poster is definitely going to get more attention from the public.

Have you all ever had an experience of going to the shop, only to be disappointed because it has closed? I think that is very common to all of us. And to me, I am particularly sensitive towards business behavior towards customers because I simply enjoy the process of a business system from ground up. This particular experience made me felt really lousy, and I have really thought of not going back to that shop anymore. Here’s what happen.

By the way, I am a full-time internet marketing executive, and I was working late at HarbourFront Tower on 23rd June 2008. I felt my hair was quite long and messy, so I went to VivoCity hoping to have a quick SGD$10 haircut at QB House. I rushed all the way to VivoCity, and I can tell you that I was really glad to see from a distance that the hairstylists are still there at 9.50pm. Probably I was really late for the haircut. I ran there, and saw one of the employees was just about to turn the shop sign to “We Are Closed”. I went to ask the hairstylist for a quick haircut, she hesitated for quite a while as the other hairstylist showed a crossed hand indicating to her that they have closed. This hairstylist then replied that “We are closed”. I was looking at the other hairstylist for a while, and then looking at my watch. It was 9.50pm.

Please take a good look at this snapshot I got from QB House website…

Ok, I don’t know what time they are closing actually. But it can’t be at the odd hour of 9.50pm. Or unless they are working overtime since 9.30pm or even 9pm. The correct answer from the website shows that they are closed at 10pm.

What I am trying to show you is the power of internet marketing which is so personnal, it can be done at the consumer level! So many companies out there have been spending so much money on marketing themselves, and they thought the minority of complaints wouldn’t be able to spread. I am sorry to tell these companies that the social media networks are growing in strength and there are numerous of them! Most of the big companies even chose to be “blind” and “deaf” about all these things.

All these things are going to change in the very near future… And because of the advanced level of marketing today which is made so simple and easy, products and services will simply become better and better as the lousy ones are going to be closing forever.

I am not really trying to prove who is right or wrong. I could be in the wrong too because they may have a system of closing at 9.50pm and ready to go by 10pm? I don’t know anyway. Anyway, they should not have over-promised their timing. Maybe it’s just those two hairstylists being tired and not wanting to make more money since work can never be completed. Probably I may send a email to them to find out more.

Subway came to the RESCUE!
On the other hand, I wish to thank Subway for staying operational after 10pm because I was so hungry at that time after getting myself angry with QB House. I went to their restaurant, and took Subway Melt meal. Actually, they are closing already when I was reaching there. It happens exactly the same situation as QB House. However, I went ahead and ask politely for a meal. The auntie looked really nice enough and tell me what meal I want, and even told me that they are left with Italian and wheat bread. My heart really melted by her words… What makes me even felt good is that there is no cookies for me to choose from, but the guy offered to went behind to his inventory to fetch me my choices of cookies…

And because of me, the queue for Subway food starts to form up even though they have closed.

I was wondering how they are dealing with the queue, so I stayed quietly at the side to see. I was shocked to see that they are still trying to cater to the queue! It was until there wasn’t anybody queuing that they start to do cleaning up, and that’s when they couldn’t cater anymore. Great service!

I can understand that this is probably happening more on the personal basis by the employees, and it might not be happening in other Subway restaurants. However, this kind of little service can be viral. “Pssst! Subway should be still serving food right now. Let’s go there!” Ok, it might not be a good thing for the tiring employees who worked the whole day. By working an additional 20 minutes, Subway could actually think of diverting their advertising budget towards their employees’ pocket! But it is definitely worthed it since it is gaining exposure by making the customers to spread for them. Isn’t that Win-Win situation where Subway makes a little more money while the customers are helping to spread the Subway brand as a whole? Many companies have been spending millions of dollars just to maintain the people to talk about their series of advertisement!

Working on an online business is not as hard as you think it might be. It only takes you to create a website which you already know, rather to work on a new project which you still are not sure what the contents are. It can be daunting to find out that you are always pursuing information which makes you like an expert, and yet you don’t feel like one. It also can be a real pain to get everything started when you can’t think of any expertise you have, except to learn from the Internet Marketing “gurus” who overcharged you to buy their courses which don’t require any further action from them, except to duplicate the contents.

I had just reviewed EmpireDotCom. I mentioned about the social bookmarkings that he has been self-servicing on his own blog. And now, right after I have done a review, I start to see some bookmarks on my site from Chendong, the creator of EmpireDotCom. What’s interesting is that Chendong has sphunn my sponsored post about his website, and I see another person desphinned it, commenting “Submitting a review of your blog that you paid for … no thanks…………..”. That’s very interesting point I have mentioned previously that he has fallen into again.

I have a feeling that the Web 1.0 marketers have disillusioned many amateurs in their online startups. Those Web 1.0 marketers themselves have done a pretty good job in creating a reputation that they are really expert in the Internet marketing when they want to teach. Well, in fact they have done well to provide such a benefit to their customers. I don’t particularly like Matt Bacak’s way of promoting himself. By the way, he called himself “Powerful Promoter”. I remember clearly that I have unsubscribed to his newsletter, and yet he is trying his luck to send me emails after a short period of time.

In this world where permission marketing comes, my favorite marketer - Seth Godin - has revealed that permission marketing is anticipated, personal and relevant to the people who eagerly want to be marketed. I am a huge fan towards permission marketing because that creates the real lifetime value of customers.

There is a difference between the small companies and the multi-national companies. Small companies focus on cultivating relationship with their customers, even up to the extend of making no money or even lose money for a period of time. But the return is good to make them grow. That’s how small companies especially in Singapore are working towards. You tend to see those “underdogs” making extra efforts to serve you better, while the big companies simply don’t care generally even if you are not giving them business. The mentality of the big companies is all about number game. If they are interrupting 100 people and 5 customers are giving them business, they will spend more money to market towards 100,000 prospects for potential 5000 customers. It sure does make sense to them since they are working on the mass level. It also gives the small companies a disillusion that they have to look for more money to be like the big companies.

However, permission marketing has changed it all. It gives the companies instant access to the customers’ pocket for more money because the customers gave them permission to. So it takes an expert to be personal to his customers because we all know he is an expert. It turned out that he might be having 90 customers out of 100 prospected people!

The reason why those small companies in Singapore remain small, is because they are acting like a big company. They are paying high rents for office space, thousands of dollars on job salary, and miscellaneous expenses. Also, not to forget to buy goods from suppliers! Technology has changed all these. Internet has become the perfect system to work as a small company, and make huge money like a big company. People don’t mind to receive emails because they are checking emails only when they are free. But they will definitely mind people doing cold calling, only to say “Sorry to interrupt you, we are from this company.”

All these things are going to change for sure… And we will start to see a good combination of the three major mediums - Internet, TV and Radio. They are definitely not going to replace the other, but they are customizable to the marketer’s needs.