We can expect more user-friendly ads popping up (courtesy of AdWords) instead of the conventional commercial breaks when Google dominates the mainstream media. And Google has recently demonstrated in this post on how online advertising can be more dynamic than ever before. Of course, low-spenders won’t be able to wallow in the massive traffic this project will bring in, especially now that videos ads on YouTube are being hoarded by the spending corporations via both banner and interstitial ads.

One of the most prominent names in paid cable broadcasts, Dish Network, has recently announced its newfound advertising ties with Google TV. Both standard definition (SD) and high-definition broadcasts (HD) are both accessible to Google TV Ads advertisers. Google TV advertising will now be integrated and ads are now scheduled to hit sometime this fall to all subscriber levels of Dish Network’s programs.

As quoted by Charlie Ergen, founder, Chairman and President and CEO of DISH Network: “DISH Network has enjoyed a strong partnership with Google for many years, built on a common foundation of innovative thinking and risk-taking.” Alongside the confirmation, “DISH Network’s integration of Google TV marks the next evolution in television, and DISH Network customers will be able to enjoy the best of TV and the web in one platform using their existing HD DVR receivers and a Google TV device.”

For a complete list of SD channels supported by Google TV Ads, go here:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/packages/programming/default.aspx

For HD channels, you can visit this link:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/hdtv/default.aspx
The number of people watching cable television, both on TV and on the internet has risen to an all-time high, based on recent surveys. Though social networking remains a fierce foe to the television industry, the number of people watching digital media had actually increased, mostly because sales figures of print media such as newspapers and magazines began dropping in the last seven months.

Stock market news, business news, world news and political pundit shows can now be watched and streamed to your TV for free. For entrepreneurs, this will be fantastic; for the average consumer, we don’t expect them to change channels once Google hits the touchdown.

Remember the recent iPhone 4 “prototype” leak that was buzzing across the interwebs? Well, it’s official – the “prototype” was indeed FROM Apple, it wasn’t a hoax and Steve Jobs just got down with its European breakthrough release in his keynote speech held at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last June 7.

The iPhone 4 combines all the aesthetics and functionality any consumer would expect from Apple. The OS, however, was revamped and given a new name: iOS 4. The software update’s two major distinctions are: the ease of multitasking and App folders: both enough to please App hoarders and tech savvy multitaskers.

The iPhone 4 has loads of new and improved features the average consumer had eagerly failed to expect from its predecessor, the iPhone 3GS. One notable feature is the thinner profile of the new iPhone, measuring only 9.3mm, heavily contrasted to the much thicker (12.3mm) iPhone 3GS. The exterior of the iPhone 4 has undergone a major overhaul – aluminosilicate glass is the material being used for the backplate of the new iPhone. The material is 30 times more resistant to breakage and scratches than regular plastic surfaces used on competitor phones.

Battery life has also dramatically improved from the usual talk time of seven hours, the iPhone 4’s battery life is now rated at an optimal degree of 40 hours of talk and 10 hours of video playback (optimum LED brightness, of course). People can now do more with their iPhones, considering that battery life was once a derogatory term when paired with Apple’s products.

The iPhone 4 offers, by far, the sweetest eye candy any handheld device could give. The rich 960×640 LED backlit display, paired with a 800:1 display contrast ratio is more than enough to provide you crisp-clear visuals when viewing 720p content straight off the device itself. The flagship “Retina Display” technology, patented by Apple, when simplified, means that the iPhone 4 has displays so clear and crisp, not even the regular human eye can process.

The iPhone 4 shares the same processor with iPad. The newly-released A4 processor will enable unchartered multitasking abilities with a generous 1 GHZ clock speeds. But what strikes me most is how this processor can drain the juice out of the iPhone’s battery. But as Steve Jobs emphasized the playback, I’m assuming that the processor was downclocked to provide equilibrium. Expect more process-hungry apps to be developed and sold by the end of this year.

Apple has not dissolved its partnership with AT&T yet, so users will again be stuck with the carrier services. Pricing for the iPhone 4 is set to start at $199 (new activation, standard upgrade). Estimated time of arrival in retail outlets is yet to be announced officially. For now, European users will be given the first taste of the ingenious iPhone 4.

It’s been four years since we’ve seen a major overhaul in Apple’s line of Macbooks. The Core2Duo platform paired with the NVidia mobile series GPUs have been the cerebral performance factors within the elegant aesthetics of the Macbook.

Apple has been notoriously innovative with software, but its liking for integrating state-of-the-art hardware has always been questioned? Its conservative ideologies toward adopting faster hardware has always been criticized by major figures in the tech industry. But Apple always seems to have the last laugh whenever their reputation is under the dire straits.

Anyone can tell that Apple’s late on the laptop party. Several notable manufacturers have already switched to the i series platform of processors. Take for example Acer and Asus, both of which have already been using core i3/i5 processors for some time now on their new notebook releases, with Asus’ K42JR/K42JR Series and Acer’s 4740/ 4740G Series. Let’s also not forget Hewlett-Packard/Compaq’s CQ Series and the Sony Vaio Y Series, having joined the party too – and let’s not also forget Toshiba’sSatellite Series upgrade.

What’s happening with Apple right now is a bit intriguing, but its nice knowing the company that innovated the iPhone may have more aces up sleeves. Considering the infancy stage of the core i5 series, Apple may just be reading a feasibility report on these processors before it goes into full sync with them.

In my experience, it comes down to the simple principle of treating others the way you would want to be treated, and in twitter’s case: “tweet others the way you want to be tweeted.” So for all you wascaly wabbits out there, just keep that in mind and you will grow the be successful.

Here’s an awesome video from Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing, talking about interruption marketing:

So, the people behind this video also have a book that I’m reading right now:

Inbound Marketing Book, Click For Amazon.com

I am thoroughly enjoying this book.
Not only does it show examples and
good ideas, but it gives specific tasks
to follow for you to put the ideas to
work for your website and/or business.
(I will write a full review soon)

A decade ago, the form factor of the commercial hard disk was so bulky, people wouldn’t even dare showcase them in public. The modern data storage of today, however, is so stylish, anyone could mistake it for a blackberry – I’m talking about a solid state drives (SSD) of course.

The SSD’s predecessor, the SATA drive, though capable of attaining high speeds, cannot compare to the speeds and performance delivered by the SSD. Why? Because while a hard disk locates the physical data using pins – SSDs don’t. Solid state drives can access the data you want in light speed using blocks of memory. There’s a major difference in the interior architecture of a SATA drive and an SSD: First, a SATA has moving parts (or pins, as most people call them), while SSDs don’t. The SSD’s interior like a microchip or a RAM chip with interconnected parts: it’s lighter, faster and most of all, so silent, you won’t even notice that there’s an SSD running.

The best thing about SSDs is that they consume very minimal power and they’re more effective in retaining data during sudden power outages.

The biggest downside to SSDs is that they’re very expensive – it’s like comparing the price of an HD DVD to a Blu-ray Disc. And with their silicon architecture, SSDs are more prone to wear and tear (just like flash disks).

But overall, the innovations made to the newer line of SSDs nowadays is slowly negating the interest of people on SATA drives and shifting their attention to SSDs. The wear and tear problem can be reengineered to make them last longer. As for SATA drives, they’re nearing their end. Within the next three years or so, the mainstream internal storage devices would most likely be SSD instead of SATA.

I’m sure you’ve been hearing about the buzz about OLED LCD Monitors. Some of the hearsay is that OLED display is sharper than standard LCD display and the power consumption is very low. Well, to tell you the truth, those sweet spots are not just hearsay… they’re facts.

The traditional LCD Display can only display contrast ratios of up to 200,000:1, while OLED LCD monitors promises contrast ratios of mind-boggling proportions: 8,000,000:1 at the minimum. Talk about crystal clear display! The even better bargain on these OLED monitors is that they’re rapidly becoming cheaper and more models that use “organic” display (the O in OLED). LG has its consumer price-friendly OLED monitor, the W2286L and Acer has also its own stylish piece, the S243HL – both brands are affordably priced and have superb architecture to go with the awesome display.

While one may think that OLED monitors are simply unmatched in performance, they’re right. But the longetivity and durability of these monitors are still subject to an overhaul. Organic display has only an estimated life of five years (for the earlier models) before the screen dims due to wear.

Also, OLED screen are also prone to screen burn-ins, making them a bit sensitive to some color tints. Water damage also poses a serious threat to clumsy or unwary OLED owners. Warranty, for the most part, does not cover water spillages, so one should think twice about placing that glass of water near the monitor.

But even though there are setbacks on owning an OLED monitor, the performance they deliver is awesome. The best part is that the wattage consumption is so low that in comparison, a fluorescent light bulb consumes more electricity.

OLED monitors are definitely here to stay. For gamers: pure pawnage; graphic designer: display accuracy heaven; and for the regular consumer: jaw-dropping vivid colors.

(insert a section with amazon affiliate links for “products mentioned in this post)

Bounce Rate is a term used to quantitatively and qualitatively measure the effectiveness of a landing page and overall site performance. The Bounce Rate measures the number of visitors who view the landing page (via search engines) or URL of a website and close it immediately thereafter, without clicking on other links within the website.

The higher the Bounce Rate, the lower the overall traffic a website receives, since only one page is being viewed. Content-rich pages like wikis have low Bounce Rates, since the links to other pages are in the content itself. Social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have the lowest Bounce Rates since almost everything you’re looking for (people, products, events, organizations) are located within the site itself. This means you don’t have to leave Facebook and use a search engine to find what you’re looking for. The search can be done through Facebook itself.

Websites with high Bounce Rates are prone to stagnation and poor Google SERP rankings. Examples of these websites are information sites that lack “links within content”, “search suggestions” or “relevant topics” that promote visitor interest to scan the entire website for relevant/interesting content. It is important to integrate schematics that will let people take interest in the website.

Other on-page factors are page-load speed. PPC advertisers face this problem because when a certain person clicks the advertiser’s link on Google’s SERP, it may load slowly or partially, leaving the user to unrest, and thus, searching for another website with a similar topic. In analytics, slow-loading or broken links yield tumultuously high Bounce Rates. Regardless of the quality of content a website has, page load speed still plays a key role in driving traffic and boosting ratings.

Other common site problems that contribute to a high Bounce Rate include:

• Too many backlinks (links that divert to another website)
• Irrelevant/poor content
• Dead links
• Pop-ups
• Lack of suggestive on-site content
• Non-use of website optimization tools (see Google’s Website Optimizer)

An example of a Bounce Rate computation for the home page:
Bounce Rate for Home Page = Total number of visits to Home Page/Total number of entire website visits

One useful tip to lower the Bounce Rate to minimum is by integrating an unobtrusive comments/suggestion box on your webpage. This way, you can single out the cause of traffic problems by asking the visitor themselves on what they think is wrong with your website. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.

Exit Rates, on the other hand, (not to be confused with Bounce Rates) are more often the reason why some websites succeed with their campaigns and marketing promotions. The Exit Rate is the rate wherein a certain proportion of visitors click and navigate throughout your website, visit a certain page they are looking for, fill out some forms (to either purchase something or to contact the webmaster), and then exit the website. The Exit Rate is computed by dividing the rate of visitors that left a certain page over the total number of visits of that page. See the example below:

Exit Rate for Contact Page = Total visits and to the Contact Me page (via site search); then, site exit/Total visits to the Contact Me page

For a start-up business, initial sales figures can be atrocious –that is why most business owners often resort to connivance with top copywriters and marketing gurus to drive sales to a tenfold sum.

But if the words and the ad gimmicks don’t just cut it, guerrilla tactics come into play. But what exactly is guerrilla marketing? How does it work? Below is an answer to your questions.

Guerrilla marketing, is in fact, marketing, per se. The only difference is that the business employing guerrilla tactics uses unconventional methods to market a certain product. These methods often employ the use of hired people to use that business’ products and in turn, those “hired people” spread positive testimonials about the products profound effects, even though half of those stories are either made up or just plain lies.

Consider this: A giant shoe company wants to make it big in the teen shoe industry. The marketing director suggests hiring a bunch of popular high school students in a nearby academy to showcase the shoes to the community. The students aren’t exactly hired – they’re given the shoes for free, which they in turn, successfully promote by discretely telling all their classmates and friends in school how cool their shoes are. The tactic works when those “popular kids” tell their friends that the shoes they’re promoting were bought at a “reasonable price” at the malls instead of telling the truth that the shoes were in fact, given to them (with a catch). That, in itself, is guerrilla marketing. It works 90% of the time and doesn’t require too much blatant advertising. Word-of-mouth is actually more effective than advertising, come to think of it.

In the past, guerrilla marketing was only limited to street/campus promotions, now the web-driven world has opened doors for guerrilla tacticians everywhere.

A few notable examples of how online guerrilla marketing works are listed below:

1. Bribing network communication company officials to divulge active phone numbers and sending out mass messages promoting a product/service/cause.
2. Paying webmasters of popular websites to create a seemingly “unbiased” and “unpaid” positive testimonial of a product/service/cause.
3. Spreading video campaigns on popular video streaming sites like YouTube and MetaCafe, where a seemingly “unbiased” review is aimed to promote a product.
4. Sending out mass spam comments targeted to a specific blog/forum category.
5. Creating scripts on social networking sites that auto-adds users to be fans of a certain product (i.e., contact lenses, beauty products). This can also be done in a clean way by hiring a certain school personality to be the endorser of a product through her photo albums.
6. Creating awareness campaigns that entices users to buy a product. (i.e., the popular Emergency Seed Bank)
7. Paying users to post negative comments on a blog, forum or a video channel of a strong competitor.
8. Using divulged information to gain access to chat channels and personally making friends with leads through chat, empathizing with them and finally getting them to buy the product.
9. Using a referral scheme used by most paid-to-click (PTC) and survey websites that offer more money as you refer more people, thereby promoting the business rapidly as more people sign up.

The above-mentioned not only give us a vivid representation of how online guerrilla marketing works but also does it manifest how viral guerrilla marketing has become.

Fast-paced and incredibly viral – this is how everyone’s online presence shaped the realms of internet marketing.

WordPress.com is sometimes confused with WordPress.org. While both are owned by the same company and both use the same publishing platform, the .org website lets you download the WordPress software itself and then tells to you install it in your hosting server, giving you full authority over the deployed WordPress package. The .com website however, is like Blogger, because WordPress still hosts the blog and you have to pay for certain upgrades.

Search engine optimization (SEO) friendliness is one of WordPress’ key cerebral advantages over other CMS and blogging platforms. While a regular WordPress blog may look like just some other website you’ve seen, you may be wrong. WordPress-based blogs, on the average, rank higher than other websites that use different CMS platforms. WordPress was designed to help you get noticed on the web, and it hasn’t failed on its promises.

Below is a checklist of features that, in my own opinion, WordPress does extremely well in:

1.) Managing your WordPress CMS is easy. The Dashboard provides a clear overview of the website and its architecture. You can upload almost any file in the gallery. Blog composition is a breeze, since there’s both an HTML and visual editor. You can also add and rearrange boxes/pages to your liking, where you can put widgets and content forms. There’s also the amazing feature to let other people gain access to your Admin Center, letting them post content, and (optionally) giving them the absolute authority to edit everything they see. This is great for business owners who let other people do the blogging for them.

2.) There are thousands of themes to choose from, and they cater to all forms of businesses and causes, so you don’t have to design one yourself. There are free themes that can be downloaded from the WordPress site itself and some more being given away for free by other websites: (http://www.blogperfume.com/45-best-free-wordpress-themes-of-all-time/). But if free themes don’t suit your taste, you can always hire a freelance theme developer to create one for you. But if you think hiring someone to do a theme is too expensive, you can still purchase premium (paid) themes from sites like eCommerce Themes, Theme Forest and Elegant Themes and others like the ones mentioned in this blog page: (http://www.blueverse.com/2008/08/15/top-paid-and-free-premium-wordpress-themes-sites/).

Premium themes, most of the time, have better-looking and flexible interfaces than regular themes and a few others have already been SEO-optimized, like the Thesis Theme from DIY Themes. The possibilities are endless when it comes to designing the theme of your choice and the majority of great themes are free to download.

3.) Plugins are what keep WordPress popular and interesting and most importantly – stable. Plugins and features you’ve never thought a regular WordPress blog would have include: 1.) a mood changer, 2.) exchange rate predictions, and 3.) an event calendar. Truly, the plugins WordPress support have evolved from the basic spam filters to even the quirkiest ideas imaginable. And 90% of these plugins are free, so you’ll never get tired of improving your website’s appearance. A round-up of 2010’s most delectable plugins can be seen in this blog entry: (http://www.solostream.com/blog/wordpress/top-ten-wordpress-plugins-for-2010-part-1/).

4.) WordPress operates under the General Public License (GPL), meaning you can tweak it as much as you like without worrying about lawsuits. WordPress is open-source and very much open to constant improvements (see the Developer page).

Unlike other content management systems wherein you have to pay a monthly fee separate from your hosting, WordPress reduces the bills you pay because it does not charge a single cent for every feature it has.

This is the reason why WordPress theme designers are everywhere. The main benefit of open source software is the availability of multitudes of free stuff that can be integrated into the software. Firefox, as you may seem to notice, is in consonance with WordPress in terms of open-source development, that equals to both reliability and stability, and the numbers of users for the two different platforms are increasing because FREE spells glee.

WordPress, because of its open-source status, has been engineered for performance by the world’s best programmers who believe that everything great should be free.

5.) WordPress, as I’ve mentioned before, was designed and is continuously improved over time, for search engine optimization. It complies with all Google patents and has submerged itself into a deeper architecture that associates itself with all Google standards and algorithms. Many present and previous developers of Facebook have worked for Google, so they know the ropes when it comes to SEO. The evidence for this is that WordPress blogs regularly beats Blogger blogs on page rankings. And don’t fall into confusion if on the next day your blog gets indexed and placed on page one of Google’s SERP.

6.) WordPress is on continuous development and newer versions will be released in just a few months’ time. This is because as Google algorithms change, the need for a reengineered CMS architecture is a must. Plugins are also updated for compatibility.

7.) If you’ve read through the previous checklists, you’ll definitely feel that WordPress is more than just software run by people in an office. WordPress is run by the entire world and the more people who join in on the community, the better. This is the reason why open-source is far more dependable than hardcoded software. If one problem pops up, the entire world feeds the problem to the thousands of developers situated the world over and an overnight fix is released.

8.) Security is compromising issue for most business owners. PHP and SQL injections can breach and hack through almost every website – and WordPress is no exception. But thanks to constant improvement (version updates) and added plugins that reinforce privacy of login credentials, WordPress gets two thumbs up from everyone in the development community.

9.) WordPress is easy to deploy and 100% free to download. But if you’re not into programming languages and the sorts, you can search for easier instructions on YouTube and About.com on how to install WordPress correctly. Patience is a virtue, of course.

If you use CPanel hosting, then you’re at luck – WordPress can easily be deployed without FTP by using Fantastico scripts.

Below are instructional videos to get you started on a WordPress experience you’ll never forget:

Installing via Fantastico: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nxXsROoBYs
Installing manually via FTP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx6EFtJoIJo

Great! Now you’re set! Once you start blogging WordPress-style, do send a message and tell me your initial thoughts on WordPress. I’ll even give firsthand suggestions on how to fully utilize every WordPress feature.

Thank you for viewing my blog. I hope you found this article informative! And good luck to your business!

For first impressions, when it’s not turned on, it looks like a dull slab of metal. But after careful examination, the iPad’s dimensions and matte aluminum finish are perfect for one-hand gripping and viewing. The marginally wide black bezel also serves as the border to the touch screen so you can rest your fingers on the outer edges of the screen with comfort, without accidentally activating any touch controls.

The virtual keyboard, though a bit unpopular with the masses, is very pleasing, aesthetically, and is a great tool for blogging your thoughts away while on the go or if you don’t want to turn on your laptop/PC. People with big fingers might find discomfort using them but it won’t take long for one to get used to it. It lacks a few alphanumeric characters, since the screen size can’t accommodate all of the keys, given the size of the iPad. But tapping and holding the key displays will display the additional characters. What you can for the meantime, however, is purchase the Keyboard Dock accessory from Apple because the iPad does not have any built-in USB ports/SD card slots that support UPNP devices. External adapters, however, may pave the way for better accessories in the future.

You can view the latest accessories for the iPad at http://www.apple.com/ipad/accessories/.

But the main reason why the iPad is such a hit with the masses is that it offers vibrant and crisp image quality under normal lighting scenarios (you just have to tweak the brightness a bit when you’re under the sun) – courtesy of the LED backlight (responsible for the dynamic contrast ratios); a 1024×768 resolution (not bad, since it runs on iPad Apps ; and the utility-wise black bezel (to give the screen borders where you can lay your fingers on ) – all those features sum up to a great product.

Apple’s signature stainless steel back plate has gone aluminum for the iPad for weight-reduction (a mere 1.5 lbs.) and more importantly, heat insulation purposes, since it’s going to rest on your palm for the remainder of its life and you definitely don’t want to get burn marks while holding it.

The headphone jack, volume rocker and screen position lock are three other features you should take note of. The screen position lock keeps the display to stay in portrait/landscape mode (helpful if you tilt the device a lot). Pressing and holding the volume rocker’s top/bottom switch will let you increase/decrease the volume.

On iTunes, the iPad has an interface similar to the iPhone. Songs, audio books and podcasts purchased from the iTunes store will play great and the iTunes store will also detect your screen resolution, so you won’t end up with pixilated album art.

On HD content and video playback, the 1024×768 resolution will not play full 1080p and 720p HD videos. 576p and 480p videos can only be played if the iPad is connected to a TV or a projector, via use of Apple’s Composite & Component Video Cables or Dock Connector to VGA Adapter.

Overall, the iPad is a great device, though the lack of the features below will be a major disappointment to utilitarian users:
1.) Stylus for handwriting recognition
2.) Two front-end USB port
3.) Internal SD card slot
4.) GPS
5.) Internal front-facing camera for teleconferences
6.) SIM card slot

Though not the full-featured device you’d expect from Apple, it’s a trendy way to communicate and browse the internet, blog your thoughts, play games, and listen to music while on the go, given the gracious 8 hours of expected average battery life. If you’re a trendsetter, this will be the perfect way to show off how tech-savvy you really are. Just don’t forget to purchase the optional iPad Case if you want added protection for your gadget.

The iPad starts at $499 and can be purchased right now through either Amazon or the Apple Store. The 3G version will be available on the latter part of April 2010.