All the best,

Tom O’Keefe

Tom O’Keefe

I have been on both sides of the by-owner transaction having rented many condos for my family’s vacations from their owners and visa versa as the owner of a Keystone Resort condo rental in Keystone Colorado (Summit County.) The general public has a growing appreciation for the value of both the actual rental units as well as the unique owner’s perspective that is often shared during the reservation process. This unique owner’s perspective gives the prospective guests much deeper insight into the vacation or destination area’s attractions, local’s favorites, and other tips to make their vacation a greater experience.

I know that often when I as the condo owner speak with guests, they appreciate the extra insight into different logistics, discounts, shopping, directions, etc, not to mention the extra conveniences of having this information ahead of time to reduce vacation expenses especially in these economic times.

So the by-owner vacation value is much deeper than the value of the actual condo rental (lodging rental) size / cost per night – it extends intricately into the rest of their vacation experience. I and other owners certainly hope that more people will recognize these extras and continue to help the by-owner vacation rentals flourish. We hope that their feedback makes it to the big corporations like HomeAway and not strictly move to automated transactions that would strip these extra personal touches that would be lost.

-Guy Schlacter (gschlact)
http://www.GreatRentalKeystone.com
click for info:
Keytone condo rental for your vacation - http://www.GreatRentalKeystone.com

>> This is already the case but I assume the price to pay (from hiring a designer to make it funny and cute + Google bid) makes it not affordable to all advertisers.

If you select text & images to be displayed in your Adsense ads you can sometimes get a video ad. Not really sure but I suppose it depends on your traffic.

TOK

Where would you peg the actual number at if you were to guess?

On the most viewed clips (clips with, let say, already 1000 views) (doesn’t matter who posted them) YouTube automatically implements a 5 seconds overlay ad that appears over the player and blocks out (darkens) everything else. (It gives a bit of time for the clip to load in the background as well).

This overlay is a 5 seconds spot (can’t be longer than that and it doesn’t link to a company website if you click on it. It’s like a really, really short TV spot. It can be a still picture for outfits with very little budgets…)

Now, people don’t like ads… but they like GAMES and they like to COLLECT stuff.

Each overlay ad is a mini 5 seconds GAME. You have three colored dots on the overlay. The viewer clicks on ONE of them. One is a winner, two are duds. If you’re lucky to pick the winner (you only have one chance) during the 5 secs, you receive a TOKEN that is automatically added to your YouTube account. (It encourages you to stay registered…)

Now, you COLLECT these tokens. If you win a certain number of similar tokens, you can EXCHANGE them against full-length HD Hollywood Films or TV shows on YouTube. The fun part could be that you have different categorires of tokens. (Some would be for specific film genres or just for one TV show and some could be really hard to find, worth maybe ten tokens, etc.) (Tokens are generated randomly by the system.)

Now, you have the problem of guys posting shows and seeing Google make money off their film. Well, they need to be rewarded too. For a succesful posting (ie lots of viewers) they also receive TOKENS… to be exchanged to watch high-quality HD movies or TV shows.

Now, these HD movies or TV shows in the “HD Theatre section of YouTube” can also be sponsored with a longer lead-in spot… That’s even more money for Google.

Now, we have the problem of big brand names not wanting to have their spots stuck on “Jimmy and his weird cat”… Well, they could “control” where their 5 Secs. spots go by teaming with content suppliers through YouTube. Example, a Coca-Cola campaign with Viacom clips… Viacom takes all the succesful shows they own like, for example, “Spongebob”. They cut out little “gems” (two to three minute clips) and they post them on YouTube to watch for free… Viacom via Google sell their 5 second spots to Coca-cola. Everybody is happy. The viewer, who enjoys these mini-clips, can even link to the full episode of Spongebob on YouTube. He can pay by redeeming TOKENS or he can pay with real money for the full episode or combine both. (It’s all streaming anyway! It’s like TV a la carte.)

Now, what about the “Jim and his weird cat” clips. Who pays for these 5 secs ads? Well, it’s like Google’s Adsense, it’s small outfits who purchase so many spots. You can buy a thousand spots or ten thousand spots to be randomly placed on clips or based on the clip’s TAGS and on the clip’s level of viewership. The outfit supplies the spot or the still and pays Google directly up front.

A system like this is not that difficult to implement. (If they’re real smart, they can have it work just the same on imbedded videos on other sites) Anyway, it’s fun for all involved and all get something out of it. Everybody is a winner especially Google who makes tons of money from the big guys but also… most importantly…from the long, long tail of all the little guys. Viewers are hooked to YouTube forever! Even if they’re just there to click on ads and forget about the clips… the most important is done. Money!

Here, you have it.

Twowan,

(If Google wants more ideas like this one, they can contact me. I’m the guy behind laboratoryfilms.com)

Tom

Hope all is well! Glad to see InfoMed is chugging along.

Good luck at Vencorps!

You’re referring to sites listed on Bizak under our public listings such as the ones at Internet Startup. You understand that I own Bizak but not the startups listed under bizak? Bizak is a tool for all startups (regardless of revenue source, industry or type) to compute their valuation and connect with investors & professionals. As I’ve noted in previous articles, Google Adsense or Advertising Model & Startup Statistics, 20% of the websites who contribute to Bizak rely on Google Adsense as their primary revenue source. There are hundreds of startups on Bizak and I unfortunately don’t own all of them which makes me a bit perplexed by your comment. Just because I’m not a proponent of Adsense doesn’t mean others can’t use it and that a select group of them can’t have success from it. However, looking at the statistics on a whole startups only earn $0.07 EPV with Google Adsense - $0.10 below in house advertising and considerable less than other revenue sources. Of all of the new projects that get pitched to me I never rely on Google Adsense, or even advertising, as the main source of revenue but other companies do and they use Bizak, which I thank them for their business.

Tom

http://anorangeamerica.com/

I’ve been working on the site with Tropicana, and we just launched it this morning. It aggregates tweets real-time and creates a “bubble” proportional to each term’s volume (analogous to a word cloud). It then draws connections between terms mentioned together. It’s addicting to play around with and watch it update!

Thorium could safely provide all of our domestic electrical energy requirements for several centuries.

This summarized Washington press release proves that someone is listening:

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Harry Reid (D-NV.) recently introduced legislation that would pave the way for thorium nuclear-fuel reactors in the United States. The Thorium Energy Independence and Security Act of 2008 would establish offices at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy to regulate domestic thorium nuclear power generation and oversee possible demonstrations of thorium nuclear fuel assemblies. Using thorium for nuclear power has a number of potential benefits over conventional uranium. As a resource, thorium is abundant in the U.S. and throughout the world.

A thorium fuel rod would remain in the reactor about three times as long as conventional nuclear fuel, cutting the volume of spent nuclear fuel by as much as two-thirds. Also, thorium nuclear fuel would significantly reduce the possibility that weapons-grade material would result from the process. Finally, a thorium fuel cycle could be used to dispose of existing plutonium stockpiles, which is the national security goal.

“Our nation has focused mostly on mixed oxide nuclear fuel cycles, and our regulatory structure reflects that,” Hatch said. “With the growing interest in thorium nuclear power in the world and in the U.S., it’s time we made sure our government has a regulatory infrastructure in place to accommodate this new generation of nuclear power.” Speaking about the bill, Bruce Blair, president of the World Security Institute said, “This legislation reflects an enlightened grasp of the importance of supporting nuclear power while suppressing nuclear proliferation.

“This bill is a giant step for the United States toward the development of a safe, secure and independent energy future,” said Jack Lifton, business development and corporate communications Director of Thorium Energy Inc. (www.ThoriumEnergy.com). Thorium Energy is a resource company that owns property in Lemhi Pass, Idaho, where it is generally believed that the largest veins of thorium-rich minerals in the world are located. Analysis of the deposits shows them to be either the highest grade or in the top tier of the highest grade known anywhere on Earth.

In fact, we’re seeing businesses (both big and small) trimming their advertising spend with traditional media (especially newspapers and magazines), while keeping or increasing their online advertising/marketing spend. Why? Online marketing is entirely measurable (and typically produces quicker ROI), and you don’t have to lock-in to huge advertising contracts with old-school publishers.

My idea is for repackaging a commonly available low-cost business product, putting it into smaller novelty packs that turn it into a kids or adults game/relaxation aid/boredom repellent. It is simply a matter of repackaging in a novel way. I expect that it will be difficult to protect and it is certainly easy to copy. Please could you/ anyone guide me as to the financial worth of attempting protection. My wife thinks the best route would be to negotiate a deal with a producer and games packager simultaneously. I agree, but the games packager could easily do it all themselves, so I need to know how to protect against that. Thanks