Planetbuzz - advertising oppty for pros

Markjay

My suggestion
My suggestion for the time being....
just enter the number of characters it wants for a US zip code to get you into the system. You can always change it later on. All that will do is map your location to a US city. Don't worry about that at this moment. I already emailed one of the owners regarding this (just now thanks to your prompting). Use a US zip close to your location... maybe Buffalo NY? :-)

The public launch is in the US first, than internationally....
that's why we designed that system so that one can at the click of a mouse see the your (or any) display listing in one of ten different languages, French being one of them.

Meanwhile, get your display ad looking good! You'll have a web link in your display ad, I presume you are going to set one up, right? They'll see your location and info on your website. You can also make reference to your location in your company description like...
Serving Chesterville and surrounding areas of Ottawa Canada?

Markjay

Scott Crouse wrote:

Thank you so much for the opportunity to sign up.

Just 1 problem, I'm here in Canada and we have a postal code vice a zip code. The webpage shows enter a postal code, but it wants a 5 or 9 digit code. A postal code is 6 digits (letters and numbers mixed).

Any ideas?

Scott Crouse

Thanks Markjay! We'll get in there later today. Cheers.

J.T.

Markjay wrote:

Great question:

for an ENTIRE YEAR

And remember: there is no credit card required to get that free display
so, it's not like some of those companies who somewhere in the fine print tell you after _____ time, your card will start being charged ____ amount.

These guys are smart! They know that without content.. there's nothing. So, they are giving away the content.

However, in this case they are actually giving you for free....
what those online yellow pages / business search directories are CHARGING For on a monthly basis.

For example: if you want an ad on yellowpages.com and would like to have all the services and features Planetbuzz.com is giving you for free....

you'll pay a minimum of 114.00 a month if I remember correctly.

Planetbuzz.com does offer a "top spot" on the page sponsored ad but....
it's between 49.00 and 129.00 a full year!! Not per month, per year! And, there are
no banner ads
no popup ads
no unrelated content ads (mortgage companies advertising where listings for Swimming pool repair is.

However, your free display is free and you do NOT have to participate in grabbing a top of the page spot.

So go ahead and enjoy your promo code that gets your site setup BEFORE the site even launches on June 26...
and you'll get yourself free exposure for your Smugmug site.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Markjay

Markjay,

Maybe this was answered but I was trying to get through this quick before I retire for the night. What happens at the end of the first year?

Are you deleted, charged the .35 per day, or allowed to upgrade?

Thanks, and thanks for the offer.

Markjay

J.t.
J.T. very simple answers.......

1. in truth / reality, your complimentary display will NEVER be deleted.
More content is good.... consumers looking for a product or service like to see variety and Planetbuzz.com wants to provide that variety to the business or consumer searching the site for whatever business / product / service they are looking for.

2. They could not charge you for your complimentary display even if the WANTED to..... there's no credit card required to acquire your complimentary display and, therefore there is nothing to charge it to!

3. You can upgrade ANY time you see fit or, choose not to upgrade ever... your complimentary display will be that... complimentary.

I hope that was helpful to you?

Best of success,
Markjay

J.T. wrote:

Markjay,

Maybe this was answered but I was trying to get through this quick before I retire for the night. What happens at the end of the first year?

Are you deleted, charged the .35 per day, or allowed to upgrade?

Thanks, and thanks for the offer.

Greendog

I Agree With You!!!
Planetbuzz is an awesome site! Hard to believe ads are FREE!!! I just verified that it's true and you can update them as often as you want. Upload those fabulous pix you take too! I can't wait to set up my ad!! Thank you for turning us on to this!!!

Markjay

Your very welcome
Your VERY welcome! Like I said...
I'm just glad to give back to those who helped me when I needed it.

In this day and age, everything just keeps going up...
gas, food, utilities, car maintenance? This is one place you can actually get something complimentary that is another link back to your website. Free is free !!!


Markjay

Greendog wrote:

Planetbuzz is an awesome site! Hard to believe ads are FREE!!! I just verified that it's true and you can update them as often as you want. Upload those fabulous pix you take too! I can't wait to set up my ad!! Thank you for turning us on to this!!!

Markjay

Tomorrow's the day!!
Tomorrow: 32 full size print billboards (not digital) go up to kick off the Planetbuzz.com national ad campaign. There will be TV commercials, print ads and of course, the cool 2009 Superbowl commercial 30 second spot.

I urge you if you have not already done so, to setup your complimentary display....
early! Don't wait.... there's no reason to!

And remember: the display ad truly IS free, no strings attached, no gimmicks, no tricks, no automatic pay after a period of time...zero. Besides, when you are setting up your complimentary display, there is NO credit card required or even asked for....
so there's nothing to charge "to" and, there's no funny "fine print" games either.

Enjoy it and here's a shortcut link that automatically puts in the complimentary display ad program promo code MJ1089 for you on your setup page:
Just Go to Fast Setup Planetbuzz.com and click "Go" to get started.

JimM

Set mine up today. Thanks!

Scott_Quier

I set mine up yesterday - really interested to see if I get any increased traffic from this.

Markjay

RE; increased Traffic
Hi, Scott! Glad to see you got yourself all setup. Did you make sure to set up your 5 custom action buttons?

Don't expect a ton of traffic just yet. The national ad campaign starts in Florida and rolls out across the country. There are four roll outs planned in various strategic locations nationwide.

For now, it's good you are already setup. Do everything you can to make it look "nice" and utilize ALL the media features...
and be patient.

Meanwhile, it's not costing you a dime! :-)

Markjay

Scott_Quier wrote:

I set mine up yesterday - really interested to see if I get any increased traffic from this.

Scott_Quier

Markjay wrote:

Hi, Scott! Glad to see you got yourself all setup. Did you make sure to set up your 5 custom action buttons?

Don't expect a ton of traffic just yet. The national ad campaign starts in Florida and rolls out across the country. There are four roll outs planned in various strategic locations nationwide.

For now, it's good you are already setup. Do everything you can to make it look "nice" and utilize ALL the media features...
and be patient.

Meanwhile, it's not costing you a dime! :-)

Markjay

RE: the five buttons - I've done what I can for now. Thanks for the additional details. Is there a link where we can go to get an idea of the roll-out plan? Just curious.

Markjay

Roll out plan
Scott, I'm sorry.. there are some details that are better off left out of the public eye for now... really don't want to tip off competitors on our exact plans. I'm sure you can understand this...
look how good Smugmug is about keeping the get ready to sell stock photos details quiet :-)

Scott_Quier wrote:

RE: the five buttons - I've done what I can for now. Thanks for the additional details. Is there a link where we can go to get an idea of the roll-out plan? Just curious.

Awais Yaqub

It seems like it is for Canada and USA

Scott_Quier

Markjay wrote:

Scott, I'm sorry.. there are some details that are better off left out of the public eye for now... really don't want to tip off competitors on our exact plans. I'm sure you can understand this...
look how good Smugmug is about keeping the get ready to sell stock photos details quiet :-)

Thought that might be the answer - but, you don't know unless you try and it doesn't hurt to try

J.T.

address info fields
Markjay,

Do you know if I can somehow leave the address fields blank, i.e. street address and such?

I know that defeats the purpose of an ad but since all of my business is done at the client's location, at a public location, or from my website, I do not have a need to show my address, especially if I don't have a photo studio?

City and State will be showed, but the rest doesn't need to be. Can this be done with the planetbuzz interface? From what I tried, it wouldn't allow it.

Thanks

Art Scott

J.T. wrote:

Markjay,

Do you know if I can somehow leave the address fields blank, i.e. street address and such?

I know that defeats the purpose of an ad but since all of my business is done at the client's location, at a public location, or from my website, I do not have a need to show my address, especially if I don't have a photo studio?

City and State will be showed, but the rest doesn't need to be. Can this be done with the planetbuzz interface? From what I tried, it wouldn't allow it.

Thanks

Since they are required fill them in.....there is a tic box to not show them .... if you tic the box it shows it you leave blank it ides not show....
my ad no address...reason.....I work by appontment only and only shoot envirmental portraits (no studio work so must be outdoors or in your home...ie: enviromental )

here is a screen grab......notice no address...............

Markjay

Can hide your address in your ad.......
Thank you, Art for chipping in here!

Confirmation: yes, you can hide or show your address being shown by a simple click of that check box in your setup. Once you are setup, just go back to your control panel, click edit powerad, and continue on to the page that you want to make your changes on your ad.

Have a great day today!
Markjay

J.T. wrote:

Markjay,

Do you know if I can somehow leave the address fields blank, i.e. street address and such?

I know that defeats the purpose of an ad but since all of my business is done at the client's location, at a public location, or from my website, I do not have a need to show my address, especially if I don't have a photo studio?

City and State will be showed, but the rest doesn't need to be. Can this be done with the planetbuzz interface? From what I tried, it wouldn't allow it.

Thanks

Hindsight

License to VIDEOTELL: By submitting any content to this website, including by uploading video files, data files, inputting data, participating in votes or other surveys, or engaging in any other form of communication on this website or any other VIDEOTELL website (any such content submitted by a user being an "Advertiser Submission"), you are granting VIDEOTELL a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, reproduce, copy, transmit, adapt, transmit, publicly perform, translate or display any such communication, or otherwise communicate to the public the content thereof, in whole or in part, on a world wide basis, including the right to incorporate it in other works in any form or media whatsoever, to sublicense to third parties, the unrestricted right to exercise any of the foregoing rights granted with respect to the communication. The foregoing grants shall include the right to exploit any proprietary rights in such communication, including but not limited to rights under copyright, trademark, service mark or patent laws under any relevant jurisdiction.

Markjay

Allow me to clear this up for you, please
Basically, what this means is that if Plantbuzz.com wants to display one of it's advertisers display ads as a "sample" of what ads look like on the site (let's say)
that the company has the right to display anything (image or logo or ?)
in that display to the public for promotional purposes or self promotional
purposes.

For example: If you've been to the site, you'll see sample ads from several italian restaurants, and other businesses. Planetbuzz.com reserved the right to display their logos, graphics, content etc. as a sample of some of the sponsored display ads for the category of Italian Food.

Same for the dental arts company who's display ad appears as a "live sample"
where the viewer can see their ad, logo, video, etc. Is that a little more clear and understandable now? It's not like Planebuzz has any use for your logo, your brochure you might display, or even your website.

I believe you will find language of this nature on other sites such as some stock photography sites and other sites that are displaying graphics, advertising, etc.

Otherwise, they would not even be able to display sample ads customers have created, to show prospects who are considering putting up a complimentary display ad or a sponsored display ad.

If you are worried they have any kind of use for your content....
don't display it and / or don't setup a complimentary display ad :-)

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to answer this question for you... it looked like a question anyway.

Markjay

Markjay

J.t.
Did you setup a logo or photo on the right side of your display ad, J.T.?
And, don't forget...

you can add a photo or even a PDF brochure to your display ad that viewers can "click on" at the top of your display. You can set that up as one of your custom action buttons, AKA PowerAd Keys in your control panel.

Markjay

J.T. wrote:

Markjay,

Do you know if I can somehow leave the address fields blank, i.e. street address and such?

I know that defeats the purpose of an ad but since all of my business is done at the client's location, at a public location, or from my website, I do not have a need to show my address, especially if I don't have a photo studio?

City and State will be showed, but the rest doesn't need to be. Can this be done with the planetbuzz interface? From what I tried, it wouldn't allow it.

Thanks

Markjay

Hey Jim Wannabe :-)
I did not see your display in the system, did you set it up under the category of photography or, under a sub heading like wedding photography?

And, which one of these three websites did you display on planetbuzz.com?
You could conceivably put a link to all three on your display ad! Just set them up as one of the PowerAd action keys as links.

Also, did you upload a logo for your display? If you did not, you should.

Markjay

Nikolai

Markjay wrote:

I'm posting this in the last post in the event someone misses this additional info I just added to the original post:
...

Thanks,
Markjay

Just noticed this thread :bash
Thanks MJ, off to signing up...

Nikolai

OK, I'm in... :ivar
FWIW: All the city-specific ads were listed as $79.99 (which is not a lot in ads world), but you really want to cover some area and then it means $$$$

Markjay

Depends how you look at it?
First, I just LOVE that photo you used in the logo area, Nikolai!

You have the power to add "specials", a brochure, and if you like, sample photos, maybe even a portfolio page or contact sheet, an "About" page or? and change them every day of the week, without any intervention from Planetbuzz.com. That is part of the power and beauty of this.... the POWER is in YOUR hands :-)

You should give hard thought to anything you do in the way of advertising and this one is no exception.


Let me know if I can answer any more questions.
Have a great Sunday!
Markjay

Nikolai wrote:

OK, I'm in... :ivar
FWIW: All the city-specific ads were listed as $79.99 (which is not a lot in ads world), but you really want to cover some area and then it means $$$$

Nikolai

Markjay wrote:

First, I just LOVE that photo you used in the logo area, Nikolai!

Thanks! :-)

I'm not trying to "sell you" on this Nikolai but, remember this common sense fact:
....
Let me know if I can answer any more questions.
Have a great Sunday!
Markjay

Advertisement is a very strange beast. Thus far my experience with it was more negative than positive. In essense, the more I spent, the less I got back.
Best one were free. I mean, you don't spend any money and hardly any time/effort, and when you get anything back you're already in the black, fair and clear.
Then I tried banners (Google ones), almost for a year. They brought me about 200 hits per day and would have bring more if I raised the $5/ad limit. Cost about $200/mo. Got several cold leads and one nice deal, which covered ~2-3 months. It happened early enough in the ad campaign. If I pulled the ads right then I would've come out even. But that deal lead me to believe that it could be worth it, so I kept them up. Losses: about a grand.
Finally, I placed my ads with what seems to be a major LA/Hollywood modeling/actors ad agency. 3 premium ads for a year, and they gave me almost 1,500 "leads" for free (they said regular price was $3 per lead). The whole thing was under a grand. I called and emailed (even wrote a custom mass mailer app for this:-). Zero, nada, zilch, nil. Goes without saying I didn't renew.

So the bottom line was: the more you pay, the less you get back.

I agree, $79.99 per year is not too bad. However, those coverage areas are fairly small. To make it anywhere realistic I would need to get at least 10 of these, which immediately brings it back to $800 (see? same "under a grand" stuff:-) . And I still didnt quite figure out what do I get for each area for those $79.99.
Also that premium placement: premium placement where? On their site? I never heard of that site if it wasn't for this thread, so the chances that my potential audience would go to this site is, hm, about zero.

Can you elaborate on that?

TIA!

Markjay

Nikolai, you didn't use your ad to it's fullest!
I would HIGHLY suggest, you log back into the system on Planetbuzz and, look at your Master Control Panel, then click on Change PowerAd Keys. Then....

click on one of the customizable action buttons that say "edit" and use them to your advantage..... now! Upload / link to a brochure (PDF or JPG), upload a popular photo, or a contact sheet, or samples of your work, or create an "About" link, etc, etc.

That... is the power of this system. YOU control your content and have lots of options for creating a powerful multimedia presentation for the viewer. You also have up to 600 characters of text data you could have typed in, I don't think you used half. :-)

Best of success,
Markjay

Nikolai wrote:

OK, I'm in... :ivar
FWIW: All the city-specific ads were listed as $79.99 (which is not a lot in ads world), but you really want to cover some area and then it means $$$$

Nikolai

MarkJay,
thanks for the customization tip, I missed those 5 link button completely.
Can I change the name of the keys, too? E.g. I don't have any "video" stuff, I would like either to hide it completely or to replace it with names that ould make sense in my case...

Now, back to the business quesiton..
First of all, thank you very much for your detailed answer and insight.

Yes, you said the right things: the ad should give the potential customer a complelling reason to call/contact. But here lies the problem: there are hundreds of not thousands of photographers in my area of interest - I'm only 40 miles from Hollywood . I really don't want to go for a cheesy lines like "best in the Hollywood", esp. since it's definitely not true - there are some awesome guys down there who do that for a living, not just on nights/weekends.
Yes, I agree, $79 is nothing. The smallest job for me would be way more than that. However, things add up. $80 there, $40 there, and soon we're talking about hundreds and thousands of dollars. I understand the concept of "new", and "risk", and all, but ...
Again, I guess I have two issues:
1) I really don't understand what those $79.99 would buy me. Like, no clue. Billboard placement along hwy 101? 10 second ad in SuperBowl? 30 second in the Movie Theater ads before new Harry Potter release?
2) I *really* don't know what to put into that ad except saying who I am and what I do. Essentially, I'm fighting for a slot of attention - regardless what industry it is. I'm not fighting against local photographers only - that would be easy. I'm fighting with Ford and Infinity, L'Oreal and JCPenny, Marlboro and Patrone. And all those are large local, national and international brands and companies, who are all desperate to get the same 2-3 seconds of a passerby's attention s/he could spend looking at mine. Only they have gazillion of dolars and highly trained specialist who have time and modey to put the best graphics and best slogans money can by.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not whining/complaining. Simply thinking out loud. Being one-man army has its pros and cons. My experience tells me - for my business model expensive advertisment is not a good ROI. I can get 10 jobs spending $0.0 - or 12 jobs spending $1000 on ads. Yes, those 2 extra jobs may (or may not) cover that grand. But the thing is - first 10 cost me nothing at all. And it's very hard to compete with such an awesome performance.
Hence my hesitation. I would be glad if you can bring some more reasons for me to spend those $79.99 - and trust me, I will not hold you responsible if it doesn't work out (but I will be very grateful if it does:-). It's gonna be my decision. I simply would like to hear more info on this - if you have it, of course...

Markjay

See your private message
Please view your private message... it will enlighten you.

Thanks,
Markjay

Nikolai wrote:

MarkJay,
thanks for the customization tip, I missed those 5 link button completely.
Can I change the name of the keys, too? E.g. I don't have any "video" stuff, I would like either to hide it completely or to replace it with names that ould make sense in my case...

Now, back to the business quesiton..
First of all, thank you very much for your detailed answer and insight.

Yes, you said the right things: the ad should give the potential customer a complelling reason to call/contact. But here lies the problem: there are hundreds of not thousands of photographers in my area of interest - I'm only 40 miles from Hollywood . I really don't want to go for a cheesy lines like "best in the Hollywood", esp. since it's definitely not true - there are some awesome guys down there who do that for a living, not just on nights/weekends.
Yes, I agree, $79 is nothing. The smallest job for me would be way more than that. However, things add up. $80 there, $40 there, and soon we're talking about hundreds and thousands of dollars. I understand the concept of "new", and "risk", and all, but ...
Again, I guess I have two issues:
1) I really don't understand what those $79.99 would buy me. Like, no clue. Billboard placement along hwy 101? 10 second ad in SuperBowl? 30 second in the Movie Theater ads before new Harry Potter release?
2) I *really* don't know what to put into that ad except saying who I am and what I do. Essentially, I'm fighting for a slot of attention - regardless what industry it is. I'm not fighting against local photographers only - that would be easy. I'm fighting with Ford and Infinity, L'Oreal and JCPenny, Marlboro and Patrone. And all those are large local, national and international brands and companies, who are all desperate to get the same 2-3 seconds of a passerby's attention s/he could spend looking at mine. Only they have gazillion of dolars and highly trained specialist who have time and modey to put the best graphics and best slogans money can by.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not whining/complaining. Simply thinking out loud. Being one-man army has its pros and cons. My experience tells me - for my business model expensive advertisment is not a good ROI. I can get 10 jobs spending $0.0 - or 12 jobs spending $1000 on ads. Yes, those 2 extra jobs may (or may not) cover that grand. But the thing is - first 10 cost me nothing at all. And it's very hard to compete with such an awesome performance.
Hence my hesitation. I would be glad if you can bring some more reasons for me to spend those $79.99 - and trust me, I will not hold you responsible if it doesn't work out (but I will be very grateful if it does:-). It's gonna be my decision. I simply would like to hear more info on this - if you have it, of course...

Nikolai

Markjay wrote:

Please view your private message... it will enlighten you.

Thanks,
Markjay

Done!

Nikolai

Markjay wrote:

After reading your post here again, I thought it might be useful to others to see some of the responses. I'm not going to go into detail here because I don't want to tip off the competitors anymore than we have :-)
...

Markjay

I hope helps?

,
thanks:-)

I still have that major concern about the "do not show address" and the MAP link. I'm being serious. A couple of jobs are not worth taking the risk of having a break-in...