But thanks to an overtaxed infrastructure, the profitable vein could shrivel

Everyone knows about the 1849 “gold rush,” when eager entrepreneurs from all over the world flooded California in hopes of striking it rich. In just six years, though, the rush was over, leaving in its wake a few millionaires but a lot more paupers.

The Internet is kind of the gold rush of the 21st century. eBay, iTunes, and video sharing site MetaCafe are all ways in which modern prospectors are making money (some a little, some a lot) online. Video, the hottest of Internet content, could also be the most lucrative. The New York Times yesterday reported that “how-to videos” could be the biggest revenue generator of user-generated vids: A Florida-based producer, whose clips are on varied topics like “how to turn a flashlight into a laser” and “how to simulate a gunshot wound,” earned more than $102,000 in a year from MetaCafe, which pays content owners according to how many views their videos garner.

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What do Finnish road trippers, SMS, and U.S. Senator Larry “Widestance” Craig have in common? Something about public bathrooms…

Meanwhile the impending recession, coupled with worse-than-expected revenues, can force most companies to cut back on things like holiday bonuses, paid overtime, and any staff that goes beyond a skeleton crew. But tightened belts at Google still comes out to “leading the good life” for the rest of us working shmoes….

Did the two preceding paragraphs have you scratching your heads? Then you obviously haven’t seen the fourth episode of Outside The Inbox: Video Edition-mobileStorm’s weekly online humor and news show that attempts to entertain as well as educate.

So check it out. The first one who posts a comment to this blog correctly answering the question about Finland and a certain senator wins… bragging rights.

http://www.mobilestorm.com/videos/

Eydie Cubarrubia
Marketing Communications Manager, mobileStorm
“I’d rather you text me”

In the past we’ve talked about some more traditional ways on how to get traffic to your site. Today, let’s discuss some of the new ways to do this that have started to crop up over the past couple of years:

Non-Text Traffic:

This means traffic from videos, images, and photos. Video-sharing sites are highly popular as are image- and photo-sharing websites. If you optimize your content (videos, images, photos) you might rank high within such sites, which will drive more viewers to your content.

In addition, this can also drive more traffic to your site from the dedicated and major search engines. The more popular your videos or photos the greater the chance your content will turn up when doing natural searches. That’s your additional traffic. You need to take video and image/photo optimization seriously as search engines are paying much more attention to it and will continue to do so in the future.

Wiki Traffic:

This is traffic from knowledge and encyclopedia sites. We all know Wikipedia’s links do not matter for SEO anymore. Yet, they still bring lots of traffic, which still surprisingly comes from search engines. This happens because lots of Wikipedia articles are still coming up on the first positions in both Google and Yahoo! for many highly searched terms and thus the most clicked as well. Inside the article page, people who are interested in the subject are exploring it further by clicking the external links. That’s how they come to your site through the searches.

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Be prepared to get schooled in the ways of the digital marketing industry

The second episode of Outside The Inbox: Video Edition is now up and running: http://www.mobilestorm.com/videos/Outside-the-Inbox-Video-Edition-Episode-2-v119.

This week, mobileStorm CEO Jared Reitzin talks about women outnumbering men on the Internet; the proposed New York state law that would make use of online behavior data illegal without consumers’ consent; and the tidal wave of SMS spam that plagued Chinese cell phones recently.

In case newcomers don’t know, Outside The Inbox: Video Edition is mobileStorm’s weekly online “news” show in the tradition of The Daily Show and other comic news spoofs. Complete with humor that, well, pushes the envelope of good taste and corporate dignity. We hope to entertain as well as educate marketers who are new to the digital space—or who are just bored at work.

Enjoy!

Eydie Cubarrubia
Marketing Communications Manager, mobileStorm
“I’d rather you text me”