I’m talking specifically about print (newspapers, magazines) and broadcast (TV, radio). But I’m excluding direct mail advertising.

Here’s why online ads beat traditional advertising: It’s measuarable!

For the past several decades advertising representatives have done a great job selling the “value” of advertising as we know it today. They’ve invested a lot into their sales pitch and honed it in an excellent manner.

But the thing they’ve lacked is real metrics — statistics — to show their customers the return on investment.

Now … my hope is that all those ad reps with such excellent sales pitches about value and ROI come running to online advertising and showcase the power of online advertising’s strengths: it’s growing (rapidly) and you can actually see results!

One of the main reasons I hope this happens is so that all the great blogs out there can actually make a decent income (side or full-time) on their hard work … to be valued as much as their print counterparts. (Of course, if the value warrants it.)

It’s interesting how there truly is nothing new under the sun. Over and over, I continue to see old products and services take on new skin …

Here’s some thoughts …

• “Twitter is like Facebook Status” – by my buddy Brad Ulrich, on describing Twitter to other college students
• “Facebook Walls are like the old website guestbooks” – by me, after I saw the WP-Wall plugin for WordPress
• Blogs are simply easy ways to publish personal websites - me again, on thinking how this domain and website got started in 1999 (doing it “by hand” with ClarisHomePage)

I just read this ESPN article about NFL running back Darren Sproles … he’s getting ready to become a free agent and this part of the article stood out to me:

Sproles, who has stuttered since childhood, knows his profile is growing, and a marketing team is working with him to get him acclimated to high-intensity media situations.

The first thing I thought was … he needs a blog.

Sure, he should get help with dealing with the media to increase his market value, but a blog would help his fans and the media get to know him easier.

They’d have an online fact sheet to draw insights from for their news reports. They’d have direct copy-and-paste quotes on issues. It’s a win-win for a guy like Sproles who needs to polish off his speaking skills in front of all those cameras.

Of course, in the conversation of athletes and blogging … I thought instantly of NFL tight end Chris Cooley’s blog … he blogs like crazy and it’s an extension of his life.

Blogs have some great benefits for athletes:

• Blogs are great marketing tools. They are cheap, effective, and easy marketing engines that a player can take with them no matter what team they are on.
• Blogs are 24/7 marketing agents for the media. They have an easy way to find fast facts, quotes, photos, and more about the players they are covering.
• Blog have a snowball effect on marketing. If athletes do it right they should build an email newsletter list, where they can send updates to their fans. Blogs are sticky. A player has a big game and fans go back. They move with the player from team to team, city to city, game to game.
• Blogs make players more personable and ‘touchable’ for their fans. Imagine little kids following their favorite players from city to city, game to game, with insights on how they workout, their hobbies, etc. Player’s blogs should have photos from their athletes so fans can set them as their desktop pictures.

Think about it ….

Exposure increases.

Then jersey sales increase.

Endorsement opportunities increase.

Teams would love them for the built-in, off-the-field marketing value a player could bring.

Talk about extra power in free agent negotiations!

P.S. – I watched Darren Sproles play in the Big 12 Championship game several years ago against OU. We met some of his family. I’m a fan!

In the last couple of months, I’ve been using Twitter more and more for business and relationship building.

It took me a while to see some tangible benefits to using Twitter, especially, but I finally came around when Nathan told me I had a bunch of people following me on the service (because I got linked on different posts).

Each day I see a little increase in people following … but it occurred to me that it’s key to adopt the hot web 2.0 technologies early. (As of this writing, I have 1,414 following me on Twitter … and that account set dormant for months before I actually used it.)

So each new business venture we do includes starting a Twitter account for each (as we typically do standard by starting blogs and email newsletters for them) … here’s our iThemes one and now our Happy Joe one.

I tend to look at Twitter for our ventures like I do our an email newsletters … keeping customers and prospects up to speed on what we’re doing, new products, etc.

So here’s the tip … get an account, display the profile address prominently (on your blog and I also put it in my email signature) … and start building momentum early!

I thought I had seen an AdWords content ad in Gmail the other day that linked to a news headline (outside of my RSS feeds that come through) and today, I was checking out this post and saw an AdWords link that actually went to a news article on the New York Times site.

This is fascinating … are traditional media outlets leveraging online advertising like AdWords?

I’m curious to know how well this is working for them …

Here’s the ad …

Here’s the click through new article …

iThemes has been using a live chat program called Provide Support for over a month now and I’ve been absolutely delighted with it and I think our customers would say the same.

Many of our customers have asked about what service we’re using and have expressed their appreciation for having the service on our site, so I thought I’d write a post detailing some of the objectives and best practices and tips as well.

OUR OJBECTIVES FOR LIVE CHAT

Here are three key reasons we started using live chat, with some commentary on how it’s gone …

1. To answer questions

We sell an intangible, digital product – WordPress Themes – for a specific online software – WordPress. While most of the WP community may understand how themes work, a large majority of our prospects and users don’t understand some of the details into using them.

We want people to make the best possible purchase decision, so while we have a robust FAQ section, we realize people will want to ask a live human being questions.

Just giving people a place to get real-time answers has been key for us … and translates into the second point …

2. To build trust

I think people buying products on the web want to know who they are dealing with. This is one reason I’ve stuck my ugly mug on this site. It’s also why I’ve posted our team photo on our About page at iThemes.

Allowing people to have access to our staff – live human beings, and not simply text and images – builds trust.

3. To increase sales

Obviously, we implemented live chat because we felt ultimately it would sale more themes. It’s the final result of the first two items above. When people can get answers to their questions, they have more confidence in what they are buying and will be more satisfied in their end purchase, which builds trust and should … increase sales.

BEST PRACTICES AND TIPS

Here are some of the things I’d recommend after using it for a month or so …

• Put Live Chat buttons all over your site - if you want it used, put the buttons in obvious places
• Always be upselling - this is actually the most critical element … one thing we try to do is show the value in our Theme Club, it’s jammed packed with themes and the best deal we have
• Be patient - like the phone, it never rings when you want it to and when it rains, it pours
• Use questions to get better - I love seeing the kinds of questions we get from customers because it helps me improve our website copy, or make improvements in our themes

MY RECOMMENDATION: WHY WE’RE USING PROVIDE SUPPORT

Our designer James had tested Provide Support before and liked it and recommended it to us when we began discussing the concept.

They’ve got a neat console software that you can use from your desktop to monitor your live chats. We’re starting to used template responses now for the most frequently asked questions. So we’re not using it to its full potential right now, but getting there.

The final and probably biggest reason is cost. It’s extremely affordable. At $15 a month, to us, it’s a no-brainer. The return on investment is exponential.

Check out Provide Support’s features and pricing here and ask our iThemes staff about your next WordPress theme here