The term “Widget” is being used for a couple different things. At it’s root think of a Widget as a software application that does something of value for the user while communicating an marketing message. A couple examples include:

• A weather forecast that the user downloads to their computer. Everytime the user turns on their computer the Widget displays the 5 day forecast and a marketing message from the Weather Channel.
• An application that a user can install on their iGoogle homepage, Facebook page (see Facebook Aps for more info), MyYahoo page, and many other online custom interfaces. For instance, every time you browse over to your iGoogle page you can see the movie times for you local theater and an ad from the newest blockbuster.
• Widget may also refer to an application that is downloaded to a mobile device like the iPhone.

The base idea is the same. You provide an application to the user that deliver value along with a marketing message. A couple thoughts:

• It is an absolute must that the application add value. If it is nothing more that an advertisement don’t bother.
• “Adding value” comes is two flavors 1) as a utility like a weather forecaster, 2) as a oddball application — think funny off the wall like an application that “predicts” your wife’s mood, or an ap that finds people on Facebook you’re most likely not to like, or an ap that writes fake “get out of work” doctors notes. You get the idea.
• As with a lot of the things we talk about on this web site — it’s not enough just to build it. Plan to build it AND to promote it. You need to reach a critical mass before WOM pass along takes over. And remember to add a “pass along” element to the ap.
• Keep it simple. There are a lot of examples out there of aps that way over do it — the key is to add value — not ons of bells and whistles that make using the ap very complicated.

Aps can cost anywhere from $5,000 to over $100,000 depending on the functionality. A decent ap that does one thing well and ads value to the user will come on between $25,000 and $50,000.

Here are a couple good articles on Widgets:

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19306.asp

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9066562

Widget

Online Coupon Site

Online Coupons are coupons visitors can printed out on their home printer.  In the past there were issues with fraud and retailer acceptance — but now you will find that technologies are available to thwart fraud and appease retailer concerns.

Online couponing is a great way to provide an offer to your consumers and measure the effectiveness of a campaign.  A couple things to keep in mind:

• To prevent fraud you will want to check out one of the online coupon vendors.  They offer technologoes that manage the amount of times to coupons can be printed.  They also work with retailers to make sure the coupons will be accepted at check out.
• Couponing works well in conjunction with other tactics such as blogger outreach.
• For consumer brands a lot of the traffic to your web site is looking for coupons.  Providing new offers throughout the year is a great way to build a loyal visitor to your site.

Affiliate marketing is when an advertiser pays an Affiliate network to distribute it’s display ads to web site owners.  I’ve used Commission Junction (CJ) in the past — but there are several large affiliate networks out there.

It works like this; let’s say an insurance company wants to sell some insurance.  They could go to Commission Junction (or one of the other affiliate networks) and create an account.  They then upload their banner creative and set the amount the are willing to pay web site owners.  The beauty of affiliate marketing is that the insurance company only pays for performance — they can pay per click, per lead, or per sale. Usually they would pay per lead or sale.  So they only pay the web site owners when a sale is made.

Then a fellow with a web site logs onto Commission Junction and copies the insurance companies banner ad creative code to his web site.  If traffic to his web site converts into a sale he gets a check from Commission Junction.  Amounts vary from a couple pennies to a couple bucks per sale — depending on the product sold.

Affiliate marketing is great for products and services that are sold directly over the internet.  Or products and services that require a lot of inbound leads to generate a sale.  I like affiliate marketing because I only pay for a sale.  I get my ads all over the web and only pay when the ad generates a paying customer.

Downside of affiliate marketing is that you can’t control where you ads get displayed.  And there are a lot of unsavory characters out there doing very gray things to turn affiliate ads into sales.

In May 2008 comScore report that  the average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video over the course of the month.  Adding up to over 11B videos viewed.  Online video is a big thing — and it’s still only the beginning.  Once the family’s TV set starts to connect directly to the internet things will get really interesting.

But for now there are a couple ways to leverage online video to advertise:

Pre-Roll: Your video ad unit plays before the video content.  CNN is doing a lot of this now.

Overlay: Your ad unit is displayed at the bottom of the video as it plays.

Post Roll: Your ad unit is played at the end of the video content.

Sponsorship: Your display and text ads surround the video content.  Often used in conjunction with other video ad opportunities.

Interstitial: Your video ad unit is played in the middle of the video content.  Often used for long format online video.  Your ad plays like a broadcast tv spot.

Pre-roll Ad Unit

You Tube in-roll unitsSponsored Channel

Google (YouTube’s owner) is desperate to monetize YouTube. So there will be a lot of changes over the next few months in what YouTube sells as available advertising inventory.

Two current options are to run “in-roll” ad units that are displayed at the bottom of a video. See the example to the left.

The other popular option is to work with YouTube to create a custom channel. Custom channels can be designed around your campaign. YouTube then runs featured video links throughout the site to drive traffic to the custom channel.

Available options on YouTube are changing rapidly. I’ll try to keep this post up to date as I can.

YouTube Spoansored Channel