The site was launched at Campus Party, a huge technology event in Sao Paulo 11 days ago.  Since that time, we have seen exciting viral growth.  Within the last hour, the 30,000th person registered to be a member of Viajamos.com.br.

Members are also actively engaged with the site.  For example, 63,000 photos have already been uploaded to the site, nearly 1,600 topical user groups have been created, 1,500 blog entries have been posted,  500 events have been added to the site, etc.

“Approximately once a decade, a radical new technology emerges that fundamentally changes the business landscape.  In every case, regardless of prior competitive dynamics, businesses that understand and appropriately adopt the technology win, while those that fail to do so lose.  In the 1970s, this was mainframe computing.  IN the 1980s, it was the PC. In the 1990s, it was the Internet.  And today it is the online social graph.” (Clara Shih in The Facebook Era)

The social graph is the world wide web of people.  It is the map of everyone on the Internet and how they are interconnected.  The social graph is for people what the Internet is for interconnected webpages.  Social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace are helping to construct this social graph.

Each of these radical technology evolutions has been punctuated by a cycle of innovation, commercialization, emergence of new applications, and then large-scale impact on business.  The online social graph is following this cycle, and is facilitating a “new, more nimble, and more efficient class of businesses that outcompetes those using technology from the previous era.” (Clara Shih)

I started working with the Internet and online communities almost 13 years ago in 1996.  I created Adoption.com, which became the world’s largest adoption service of which I’m aware (measured by the number of people using its services each month).

As my first consulting project I created the initial vision and directed the creation of the first website for Law.com, which I have been told sold for about $20 million within approximately 2 years of launch (unfortunately, I didn’t get any equity in the project).  I also built the Families.com online community and sold it in 2007.

During the last two years I have been doing consulting work for next-generation digital media properties, such as a large iPhone application and the 4th largest Facebook application, with 54 million registered members.

I have also built niche social networks (such as GenealogyWise.com) to leverage the social graph within niche industries.  These niche social networks provide tools that enable members to connect and share content with others who share similar interests.  GenealogyWise is just a few months old, but it already has 13,000+ members, 3,000+ sub-groups on genealogy-related topics, 700+ blog entries, 350+ videos, etc.

How could a social network help your business to seize your opportunity within the social graph?  If you are an accountant or attorney who practices a specific type of law, you could build a social network for people interested in your areas of practice.  If you own an emergency preparedness company or a manufacturing company, you could build a niche social network of your potential clients.   If you are part of a membership organization or are planning an event, a niche social network can help you recruit and develop stronger relationships with members and attendees.  If you are a politician, the social graph is an essential element of your campaign. President Obama’s social media strategy was given a large portion of the credit for his election victories.  If you are interested in sewing or if your child has a health condition, you can build a social network of people who have similar interests.

Then, once you have developed a successful social network, you can generate revenue in a variety of ways, such as selling advertising, directory listings,virtual goods, classified ads, e-commerce and subscription sales.

I have expertise in creating niche social networks, developing social media strategies for businesses, and helping organizations to better monetize their digital media properties. If your business could benefit from qualified, seasoned consulting to better seize the opportunities within the social graph, I would love to help.

First, selecting the best ad network often depends on the niche of your site. For example, if you have developed a classic cars site that caters to men, Gorilla Nation (which focuses on selling ads for men’s websites), might be a great place to start. I’ve heard of niche ad networks for health, dating, travel, blogs, women’s websites, financial services, social networks, mobile devices, etc. Search engine ad networks (such as Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher Network and Microsoft adCenter) provide targeted advertising generally related to the content of the page. Targeted ads generally sell for a lot more than untargeted ads, and it can be difficult to break into new niches, so finding an ad network that is already selling ads targeted in your niche is very important.

Second, it is important to select a larger ad network if you can find one that sells ads in your niche. Many of the larger advertisers and advertising agencies will not work with the small ad networks which deliver much less reach and return for their effort. The following chart (Source: ClickZ and ComScore) shows the largest ad networks in order of unique visitors as of January 2008. Comparing the number of visitors using each ad platform is one good indicator of the quality of the ad network, just as the number of people in restaurants can be a good indicator of the quality of the restaurants.

Platform-A is owned by AOL and has just debuted in the #1 spot, as it merges the advertising from all of the AOL properties, lead by Advertising.com. AOL has spent nearly a billion dollars purchasing companies to create Platform-A, such as Lightningcast (online video ads provider which AOL purchased for $100 million), Third Screen Media (mobile ads provider which AOL purchased for $105 million), AdTech (ad serving service which AOL purchased for an undisclosed price), Tacoda (behavioral targeting service which AOL purchased for $247 million), Quigo (search engine marketing and contextual advertising provider which AOL purchased for $347 million), Perifilliate (CPA marketing service which AOL purchased for $125 million). Platform-A has the potential to be something amazing and is something that should be watched closely. However, Platform A has not yet lived up to its potential and has not yet created an ad network sufficiently compelling to lure me to use their services.

Third, the growth trends of the major ad networks is another key indicator of the future quality of the ad network and the culture of innovation within that organization. Growth rate is one of the best indicators of the future growth of of the ad network. The chart below (Source: eMarketer) shows the growth rates of leading ad networks. According to this chart, Google’s projected growth rate for this year of more than 30% and its historic growth rate far surpasses any of the competitors.

Fourth, it is important to determine the advertising behavior of the visitors to your website. For example, if you have a blog, forums or social networking site, which has a large percentage of repeat visitors, it might be more effective to use a CPM (cost per thousand ads displayed) model. The same would be true if advertisers are not willing to bid a lot for the keywords related to the topic of your site (such as a site for fans of your favorite sports team). However, if the content of your site is primarily about topics for which advertisers would bid higher amounts to reach (mortgage, cars, etc.), or if your website attracts a large percentage of new visitors, then a CPC (cost per click) model would often be more effective.

One of the first questions you should probably ask is whether your site can generate more revenue in a CPM or CPC model. As a general rule, CPM advertising with ad networks will generally pay about $3 to $4 for every 1000 times an ad is displayed on your website, but this can vary substantially.

If a large percentage of your traffic is from visitors outside the United States, this can also be a red flag for some of the ad networks. Also, if the URL of your website contains keywords not related to the topic of your site, that can cause confusion for the contextually targeted ad networks and result in untargeted advertising.

Fifth, it is important to provide variety of ads on your website. It is generally better to rotate several different ad networks so that a wider variety of advertisements and ad formats are displayed on your website. If you select Google Adsense, you should enable the graphical ads from third-party ad networks to help provide this variety. You do this by opting in to image ads, enabling advertisers to target your Adsense channels, and then opting in to placement targeting.You can also use the Google Ad Manager to rotate in multiple ad networks and select the one providing the highest return. This variety can often increase the click-through rates and revenue earned. This variety will also help you to better determine which ad networks should receive more or less of your available ad inventory.

In addition to Google Adsense you may want to experiment with some of the following ad networks to see which combination works best for your niche site:

• Yahoo Publisher Network
• Advertising.com (purchased by AOL)
• BlueLithium (purchased by Yahoo)
• AdMarketplace
• ASDAQ (a service of ContextWeb),
• Direct Media Exchange (a service of Right Media),
• Vibrant Media IntelliTXT (in-text advertising)
• Kontera (in-text advertising)
• Tribal Fusion (not the strongest interface)
• SnapShots Ad Network
  
• Text Link Ads
• AdBrite
• SpecificMedia (focuses on larger websites)
• Quigo (purchased by AOL)
• Azoogle
• ClickBooth (cost-per-acquisition ad network)
• FeedBurner (advertising on feeds, such as a blog RSS feed, purchased by Google)
• Social Media (social media advertising)

The number of ad networks on this list seems almost unmanageable. However, select the ones that make the most sense for your site, then use PubMatic. PubMatic is an amazing free service which rotates the ads from different ad networks on your website, testing the ads from each ad network in each ad position, and automatically displaying the ads that perform the best on your website.

If your site is large enough to hire an in-house ad sales team, you can probably generate more income from your advertising inventory than these ad networks, but until then, these competing ad networks provide great solutions to help smaller websites increase revenues.

Which ad networks have you used and which have or have not worked well for you?

This year, in addition to the pageant itself, the story of Christ was told through a special presentation of video, photography and music in the Visitor’s Center. This special presentation, Reflections of Christ, was created by talented artists, including my friend Jason Barney, who produced the music.

The presentation at the Visitors Center has touched many thousands of people who attended. However, this week Richard Miller showed me the website for the project. I was moved by a beautiful introduction with photography and music. Then, after I registered, I found 13 additional videos about the project in the “videos” section.

This website has only been online for a couple of months, but according to Quantcast it received more than 15,000 unique visits in March. This is a great example of the marketing concept that great sites don’t have to pay for advertising, they spread virally. ReflectionsofChrist.org would definitely fit in the “great sites” category.

Google Grants are awarded in the form of free AdWords advertising.  The AdWords advertising helps these organizations increase awareness to their causes and traffic to their websites. If your organization already uses AdSense program, it is not eligible to apply for a grant.

Find out if your organization is eligible.

This concept of trust derived from non-authoritative sources is an essential element in what is making the Internet successful. If you want to know which book is the best, would you trust the review of the book publisher, or the Amazon.com reviews from dozens of people who have read the book?

Richard Miller sent me the following quote about “anti-authorities” (or “non-authoritative sources”) from Made to Stick:

“A citizen of the modern world, constantly inundated with messages, learns to develop skepticism about the sources of those messages. Who’s behind these messages? Should I trust them? What do they have to gain if I believe them?

“A commercial claiming that a new shampoo makes your hair bouncier has less credibility than hearing your best friend rave about how a new shampoo made her own hair bouncier. Well, duh. The company wants to sell you shampoo. Your friend doesn’t, so she gets more trust points. The takeaway is that it can be the honesty and trustworthiness of our sources, not their status, that allows them to act as authorities. Sometimes antiauthorities are even better than authorities.” (Made to Stick, pp. 136-37, emphasis added)

In the Book of Mormon, a prophet named Alma was teaching the people in a new city. Alma was the authoritative source. However, the people did not believe him. A man named Amulek, who was well-known in that community, stood up and became a witness of the message Alma had shared. Amulek was the non-authoritative source, and with his added testimony the people believed the message of Alma (see Alma 10:4,10,12).

As with Amulek, members of the LDS Church can add their non-authoritative voices with even more credibility in certain situations than the Church itself. This is because co-workers, neighbors and friends will often trust their their friend more than the Church itself.

This same concept applies in most industries.  Hopeful adoptive parents, for example, would much rather get a referral to an adoption agency from someone who had a good adoption experience.   Businesses need to provide tools for their customers to share their non-authoritative voices (such as testimonials or blogs), and then feature this content in a visible way.

In doing this, though, the businesses need to be careful to show some less-flattering voices along with the good. If a company only shows the good reviews and responses, then the censorship will destroy the credibility.

Also, businesses need to do their best to fill industry-specific review sites with good information about their products. For example, a book author needs to have readers who liked her book to write reviews on Amazon.com and BN.com. A lawyer, dentist or doctor, might encourage customers who had favorable experiences to publish their reviews of those professional services on business review sites (InsiderPages.com, Yelp.com and others).

When Dr. Rhodes and Dr. Swenson taught this principle, they gave the example of an advertising campaign which was run by the American Plastics Council. From 1987 to 1992 the percentage of the American public feeling the risks of plastic outweighed its benefits increased from 32% to 64%. Negative media coverage of the plastic industry was as frequent as positive media coverage. More and more legislation was being introduced to ban plastic packaging and large manufacturers were beginning to de-select plastic. This ad campaign was being run to help change public perceptions to be more favorable concerning the use of plastics.

So, the American Plastics Council (APC) ran ads which illustrated some of the benefits of plastics, such as credit cards and garbage cans. The majority of respondents to these ads had a favorable impression of the advertisements, but the level of guilt associated with buying products made of or packaged with plastic did not change. Consequently, the expensive ad campaign was deemed a failure.

At that time, Bob Nightengale from the APC said, “I think we need to be concerned with the performance of the communications program. Even though it is still early, we just are not seeing the type of improvement we had hoped for. I am worried that we are not “moving the needle.”

The APC learned the concept of “selling to the swing group through the eyes of the love group.” The potential users of plastics can be divided into those who are passionate about plastics (love group), those who are indifferent (swing group), and those who advocate against the use of plastics (hate group). It is often very difficult to convince the hate group to change their position and the love group already uses your product or service, so the group to whom advertising would probably be most effective is the swing group.

With this new insight, the APC ran a second set of advertisements telling stories of people in the plastics love group. For example, one television advertisement featured a father telling the story of his child who was born premature and was kept alive by a plastic incubator. He was definitely in the love group for plastic, and his ad along with the others in this new style, were emotionally compelling to the swing group. As a result, from the 1st quarter of 1993 to the 1st quarter 1994, plastics usage increased 17% in the retail and clothing industry, 35% in industrial manufacturing, 65% in the food industry, and 30% in the healthcare industry. The amount of legislation introduced to adversely affect the plastics industry was cut in half since 1991 and positive media coverage of the plastics industry was five times greater than the negative coverage by the 1st quarter of 1996.

The LDS Church, with the help of the BYU Ad Lab, recently developed a new advertising campaign with this type of “love group” focus. They identified people who had converted to Mormonism and asked them to share their conversion stories. That was the “love” group. Then, snippets of those conversion stories were run on many different advertising channels, such as radio, television, billboard, magazine, and on the Internet at Mormon.org in an attempt to reach the “swing” group.

I would definitely not say I am an advocate of many forms of plastics. However, what I take away from this powerful lesson is that when I am developing an advertising campaign, I should locate the people who love my product or service and try to distill the core reasons why they love my product or service. Historically, I have focused on a “facts and benefits” style of marketing. Now that I understand this concept, I am eager to re-develop several websites, such as Adoption.com, to better sell to the swing group through the eyes of the love group.

This new feature is powered by FeedBurner and only took a few minutes to implement. Not only does this service send my subscribers updates via email, but it also provides many other services to monetize and promote my blog. Last year Google purchased FeedBurner for a rumored price of $100 million, although Google will not confirm the price. This is another great example of the many free services which Google provides to small businesses for free. See my recent blog on this topic.

FeedBurner is the leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds.  FeedBurner tools help bloggers, podcasters and commercial publishers promote, deliver and profit from their content on the Web.

• According to Nielsen/NetRatings, FeedBurner is growing faster than MySpace and Digg with 385% traffic growth.
• Total feeds: 1,507,966
• Number of publishers: 846,311
• Number of podcast and videocast feeds: 207,436

Google was visionary with this acquisition, jumping in as a market leader in feed-based advertising. This is a newer type of advertising which attaches contextual advertising to email and RSS feeds. Google can afford to give away this amazing service for free because it hopes the feed owners will choose to use Google Adsense to monetize their feeds, which can now be conveniently done in FeedBurner, with the click of a button.