Techmeme pulling a Google, mixing sponsored ads with content?

Recently, Google has been spotted moving ads closer to and mixed in with their “content,” or search results. This is the first I’ve seen Techmeme doing the same …

This is where sponsored posts usually live on Techmeme:

Just tonight, when checking if anything was new in the world of technology, I saw this:

Notice the difference? The sponsored post is right in the flow of all the new content.

Now, it’s entirely possible this has been happening for some time and I just haven’t noticed it. But I’ve been a regular Techmeme visitor over the past few months, and haven’t seen it before. Nor have I seen it in the past years that I’ve browsed Techmeme’s stories.

The story is marked as “sponsored,” which is a good thing. Interesting that it’s now in the regular flow of site content, however.

Brilliant Facebook advertainment

Check this short video (1:30 minutes) to see what a smart creative Swedish agency did to promote a new IKEA store:

Cheap, easy, fast. And very, very smart.

This ad agency “website” rocks my world

Some will hate it and some will love it. But many will talk about it:

And yes, booneoakley.com translates to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elo7WeIydh8. Bold – very bold.

(Saw it here.)

This is how you shoot yourself in the foot

If you ever needed a visual explanation of how marketing can shoot itself in the foot, see this:

First line: PROFESSIONAL WEB HOSTING (emphasis added)

Third line: Starting at $4.95/mo (emphasis added)

. . .
. . .

‘Nuff said.

Pop-unders: thanks but no thanks

If I ever want to kill any readership of Sparkplug 9, I know exactly how to do it. I’ve received written instructions in the mail.

Email, actually. I recently received one from Kim Tompkins, a “junior media buyer” at Red McCombs Media. It’s a proposal any self-respecting blogger would swiftly upchuck at:

Hi there,

I am a Media Buyer with Red McCombs Media. I am contacting you today because we are looking to place some 800×600 small business related pop-unders. I can give these pop-unders to you at a $2.50cpm, targeted to US visitors.

These pop-unders only contain content relating to small business and will not rotate in anything inappropriate, pornographic, etc. Please let me know if you are interested at your earliest convenience! We would love to get you set up as a publisher immediately! If you could just get back to me with how many impressions per day we can expect from your site we can move forward from there. Please let me know if you have any questions!

If you would like to learn more about our company please feel free to visit our website http://www.redmccombsmedia.com. Look forward to hearing back from you and hope we are able to get something started!

Thanks!

Nothing good starts with “hi there.” And no, I have no intention of putting pop-unders on my site. $2.50 per thousand is a very small amount for my integrity.

I’ll stick with Text Links Ads.