“We feel pretty strongly that this is the way to capitalize on where the mobile Web is heading,” said Chad Jacoby, a senior manager of Nissan’s media operations. “What iAd promises is the most progressive thing I’ve seen to date” in digital advertising.

Advertisers and developers alike are very happy with Apple’s iAd platform. Developers like that they get paid a lot more than they would through other networks and advertisers like that users are much more likely to interact with the advertisements. Applications running iAds are seeing CPM rates as high as $25.

Dictionary.com said on Wednesday that the amount it could charge for its ad space had increased 177% since it enabled iAds in its iPhone app, and CBS Mobile Senior Vice President Rob Gelick said the company’s six apps — including apps for CBS Sports, CNET, and GameSpot, were seeing up to $25 CPMs (the cost advertisers pay for an add to appear a thousand times.)

On the other end of the scale, advertisers are reporting a much greater user engagement. Users spend more time with the iAds than with ordinary banners, and they are much more likely to “click” them. It can be expected that people would spend more time with the ads, seeing as the whole point of the platform is to provide information and entertainment without leaving the confines of the app. Ordinary display ads whisk the user away as soon as they click.

Nissan, which created a multilayer interactive ad for its electric LEAF car, said customers spent an average of 90 seconds with the ad — 10 times longer than interaction times for comparable online ads. Moreover, people chose to “tap” on the Leaf iAd five times more frequently than they clicked on regular online display ads for the Leaf.

If you haven’t seen an iAd yet, be sure to see this YouTube video of the Nissan ad. It shows-off the benefits of the platform (from the perspective of end users) pretty well.

I have high hopes for the iAd network, both as a blogger interested in seeing the advertising industry shaken-up and as someone getting started with iPhone application development.

The post covers the early days of the (ye olde) Hotmail service, well before Microsoft acquired the startup company, back when it was spelled “HoTMaiL.”

Smith wrote it down. He wasn’t sure about the “hot” part, but given everything else this seemed the best candidate. Then he noticed it contained the letters “HTML,” the acronym for “HyperText Markup Language,” the lingua franca of web pages.

The article largely focuses on the early attempt at virally marketing a website, which you’ve probably seen at one time or another. Back in 1996, and for years later, emails sent through Hotmail would have a little advertisement appended to the end, a single line reading “PS: I love you. Get your free e-mail at Hotmail.” This was back when email was fairly new to the general public, and it helped make HoTMaiL one of the leading webmail providers.

“Wait a second guys, don’t you get it?” Draper asked. A tag line at the bottom of each message would act as free advertising. “I can send you an e-mail and you can send it to all your friends and they get it and they can sign up and send it to their friends and pretty soon it takes off.”

It’s definitely worth a read, especially if you’re into the arcane lore and histories of the internet.

Ten things. If you do one or more of them, you’ll have readers in no time. The first suggestion is one that is easy, and works well: Write a couple posts before you start trying to publicize the blog.

Do you want a guaranteed way to launch with a bang? Prepare amazing content before you launch. I am not talking about a quick general post, I want you to take the time of your life to create the most astounding post you have ever come across.

Another suggestion is to create some sort of freebie to give away. Icon sets and eBooks are suggested, and I’ve had success with WordPress plugins.

If you can offer a valuable freebie that is related to your target audience, it can radically improve your subscriber count in a very short time. If you don’t have something worthy to offer your subscribers you might as well not offer anything at all. Make it worthwhile.

The post also recommends guest posting on a few established blog. This can net you some traffic, maybe even some money if you go to the right places. The Envato blogs, for instance, all pay their guest writers. Do you read any blogs on a regular basis? If you’re knowledgeable in their area, try pitching them a post idea.

Two winners will be chosen at random from those who comment before the deadline of March 15. (Midnight, EST.)

How to Enter

• Leave a comment on this post, from the form at the bottom, telling us why you want the business cards, and what you will use them for. Will you promote your website by tacking them up on bulletin boards? Will you carry them around with you at a convention or conference?
• Be sure to leave a valid email address so we can contact you and see that you receive the business cards.
• Optionally move to the United States or Canada if you don’t already live there. UPrinting will charge a shipping fee if you reside outside of either country.

The two winners will receive a thousand business cards apiece, printed on any of the available paper stocks. The winners will be chosen randomly and the winners notified by March 16th.

I’ve used UPrinting before, and they do great business cards. The colors were good, and the stock was of good quality. They were quick about making the cards up and sending them too.

So, what would you do with 1,000 business cards? Tell us, and you just might be able to carry out your plans…

Edit: And the winners are…

I assigned each entrant a number, based on the order of the comments, and used Random.org to pick the winners. Congratulations to

• Steven Clark
• Blaine Moore

Personally, I don’t think globally buying AdSense PPC ads is the way to start. You want to target your ads a bit better than that. I have a few suggestions to try if you want to get the most for your investment.

Search Ads

Want to get a leg-up over your competitors? Try advertising in Google results.

Now unless you have a lot of money, you probably won’t be able to afford premium placing, which is quite pricey apparently, but you could buy some keyword-targetted pay-per-click ads to the left of the results. Not everyone looks at the ads, but more than enough do.

StumbleUpon Ads

StumbleUpon can bring you a truckload of good-quality traffic ordinarily. If you have some money, you can advertise with StumbleUpon. Their “ads” are simply paid stumbles. You choose some targeting options, and then pay $0.05 for every visit sent to the page you wish to advertise.

What could be better than ads that take people directly to your website?

You can set how many visitors you want per day, from 100 to 5000, the interest groups you want to target, location, age, etc..

125×125 Ads

I am a big believer in 125×125 ads. The small banners are tasteful and unobtrusive, and often advertise things of interest. They’re images, so they do more for you branding-wise than text ads even if a person doesn’t click.

This option requires a bit more research, but can pay-off well if you find a good site to advertise on. Compare statistics and prices to find a good deal.

You can make deals via email or phone with websites that offer 125×125 ad space, if you wish to advertise on blogs that sell ads themselves, or you could go through BuySellAds, a network for quality banner advertising. You can browse through their marketplace and find pricing and statistics all in one place, then pay to advertise on the site(s) you chose.

Whether you use either method or both, try to find sites that fit into your budget price-wise, and have decent traffic statistics. Then put together a nice-looking ad creative with 125×125 pixel dimensions before buying.

Advertising can bring-in some extra traffic, gain you subscribers, and simply get your website “out there” for people to see.

You print-up some bookmarks branded with your site’s logo and domain name. (You can do this yourself with an inkjet printer and some card stock.) Make them funny/interesting/cool-looking, and put a prominent logo and URL on it.

Now, go to your local bookstores and public libraries, bringing a large stack of the ‘marks. Go through and find some books on the topic of your blog, and put the bookmarks inside the books, like you were reading the book and marked the spot. Now the next person to come along and check the book out, or purchase it in the case of a bookstore, will notice the free bookmark (people like free stuff) and possibly visit your site.

How is this targeted? You put the bookmarks in books that fit your blog’s topic, especially books you’ve read and recommend. It’s cheap, it’s unobtrusive, and it works pretty good.

I’ve mainly done this with business cards, though bookmarks work even better, as people are more likely to keep them, and reuse them while reading other books. In one such case, I put cards in all of the library’s copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before the seventh and final Harry Potter book was released, advertising an HP site with a big “Prepare for the final book” legend, the card’s background being the upcoming book’s cover art. I’d planned to do bookmarks, but didn’t have the time to print them up.

Photo by austinevan.