Jobs in Online Advertising

From designing to selling, there are a huge number of jobs involving online advertising. Ranging from entry level to requiring decades of experience, there are advertising jobs in every category. Here are a few examples:

A Monster search reveals an ad for TechTarget of Boston, Massachusetts who is seeking an"Online Advertising Trafficking Specialist." The qualifications and skills include:

• "Bachelors Degree
• Ability to work in a fast paced fun environment;
• Ideal candidates will have been exposed to webcast software solutions
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite;
• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written) are a must along with follow through and attention to detail; and,
• Ability to set and meet deadlines.
• 1-3 years Operations-Technology experience preferred."

CareerBuilder came up with a listing from Business.com looking for a "Account Executive - Online Advertising Sales." The requirements include:

"1+ years of sales experience.

Online advertising sales experience desired but not required.

Successful track record in Inside sales.

Familiar with sales advertising concepts.

Excellent computer skills with a proficiency using sales information systems.

Strong work ethic and a high level of professionalism and integrity.

Must be goal-oriented.

Strong communication, organization and writing skills.

Track record of quota attainment.

Simply Hired has a listing for a "Online Advertising Account Manager" for Amazon.com. The qualilifications are:

• "Minimum 3 years work experience in online advertising supporting Product Managers and Sales Account Executives
• BA/BS in business, communications or similar field
• Desire to be part of an start-up environment
• Excellent organizational and multi-tasking skills to effectively work with Account Executives
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• The ideal candidate will thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic and ever-changing environment."

Online Video Advertising

When talking about the role of online video, perhaps Roe Pressley of nextwebstudios.com said it best in a Press Release in August, 2007: "Incorporating video into your business website's main page exponentially increases time spent viewing, information retention, and click-through rates, not to mention the profoundly human touch it adds to your marketing strategy. Why make customers sift through thick paragraphs of text to find out about your company's services, when you can have a human being walk right out onto the main page and explain it for them?" While your at it, be sure to check out nextwebstudios.com, as they have an excellent example of how effective videos can be.

Powerhouse NBC was one of the first to jump on the YouTube bandwagon after it saw the popularity of its videos that were originally on the site illegally. They saw the potential and chief executive of NBC, Chad Hurley stated, "It's a clear proof point that we're building a viable, long-term business, and it's showing there's common ground between traditional and new media." Chief marketing officer for NBC, John Miller adds, "The fact that ["Lazy Sunday"] virally spread like wildfire, that clearly told us something -- that we could maybe duplicate that and create promos that people could share. The mechanism was there, we want to fully embrace the viral activity that YouTube embraces."

There are so many things that are constantly changing and growing in the online advertising world, and Google is always at the forefront. Adsense will soon be a thing of the past because Gadget Ads will be catching on soon in advertising online. Google Gadget Ads allow interaction between the Gadget and its audience. Branded applications and dynamic data feeds allow gadgets to be virally transferred and posted by any user, so if your gadget is popular, your audience is expanded as a bonus. These gadgets are able to include interactive videos and games complete with sound and animation. They are almost like little websites within the bigger website. There are some excellent examples here. I think that this type of advertising will be less intrusive and therefore more beneficial than trying to include pre-rolls, skins, commercials, or any combination there of. I can't help but include this question: What sounds like it would be better - skins, bugs, and tickers, OR gadgets? The first grouping sort of makes my skin crawl and doesn't sound appealing at all. Gadgets, on the other hand, sound fabulous. Just like Inspector Gadget, Google Gadget can do anything. Go, go gadget!

I'm not sure how I feel about big name newspapers who are accompanying articles with videos, or sometimes just leaving out the article all together. Yes, it's great that we have the technology, and people can get news in more ways than by merely reading....but geez! I can't help but think it's a bit sad that people can't even read a newspaper these days without the help of a video.

Although I have no idea how to solve the problem, the advertiser's conundrum within online videos is that there is little standardization within the medium. All the measurement of clicks and views and reach isn't going to do any good if the situation cannot be replicated. You never can tell how popular videos are going to be, especially user-generated content, so it is hard to rely or put any faith in advertising presented there. How to go about doing that is the next big question.

Search Engine Optimization

There are billions of websites out there for people to search through... but how can you make sure they find yours?

That is where Search Engine Optimization comes in!

Wikipedia states that, "Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume
and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic")
search results."

After installing Google Analytics onto this blog site, the next obvious step is to attract readers. The first thing I did
was add meta tags to my html page source. I included the following keyword tags:" blog, homework, student,
SIUC, Carbondale, SIU, Southern Illinois University, ads, advertising, web analytics, click fraud, online content,
banner, banner advertising, targeting, behavioral targeting, whateverlife, Ashley Qualls, Ashbo, websites, online,
online shopping, Netflix, screen capture, click through, rates, Chanel, 2nd life, Dove, Brawney, American Eagle,
BudTV, Google, Google Analytics, web traffic, visitors." I also included the following Description of Content:
"Welcome to my advertising blog." Meta tags help search robots to find relevant information when people search.

Next, I added 5 blog role links to my own blog in the hopes that they will do the same for me. If I'm linked to
another page, it is just that much more likely that I will get more page views.

Adding my blog to sites like Diggand Stumble Upon
also increase my chances of page views. In fact, within only about 30 minutes of posting my blog on Digg, I had
3 people who "dugg" it, which means they enjoyed it and they recommend it to other readers.

Overall, I am just doing this on a very small scale. If I was a real blogger in hopes of attracting a regular audience,
I think there would be things I would do differently. First, I would not host my blog on a site such as this.
I think it would be far better to own and control my own website, which would also allow me to control more about
layout and information. I think some readers are not inclined to visit blog sites when searching for information
because it can be viewed as unreliable.

At this point, I am still waiting for my Adsense account to be verified.