Basically, 99designs aims to connect a passionate design community from around the world with customers seeking designs… This community then ‘compete’ to produce the best design for a given job. The winning designer gets paid, and the customer receives quality, and affordable, design services. win win.

In essence, 99designs allows you to ‘crowd source’ designs from all over the world, and then only pay for the design you actually like. Very different from the ‘old’ model and certainly rubs some of the purists the wrong way, but hey, it works!

I recently read that in just 3 years, 99designs has paid out an amazing $25 million to their designers and grown the business to the point where over 1,000 new design contests are launched every week. At present they are paying out around $1.2 million dollars to designers every month.

I’m going to briefly discuss the logo design side of the business but you can get pretty much anything designed with these guys from web sites, banner ads, business cards and stationary, right through to T-shirt designs.

Now, I’ve a confession to make, I personally have not yet used their design services (you can tell by my lack of logo!) but I’ve been recommending them for ages to friends and co-workers as I’ve constantly heard good things about the results.

About 3 months ago a built a site for my father’s finance broking business – CapitalBrokers.com.au (using Genesis Framework from Studiopress – best. wordpress. framework. ever.)

Now you can jump ahead and see the final logo if you like, but you’ll miss the story…

David (my father) has been running his own commercial finance broking businesses for the last 27 years and has rebranded probably about 5-6 times throughout this period.

However after running his competition on 99designs it’s pretty safe to say that this was probably one of the least expensive logo / stationary designs, but also the most  rewarding, he’s ever done!

How successful was David’s logo competition? Try over 150 designs from close to 40 individual designers! David’s logo competition was so successful in fact that a customer service rep at 99designs actually asked him how he’d done it!

The key, it seems, was communication.

David didn’t offer any more money. It was a standard $295 logo comp. What he did do however was offer continuous feedback to the designers who had already engaged with the project. For this effort he was rewarded!

Crowd sourcing for logos, web sites or other design needs may not be for everyone. But if you are in the market for a new look or identity then for a few hundred $’s it’s definitely a sound investment.

Give 99Designs a try today!

Pro Tip:

• If you want to maximise the number of logo entries you get, it’s not always just about the $’s, if one designer is submitting solid logo’s but you have ideas for how they could be better, let them know. Not only will they submit more variations. But the end product will probably be of an even higher standard as a result.

And here’s Davids logo!

Capital Brokers Australia's winning logo

Disclaimer: Some links used in this site are via affiliate networks which may reward me for purchases made after someone (you know you want to) clicks on these links. So thanks in advance.

Will 2012 be the year of even more consolidation in the digital performance agency space? I think so, but we will have to wait and see!

Here’s FirstClick’s press release…

FirstClick Consulting, Australia’s leading independent search marketing consultancy specialising in SEM, SEO, Conversion Optimisation and Digital Strategy, has acquired MediaMax, a digital performance agency that services clients including STA Travel and Schering – Plough.

MediaMax, founded in 2005, will operate under the FirstClick brand. As part of the acquisition, FirstClick welcomes James Tait, founder of MediaMax, who will join FirstClick as Client Services Director.

Grace Chu, CEO of FirstClick says, “We saw a fantastic opportunity to expand our reach into the travel sector by acquiring MediaMax. Not only are the MediaMax clients strong, premium brands but the MediaMax team, headed up by James Tait, allows us to grow our team rapidly and to an extremely high standard.”

FirstClick has also added three more premium brands to its impressive portfolio of clients. Medibank, Fuji Zerox and Amaysim have all appointed FirstClick Consulting to manage their search marketing campaigns. All three brands join the likes of ANZ, realestate.com.au, news Digital Media and seek.

Grace continues, “I’m thrilled with the rate of growth FirstClick is experiencing. We’re really excited to be working on such strong brands that are committed to leading the way in search marketing. We’ll continue to do what we do best – and that’s make money for our clients through strategic search marketing.”

Although specialists in search, FirstClick also provides the latest thinking and out-of-the-box solutions across ROI strategy, Local Search, Social Optimisation, Mobile Search, Video Search, Performance and Display Networks, Analytics and Training.

Wow. 13 years old.

Welcome to your teenage years. Angst, anger and rebellion to ensue.

I got interrupted by my 3 year old during the set up process so I’m sorry if you visited and the site looked a bit.. err… odd!  All should be well now.

Please let me know what you think in the comments!

(And… that link above is a our affiliate link. So if you’re thinking about buying a studiopress theme then please buy through that link and help support semsamurai.com!)

So, what is f-commerce? Essentially it’s the buying/selling of goods via social networks (specifically Facebook). In a broader sense we are  talking about Social Commerce, buying and selling via social networks.

Sales can either be through Facebook directly of via Facebook/social  integration with an external site (eg via the social graph).

I’ve embedded the slidshare slides below but I also wanted to highlight a few key points of interest, expecially for the Asian market. (thanks Socialcommercetoday for the summary!)

• Global e-commerce is set to grow to $963 bn (19.4% p/a growth) in 2013
• By 2013 the largest regional e-commerce market will be Asia ($323 bn vs $235 bn, vs Europe $283 bn)
• The Web will be involved in 53% of total retail sales by 2014
• Currently e-commerce on social networks is small – 27% of consumers ready to buy physical goods on social networks.
• The 5 Benefits of F-Commerce: Customer Insight, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Customer Advocacy, Facebook ROI

There are two types of F-Commerce:

• “On Facebook” (F-Stores, Facebook Credits, Facebook Deals),
• “With Facebook” (Facebook Ads, Custom Apps, Facebook Places)

The economics and the business model are a challenge. Resellers have to pay sales teams who have to sign up as many advertisers as possible and account managers (if the business has any) have 100′s or 1000′s of accounts to look after.  The reseller than has to slap on a massively high mark-up on the Cost per click to drive any revenue at all.

I’ve seen 100% mark-ups ‘out in the wild’.

It’s a low quality, high volume business. and yes, the churn rate is massive because advertisers are not happy with results or service.

Honestly, It’s not a business model I’d touch with a 10 foot pole!

What I have begun to do is share my knowledge on this blog (via the ‘Mind your own PPC’ posts) in the hope that small business readers can start to wrestle control of their marketing back from dodgy resellers and actually get some value for money. Eg don’t pay a 100% mark-up on Click costs if you don’t have to.

However the reality of the situation is that many small business owners simply do not have the time (even a few minutes a day) to devote to managing their own local search campaign, nor the time to devote to learning what they need to learn to get things going properly.  Yet they also know that that they are potentially missing out on valuable traffic by not having a presence in the search results or map pages.  So they’re forced to find a supplier who can get them there, even if it means paying more than they should for mediocre campaigns…

Enter Google AdWords Express

BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER… Google are about making money, just like every other busines so they’re not a knight in shining armour here to rescue small businesses in distress, they see a massive opportunity to get 1000′s of small buinsesses online and buying their ads. They’re obviously not happy with the reseller model either so they seem to have reached a compromise,

It’s also worth noting that I’ve not yet had any first hand experience with Express, so these are just observations based on what information I’ve been able to find so far.

What is AdWords Express?

It’s designed to get small local advertisers up and running on Adwords as quickly as possible with a minimum of understanding required (sounds dangerous right?!). As Google explain:

AdWords Express is the easiest way to advertise on Google. Creating your ad takes just a few minutes, and that’s it. Everything else is managed automatically, ensuring your ad is only shown to people looking for what you have to offer. Now you’re advertising to an audience that’s already interested in you.

Search Engine Land also summed it up well saying:

The idea behind AdWords Express is that local businesses, who, at one time, only needed to place a yellow pages ad once a year, have been frightened away from AdWords by the perceived complexity of keywords, bidding, etc. With Express, they input a bit of information about their company, set a budget, write a couple of lines of ad copy, and Google handles the keywords and bidding.

How does AdWords Express work?

You tell google about your business and location, google give you some ads. Sounds easy right?

When people search online for local products or services that you provide, an ad for your business will appear above or beside their search results. Your business will also be marked with a distinctive blue pin on Google Maps, helping it stand out to potential customers.

Who should use AdWords Express?

AdWords Express is for local businesses looking for local customers. It’s for business owners who want the benefits of a targeted online ad campaign, without having to spend time managing it.

Won’t Google just charge Advertisers more for clicks – like the resellers do?

Google can’t mark-up the CPC because it’s an auction, but they can bid high and broad. I envisage an AdWords Express  “convenience tax”. eg. Google will bid very competitively on terms (eg high) and possibly use broad matches to get as many clicks are possible. The focus will be on Clicks and not conversions so Advertisers will pay more than they potentially needed to, but it will beat paying 100% mark-up to resellers who also focus on the clicks.

Who will could AdWords Express ‘hurt’?

a) The resellers
b) Service based directories with large adwords campaigns covering multiple service categories and locations. Sorry guys, if Express takes off in your market, expect CPC’s to rise!

If you’re after a sophisticated, conversion orientated PPC campaign, then Express is  not for you. But if you’re a small local business who would like a hassle free way to start advertising on Google, then this could be a safe bet.

..and dont forget to sign up to my Newsletter

Last week, a new Australian news site, The Wall, launched into public beta… Why is this exciting I hear you ask? Well, The Wall, simply put, is a very different (and refreshing) take on the traditional news based web sites.

The Wall describes itself as:

…a new kind of social news site that provides a unique view of the stories that are being shared, discussed and debated in Australia. The site covers the latest breaking news and will often pick up stories ahead of the news cycle. Each topic will feature links to the best articles, pictures, videos and commentary.

And then goers further to explain that:

The Wall extends far beyond a traditional news website, highlighting conversations Australians are having around sports and music events, TV shows and conferences as they are happening.

In simple terms, The Wall is exciting because the news it publishes is the news that we, collectively, are already sharing and discussing online. It’s the news that social circles are finding most interesting right at that particular moment.

So any point in time,  you, the avid news reader, can ensure your finger is on the collective internet pulse of Australian news by monitoring The Wall.
Give it a try!

Open TheWall.com.au in your browser right now, and leave it open!

Come back and check it out throughout the day, share stories with friends on Facebook or Twitter and check back often. You wont be disappointed!

I asked this question of someone once… Oh how naïve I was!
No offence intended if you just asked this same question by the way.

It happens.

Did you know that, to date, the best average CTR I’ve been able to get for a Facebook ad has been on 0.115%  that is 1,150 clicks from 1,000,000 impressions.
True story!
And you know what? That’s actually not a bad result for Facebook ads. Scary huh?!
I’ve run other campaigns with 100 million plus impressions, and a CTR of only 0.042%  (420 clicks from 1 million impressions) and that campaign wasn’t actually too bad either…

My point? Every ad campaign run on Facebook will vary depending on the targeting chosen. Demographic, country, interests, etc.
Furthermore, the success of each ad will depend on how well the ad image and message resonate with the target audience…
So many variables to factor in to your testing, and so many reasons why there simple in not a good answer to ‘what is an average CTR on Facebook’!
Only real answer is – It depends!

I’m a bit of a fan of the Q and A format at the moment so here are some more answers to general Facebook advertising related questions. 

Facebook Landing Page strategy.

Question: Do I send users off-site or to a Facebook page?

Answer: Advertisers have more success when they keep the user within Facebook, I definitely recommend driving clicks to a Facebook Page.  However, if direct sales / revenue  is a primary focus then I would run multiple ads…some driving offsite and others to a Facebook Page.

Facebook Bidding Strategy.

Question: Should I bid CPC or CPM?

Answer: CPC.
(unless you’re a big brand doing a let’s piss money up against the Facebook wall branding campaign).
Question: Facebook’s Bid Range recommendations. Do I need to use the suggested bid?
Answer: I’ve found most success by bidding at the higher end of the suggested range.  Can be scary as often the range is significantly higher than what you’re willing to pay, but you will get impressions, and your actual CPC will end up being much lower than the bid amount if CTR is OK.

That is all.

(View Full Size Image)

I Pity the Fool who doesn’t keep an eye on Trendsmap today!

Mr. T., April 1st 2011

Don’t be fooled, check here before you:

• retweet a post,
• share a link,
• email a link!

Trendsmap has you covered with real time coverage of all the #AprilFools chatter on Twitter as well as trending links and media.

My wife makes stuff. hair clips, t-shirts, quilts, soft toys, etc. She also loves shopping online, and spends hours and hours lots of time on Facebook.

But a funny thing happened the other day, we were sitting in the lounge room (she was on Facebook) and she suddenly cursed the air and said…

If I’d logged in [to Facebook] 5 mins ago I wouldn’t have missed that sale! Now all the fabric I want is gone.

My ears pricked up. I’ve been keeping an eye on the F-commerce, Facebook Commerce, Facebook shopping cart (etc.) developments over that last 12 months, not for any reason other than I think it’s potentially going to be huge!

The sad truth however is that I’d not seen a lot to really get me excited.  Sure there are ecommerce apps that you can add to your Fan pages (Payvment is awesome) and this is a huge step forward in terms of enabling purchases, but the whole shopping cart experience still feels destinctly ‘anti-social’. Do you know what I mean? A shopping cart is not inherently social (although you can ‘share’ purchases’), they’re transactional! Don’t get me wrong though I still think the e-commerce shopping cart apps on Facebook are great,  they just don’t excite me as much as I thought an integrated social ecommerce application would…

Anyway, back to my wife on the couch.

The Facebook page she had just opened was Bubbamia Fabrics (web site here too).  They sell fabrics for crafty types. Anyhow my wife was after some groovy fabrics for a toilet roll holder she was making (not really) and if she had logged in 5 minutes earlier she would have got the ‘Start Shopping’ post that signalled the start of the Bubbamia Sale Night! Confused? read below:

So what Bubbamia are doing here is sort of a flash sale / private sale / group buy all in one. Her fans (all 4,902 – respect!) love fabric, and they’re passionate enough to connect with her on Facebook for the chance to purchase. Bubbamia then upload a gallery of pictures (the products) and the sale is on. As soon as the sale is announced all the fans rush in to the album as fast as possible and type “SOLD” in the comments of the product they want. It’s unreal. It’s social Shopping!

What’s even more amazing is that there are game mechanics here too, it’s the competitive nature of being first, of getting your comment in before someone else when you know there’s minimal stock. genius.

And it’s viral by default! You comment, your friends see you comment.  You (win) and  buy the item, your friends see the item you purchased.

Genius.

Payments are then worked out via email.  everyone’s happy,

And the best thing about this genius idea, is that it’s organic. It feels right, like a natural extension of a fan page on Facebook rather than an app that’s been bolted on.

So I dug in a little deeper, and a whole new world opened up to me, there are heaps of these ‘pages’ on FB and they all help each other out. It’s like an F-Commerce Fan Page Network. And while not all I found run the ‘Sale events’ as described above (many still transact via their web site) they are all driving massive engagement within their niche markets, and making sales.

Here are a few more I found:

• Vintage Marketplace
• Charlie&Jax
• Giggle Berry Creations
• Lil Dilberry Bags
• Little Snuggle Monkey