It is my job to track the online interactive advertising community. Unfortunately, I have no formal training and everything I know, I simply picked up from both recruiting for the space and endless hours of preparation.

As a result, I have put together a great “starter pack” of Blogs that I find essential in keeping up with all the major changes in the online advertising and technology space. Here’s just a handful and I’ll be sure to continue adding more as the posts become more frequent.

Best of the Blogs:

• Silicon Alley Insider: http://www.alleyinsider.com/
• GigaOM: http://gigaom.com/
• TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/
• Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/
• Jeff Lanctot: http://www.jefflanctot.com/
• CNET News: http://www.news.com/
• Digital Inspiration: http://www.labnol.org/
• ACLion Online Industry: http://www.blog.aclion.com

…Now that is not to say these are the only resources out there! There are many other blogs as well, but I’ve been able to “get by” sounding up-to-speed at work. I would suggest The Alley Insider over the rest just because they are in full-steam. They are a fairly new business site, produced by and for the New York digital business community. They started publishing for real on Friday, July 19, 2007. And for being in Beta, they’re doing quite well.

They cover the intersection of the technology, media, and communications industries, with a focus on companies and people making waves in New York. Specifically digital publishing, entertainment, news, music, social networking, mobile, and gaming.

Wow, I guess the real title for this blog entry should be “Why I love Silicon Alley Insider!” Oh well, enjoy.

Posted under Online Marketing

Original: AlleyInsider’s giving away “Free Pass To Web 2.0 Expo”

I was looking for a healthy post and noticed the word FREE on one of my favorite blog’s “AlleyInsider“. Posted by Eric Krangel at 8am today, the article titled Free Pass To Web 2.0 Expo, Get It Here writes about how you can easily gain free access to the Web2.0 Expo/Conference in September (which, if you’re reading this blog, you BETTER be going.) I’m still getting over my surgery and a bit loopy from the pain med’s so I’ll simply “quote” the blog-post and you can go ahead and get yourself some FREE passes:

The Web 2.0 Conference is coming to New York from Sept 16 – 19. Henry Blodget will be moderating a panel called “Cashing Out: When, How, and How Much.”

We know: your company is a labor of love. But let’s be serious. It’s also a labor of capitalism. And at some point you’re going to want to turn that labor into wealth. Dividends? Sale? IPO? Henry Blodget and our expert panel will reveal the secrets to cashing out.

Want to hear this and other Web 2.0 speakers including Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post, Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com and Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media? We have a pass to the event, valued at $1095 a pop.

Leave a comment on this post, telling us you want in. (Be sure to register for a Silicon Alley Insider account with your email, which gives you an alleyinsider.com URL with all of your comments in one place, as well as more nifty things to come). At 5:00 pm EST on August 1, we’ll pick a number between 1 and the total number of comments. If it’s your number, you win.

Feel free to comment as many times as you like. But if you don’t win, you can at least get $100 off your Web 2.0 Expo registration with code “webny08bm7.”

So what are you waiting for? Head over to AlleyInsider now, and as they mentioned – “if you don’t win, you can at least get $100 off your Web 2.0 Expo registration with code webny08bm7.”

Posted under Events

Original: FunnyorDie.com: Online Video and TV Merge!

Following the recent trend of CollegeHumor.com going fromOnline User-Gen to MTV, it seems FunnyOrDie.com falls into that same category. I think this is going to be a recurring theme and figured I’d bring readers up-to-speed on FunnyOrDie.com’s progress:

Without a question, FunnyorDie.com is hilarious and has a future in the Online Video business. They even have a Wikipedia Page, Funny Or Die. “Funny or Die is a comedy video website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s production company, Gary Sanchez Productions with original and user generated content. Funny or Die is also unique in that it contains a good deal of exclusive material from a number of famous contributors (e.g. Judd Apatow, James Franco) and has its own Funny or Die Team (FOD Team) which creates original material for the site. Michael Kvamme, an aspiring young comedian, came up with a concept for a new kind of comedy site and the site was developed by Randy Adams. Videos are voted on by users of the site; those that are deemed funny stay, but those that are not “die” and are relegated to the site’s “crypt”.”

The site’s first video, The Landlord, has received over 55 million views and features Ferrell confronted by a swearing, beer-drinking two-year-old landlord.[1] In June 2007, they received venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital,[2] and in June 2008, they announced a partnership with HBO.[3]

I first knew about the Investment back in April when I came across a Mashable.com article FunnyorDie.com: Will Ferrell Takes Sequoia Investment. Then In June 2008, I read an article that insured my belief that they’ve made their place in the Online Video business, avoiding the User-Gen approch (in a way) and uploading professional content. As quoted from WikiPedia:

HBO and FunnyorDie announced that HBO had purchased a stake of less than 10% in Funny Or Die. With this, Funny or Die will be responsible for developing at least 10 half-hour episodes for HBO, and the companies may organize future comedy tours together. Regarding the agreement, Will Ferrell said, “I don’t want to overstate the importance of this deal, but this is the missing link moment where TV and Internet finally merge. It will change the way we as human beings perceive and interact with reality. Okay, I overstated it. But it is an exciting deal.”[4]

This is very similar to CollegeHumor.com’s step from Online Video to MTV. I wrote about that earlier this week: CollegeHumor: From Online User-Gen to MTV

I’d keep a close eye on FunnyOrDie and see what Will Ferrell is fully capable of. Hats off to them! Now go and check out their latest footage (b/c most of it is not exactly censored for me to post on this blog): FunnyOrDie.com

Posted under Online Video

Original: Online Marketing Events in Seattle

So my 1 year post-college in NYC is complete and guess what? I’M STAYING FOR ANOTHER YEAR+…but I have to stay true to my Seattle roots and pay homage. Well in truth I am making a vacation out of this while at the same time getting a “Septoplasty” (seriously….Wikipedia Septoplasty). So for this month I’ll be checking out the Seattle Online Marketing Events scene (once I recover). I’ll check out Meetup.com’s offerings, maybe hit up a few tech groups, but I’m definitely locked in for the Online Marketing Summit which has been traveling the country as a go-to-conference for, well…you guessed it! ONLINE MARKETING! Check out the info below and also note “SCORE”, another company hosting a very worthy event for budding entrepreneurs. Check it out:

• Online Marketing Summit (OMS) – Seattle
• 8/7/2008; 8am-6:30pm; $175

• SCORE – Starting a New Business
• 8/6/2008; 8am-4:30pm; $85.00

…here are some other events, but due to my recent “Septoplasty” I’m not hitting them ALL up. Check them out at this link: Seattle24×7 Events. If you know of any other events, or you’re considering heading out to OMS, let me know and drop me a line at Red@aclion.com.

PS: If you want to know how my surgery went, feel free to friend me and comment on my FaceBook wall. Facebook me!

Posted under Events

Original: CollegeHumor: From Online User-Gen to MTV
Date: July 23rd

InterActiveCorp (IAC) are the proud owners of such businesses as Ask.com, Match.com and today’s topic: CollegeHumor.com. That and many more properties to boast. But what makes CollegeHumor stand out is the recent news of CollegeHumor/Connected Ventures guys finally moving from online to having a syndicated TV show on MTV. As written on the about page of CollegeHumor.com, it “was founded in 1999 by two high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland who went to different colleges as a way to share all of the pictures, videos, and links their friends would IM and e-mail each other. Now it’s a lot bigger.” AND NOW, according to the MediaPost article MTV Buys CollegeHumor.com Show ,they have at least a six-episode commitment for this fall. According to MediaPost “No financial or content details were disclosed”. So stay tuned for updates…

That’s big news for the world of User-Gen Video!! According to Comscore in my article Online Video: Q2 Tells All: According to ComScore, Internet users in the U.S. watched 11.5 billion online videos in March 2008, up 13% over February 2008 and 64% year-over-year. This bridge of Online to Traditional-TV could mean one of 2 things: Either an increase of online fan-base migrating back to TV or…TV beginning to adopt online content and monetization and a slow migration from traditional TV to a new version of Online Integrated TV Platforms.

…these are just my thoughts, but considering nobody else has voiced them, I figured I’d be the first to say “THIS IS SIMPLY…HUGE!” Stay tuned for further updates loyal readers and fans…and while you’re waiting check out one of my favorite videos from the site:

Posted under Online Video

Written for Mike Adler:

I am the Managing Partner at AC Lion and I bring over 12 years of investment banking, venture capital and sales experience to AC Lion. I recently received a newsletter from Rutberg & Company that so perfectly laid out a concise summary and perspective on the key digital media industry events relevant to private equity firms and companies. The newsletter implications included Rutberg & Company’s perspectives, adding their own observations, hypotheses, and investment theses. A lot of that information should be respected as exclusive Business Intelligence of which they have requested to remain confidential. Below, I’ve included some of the more relevant info to our space and leave room for you to formulate your own hypothesis:

• During the one month period from June 1 through June 30, 62 private digital media companies announced $416.7 million in venture capital financings.
• Investments were primarily in the Applications, Content Publishers, and Advertising Infrastructure sectors.
• There were also 37 M&A transactions announced during the period, including Verizon Wireless’ acquisition of Alltel, Bain Capital’s acquisition of D&M Holdings, and Microsoft’s acquisition of Navic Networks.

Here are a few graphs that depict and analyze venture capital and M&A activity for digital media during the first half of 2008….

Posted under Online Marketing

Original: Dan makes search “sexy” on DMNews.com
Date: July 17th

That’s right…AC Lion’s very own Dan Goldsmith has officially made search “SEXY” for job seekers. And just to confirm your suspicions, he has the support of Sara Holoubek the contributing editor of the DM News’ SearchBuzz newsletter and a regular author of the DM News Optimized column. And I quote Sarah from her DMNews article below.:

“Search has returned as a must-have for Fall 2008.”

In 2008 Ms. Holoubek was elected to the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) board of directors for a third term and co-founded the SEMPO NY Working Group. She is also an active board member of CampInteractive, a non profit dedicated to bridging the digital and leadership divide among inner city youth From 2003-2005, Ms. Holoubek served as iCrossing’s Chief Strategy Officer, building the firm’s New York office, repositioning the iCrossing brand as it raised an early VC round of $13 million.

…so if Sara thinks search “sexy”, then Dan can’t be wrong! Feel free to check out the article for yourself below (or simply click here:

Posted under Online Marketing

Original: BubbleComment: Video Comments 1-2-3
Posted: July 15th

Well, it’s no surprise that my attention has been diverted from Video to Social Networks this week…well, sort of. This weeks article was inspired by me literally stumbling on Mashable.com…

“Bubble Comment“! No it’s not XXX…nor is it a Bazooka Gum rating site! Bubble Comment is fully owned and operated by kShermanStudios LLC., a privately held group located in Sausalito, CA.,
and is part of the Bubble suite of video services which include:

	Bubble Guru A subscription based video service that enables you to directly engage your web site visitors and improve web-based communications.
	Bubble Testimonial A subscription based testimonial service that eliminates all the time-consuming aspects of gathering, organizing, and posting of customer testimonials.
	Bubble Joy A free service that allows you to send richly interactive video greeting cards to all your friends and family.
	Bubble Comment A free service that enables you to share personal video comments with others on virtually any web page.

You won’t find BubbleComment advertised on kShermanStudio’s main site just yet. Simply put, it does the simple but effective task of allowing you distribute a page to a circle of contacts along with personal video recording. It’s an easy 3-step process and can’t get any easier than plugging in a VCR (unless you’re a tech-tard…

…anyways, what is attractive about this product? Why would anyone take the time to do all of this when the old way of commenting works just fine for the amount of time it takes (less than 30 seconds)? Well, for one there’s no sign-in requirements No sign-in is required. Just two basic steps, and you’re done. It’s for video enthusiasts who really want to get their point across.

Give it a shot…you have nothing to lose except for your self dignity!

Posted under Online Video, Social Networks