A Panel About Oprah, User-Generated Content, Branding & the future @ CES

BEST BUY....make way for the Oprah hard drive coming to your computer section...by Joyce Schwarz blogging at www.hollywood2020.blogs.com. Wow, every now and then you get a wake-up call that makes you realize you are NOT saving the world. And the panel I was on at Digital Hollywood @ CES was just that today-- a wake-up call. One of the panelists Michael Rolnick , COMVENTURES was explaining branded marketing and used Oprah as an example. Then he said something like -- watch for the Oprah hard drive to hit your stores soon. AND he was NOT kidding. So I went looking online to see what was happening with branded Hard Drives and I did find probably the best example with none other than the sex site Danni's Hard Drive.  NOTE, I had some formatting problems with this blog on the computer I was using in the speaker ready room. If you want me to emal you the blog, I'll be glad to format it into a word doc and email you -- [email protected] is my email.

OPRAH HARD DRIVE?:

Barbie has her own computer will Oprah have her own hard drive?

Alas, the only branded hard drive that I saw mentioned in Google is Danni's Hard Drive -- wish I would have thought of that one when this outrageous suggestion of an Oprah hard drive was mentioned.

Danni.com - Beautiful, Busty Models in Original Videos

Danni.com has over 10 years worth of photos and videos of the world's most gorgeous women ... Copyright © 1995-2006 Danni's Hard Drive. www.danni.com/ - 36k - Cached DANNI'S HARD DRIVE: one of the earliest of the 'sex goddesses' to cash in online Danni Ashe is a savvy entrepreneur. Danni just launched a mobile app with Brickhouse Media that even got a write-up in Business Week! SO WHY HAS DANNI SURVIVED...when other celebs have not in the online space. Or why has she thrived which is a better question? Here are some of the reasons! Back in 1994 Danni launched one of the earliest's affiliate called Danni's Cash! The business model-- CASH that webmasters and even users themselves can make...maybe the best example of 'user-generated' content contribution. According to a reference in imediaconnection.com: *the business model-- a steady supply of free photo and video content supplied by Danni's Hard drive -- available for promoting on your own site -- yes, you the subscriber --you sell to your pals -- sound familiar? . * subscribers click on these links on your (the user's site) and are routed to specific pages on Danni's site. *referral sites get a per-click payout from Danni's Hard Drive-- every 2 weeks...talk about motivation and the ultimate feedback loop of CASH! The payout is based on a sliding scale "conversion rate" calculated on the number of new subscribers the referral site has delivered to the amusingly named Danni's HotBOX service. * In order to be paid, the affiliate's conversion rate needs to add up to at least $100 for the most recent two-week period. AFFILIATE MARKETING REVENUES for 2006 MarketingSherpa's research team roughly estimates affiliates worldwide will earn $6.5 billion in bounty and commissions in 2006. This includes retail, personal finance, gaming and gambling, travel, telecom, 'Net marketing' education offers, subscription sites, and other lead generation, but it does not include contextual ad networks such as Google AdSense according to wikipedia.com. Okay so Danni Ashe is not the only one doing affiliate marketing --thousands of other sites are. Perhaps one of the most successful at it AMAZON.com -- here's the story from Wikipedia of hwo Bezos thought or this concept...and note that was 1996 and I just referred to Danni's effort in 1994 -- 2 years earlier. BEZOS & AMAZON's AFFILIATE PROGRAM Look up affiliate marketing on wikipedia and you'll see this tale: 1)As the story goes, affiliate marketing all started at a cocktail party. 2)Jeff Bezos was chatting with a party guest who wanted to sell books on her web site. 3)This got Bezos thinking. Why not have the woman link her site to Amazon and receive a commission on the books that she sold? 4)  Soon after, Amazon introduced the "Amazon Associates Program". It was a simple idea. Amazon associates would place banner or text links on their site for individual books or link directly to the Amazon’s home page. GOOGLE AFFILIATE PROGRAM-- not convinced -- look at these stats from Google's stock report back in February 2006:  NOTE THESE ARE QUARTERLY REVENUES -- QUARTERLY! Google Sites Revenues - Google-owned sites generated revenues of $1.098 billion, or 57% of total revenues. This represents a 24% increase over the third quarter revenues of $885 million. Google Network Revenues - Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $799 million, or 42% of total revenues. This is an 18% increase over network revenues of $675 million generated in the third quarter.

Comments

[pornguy]

You probably know by now that Danni's Hard Drive is not a hard drive, yes? It's just the name of her site. Larry Flynt once published a short-lived magazine called "Hustler's Hard Drive" - and it wasn't a hard drive either.

Sometimes a name is just a name. Although I do admit I would stand in line to buy a Weezer brand hashpipe.