Author Archives: Andrew Wee

About Andrew Wee

My name is Andrew Wee. I'm 32 years old, live in Singapore and am happily married with a 2 month old daughter. I've gone through a list of various occupations including: * journalist (for a business newspaper) * Internet content developer (for one of Asia's largest media group's Singapore Press Holdings) * trainer in entrepreneurship, business building, life skills * photographer/photojournalist * real estate agent * consultant * entrepreneur (I think that's enough for now...more later!) This is a personal space to express my goals, dreams and aspirations.

YouTube Video + Word-Of-Mouth Marketing = A Flood of Traffic

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I was hanging out at an internet chatroom listening to the latest buzz on the internet and the name “Magibon” came up.

Like iJustine (aka Justine Ezarik), Magibon is a young American woman whose videos on YouTube have generated quite a bit of interest, especially in Japan.

Here’s one of them:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=kib05Ip6GSo[/youtube]

With 3.3 million views, it’s a little difficult to fathom the appeal where a young girl looks back at you for all of 30 seconds to about 4 minutes.

BUT the fact is that some of her videos have garnered between 1 million to 3 million views, she’s also appeared in a recent issue of Japan’s Playboy magazine (a non-nude pictorial) and been featured on a Japanese internet TV station GYAO.

You can check out Magibon’s wikipedia entry.

I think her appeal has to do with the fact that she looks like a Japanese schoolgirl or anime character (maybe both), and appeals to the techie/net-savvy/Japanese manga-anime reading/watching audience.

And she’s a partner of the YouTube partner program too.

What do we learn from this?

The fact that she’s being discussed in internet chatrooms suggests that rich media beyond text is being actively discussed in chatrooms. Subtle content is hammering its way onto YouTube viewers (especially in the tween/teen demographic), more so than overt content-based ads.

Is Magibon being sponsored by a skin whitening or skincare company? If not, it’ll just be a matter of time.

Video literally gives “face time” to everyday spokespersons (think of the Benetton or Dove print ads given the video treatment).

One way innovative marketers have bounced off the successful platform of video broadcasters like Magibon has been to Continue reading →

Friday Podcast: Affiliate Management with Carolyn Tang

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carolyn tangI invited affiliate network ShareASale Director of Client Services, Carolyn Tang, on the Friday Podcast this week to get her thoughts on:

  • How merchants can use affiliate marketing as a sales channel for their products and services
  • How to conduct due diligence when deciding whether to set up and operate their affiliate program or list it on an affiliate network
  • How merchants can enhance their “affiliate relationship management” skills
  • ShareASale’s “best practises” initiatives (possibly for merchants and affiliates – something I’m looking forward to checking out).

Check out: ShareASale

Access the podcast below:

[display_podcast]

    Will John Reese’s Marketing Tactics Break Twitter?

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    There’s a little brouhaha brewing on the blogosphere with bloggers Duncan Riley and the folks over at Mashable calling out John Reese for advocating Twitter as a branding/promotion mechanism to aid their marketing efforts.

    And John has posted a response at his income.com blog.

    So what do the bloggers think about Jason Calancanis’ twitter posts that he has 9,000 twitter followers?

    Is he “gaming” twitter?

    I would think that since Jason’s post is appearing in their “related posts” widget, it’s an implicit show of support for the post.

    And correct me if I’m wrong, but if you’re following thousands of your followers, I’m pretty sure you’re not reading EVERY update.

    And if you’re not reading EVERY update, isn’t that insincere to follow them in the first place?

    But back to John Reese “breaking” twitter.

    Blaming John for the abuse of twitter is like saying handguns are responsible for killing people.

    Last time I checked, people were responsible for killing people. Twitter is just a tool.

    –

    On another point, I think John is wrong when he calls the 2 bloggers “journalists”.

    Journalists reporting news create content based on facts and attempt to present a balanced perspective.

    At best, the reply pieces are opinion/editorial pieces, which give you license to go outside editorial objectively and present a wholly subjective view.

    I’m not the greatest fan of John’s other project, BlogRush, as you might tell from my previous posts. It’s just a tool, a piece of technology, not any kind of miracle cure by any stretch of the imagination.

    –

    I don’t think John’s tactics are going to break twitter, but there’s certainly a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) being sowed on the blogosphere.

    So You Want To Be A Video Blogger…

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    My friend Rachel Rofe won a bunch of cool prizes including cash, a MacBook Air, Brian Gardner’s Revolution Theme wordpress templates, shopping cart software and a Flip Ultra camera from Webmaster Talk recently and started posting videos on her blog at RachelRofe.

    Video is a powerful branding medium, especially if you personalize the channel, rather than merely to fire out product launches or marketing announcements.

    If pictures say a thousand words, I think video easily convey 10,000 words or more.

    Some observations I’ve noticed about video:

    • Brevity is great: people have short attention spans. If you can convery you point in 1-2 minutes, just do it.
    • Content is still king: you need to include something useful in your entry. There’re too many “seinfeld” videos (about nothing) out there already.
    • X-Factor: Either you have it or you should go find it…But it has a lot to do with your personality.

    Check out one of Rachel’s video’s below. I like the hair flipping and low-grade swearing at the end. Adds color!

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YttPDDqncmk[/youtube]

    Rachel’s headed for Cancun and I’m sure there’ll be some interesting videos coming out of the trip.

    Friday Podcast: Email Marketing With Jason Henderson

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    jason henderson

    I had email marketing and Miva cart SEO optimization specialist Jason Henderson AKA Big Jason from BigMarketingOnline on the line this week.

    Despite the intrusion of a couple of phone calls, we discussed issues like:

    • Text-based vs HTML emails
    • How to increase list responsiveness
    • Resources for building up your foundation in direct marketing

    As well as Jason’s previous career as a pro basketball player (he’s only 6’11″…) and position as one of the Ask.com guides.

    Jason is in the running for Thor Schrock’s Top Affiliate Challenge and you can check out his vote page.

    He’s also giving out bonuses at his vote page.

    If you’re keen to increase your sales and profits by adding or enhancing your email marketing efforts, be sure to check out Jason’s Better Email Deliverability product.

    The Friday Podcast can be accessed below:

    [display_podcast]

    Will Your Social Marketing Efforts Ripen And Product Fruit?

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    Social marketing has quite an organic flavor to it and the garden analogy applies well.

    If tended well, your social marketing efforts can take off virally and yield a bountiful harvest with social goodwill being generated, credibility being established and the positive buzz grows at a quantum rate – everything having to do with having provided value to the community and becoming a key member of the community.

    spring flowers

    But like an good gardener, if you don’t watch over your garden – whether it’s a blog, forum or content website, it can be overgrown with undesirable weeds – spam, massively out-of-topic discussions and trolls.

    The Chinese/Japanese art of bonsai culminates in miniature trees cultivated to aesthetic perfection – these same principles apply to Continue reading →